Well, after 2 years of excuses it's time to pull all the spagetti from behind the speedo of my '69 bug and install the new wiring harness. I plan to carefully pull and document where all the old wiring was. I plan to take lots of digital photos and run the new lines as the old ones are removed. Is the anything that I should watch out for that may sneak up on me?
- Chris
----------------------------------------------- eldgrim(at)yahoo.com
-----------------------------------------------
Good luck, and I hope the previous owner(s) were from Western Australia!
Eveytime I look inside the dash I find yet another something disconnected with loose wiring just tucked back amoung the clutter from where something failed and was just omitted.
I copied the wiring diagram from my manual and enlarged the 3 pages as far as the xerox machine would allow. They are now a one piece laminated wall chart in my garage which I can use a white board (dry erase) pen on to trace the current job circuit then wipe it clean.
The Bay from Oz (78 Rusty Bay)
"Smegggg (John)" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Now that is an IDEA!!! Really smart!!!!
- Chris
----------------------------------------------- eldgrim(at)yahoo.com
-----------------------------------------------
Make sure all the wires are present in the new harness. I bought one from JCW, and it did not include the rear window defroster wire. Plus the engine wires were too short, I had to make splices.
Buy the $19 heat shrink gun from Harbor Freight.
Add a self resetting breaker right off the battery on the smaller red wire that feeds the whole car through the head lamp switch. If you get a short behind the dash, that first wire, the head lamp switch, and the key are not fused.... Except by that 10ga wire.
Get a bunch of spade lugs (the slip on connectors). Follow Bob Hoovers excellent instructions on installing those lugs. Basically its: Strip the wire, tin the wire, slide on two pieces of shrink tube (one large, one small). Pull the plastic off the lug (stick the soldering iron in the hole), crimp on the lug, solder the connection, slip on the small heat shrink, shrink it, slip on the large heat shrink, shrink it. I've had non-soldered crimp connections fail, nothing more fun to trouble shoot than that.
Also add Bob's excellent fireproof fuel line bulkhead mod. Then your bugs virtually guaranteed not to become the 5 o'clock auto-flambe.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.