Wiring harness repair/restoration technique questions (1 Viewer)

[MDarius]

When it comes to repairing a wiring harness, would you prefer to:
1. Splice in a short length of new wire by soldering. If the problem is at the connector, crimp new pins and new connector. Use heat shrink tubing to seal it up.
2. Replace the entire length of damaged wire, crimp on new pins, and reuse the existing connectors or replace with new.
3. Use readily available crush type connectors. Male and female Spade type, butt joint, etc. With no soldering.

I'm having a hard time sourcing replacement connectors and I'm thinking I'd like a good restoration kit. I would want to splice, solder, cover with marine grade shrink tubing, crimp new pins, and upgrade the connectors to waterproof (IP67) connectors wherever they might be exposed to water, dust, or mud.

Thoughts?

 

[SmokingRocks]

Crimp connectors are best left in your trail repair kit.

Solder and heat shrink EVERYTHING you do. I even solder and heat shrink wires into ring terminals. Avoid standard electrical tape when wrapping harnesses, there is a special tape for this.

I know its not feasible for most but I have spare engine harness that I cannibalize so that I can use the same wire color code for whatever I'm adding. Then I go back to my FSM and mark in the new wire kind of like an As-Built. If you don't have the same colored wire at least mark up your new wire path and color on your FSM.

If you don't take the time to do this and end up adding tons of accessories over the years then when you need to crack into the harness you'll be lost. This leads to pure frustration and hours upon hours spent with a multi-meter toning lines.

 

[MDarius]

Having that spare harness is great. You can harvest pins, connectors, wires... All of it. I like.

 

[SmokingRocks]

I also use a label maker to label the terminations of my homemade harnesses.

 

[Malleus]

When it comes to repairing a wiring harness, would you prefer to:
1. Splice in a short length of new wire by soldering. If the problem is at the connector, crimp new pins and new connector. Use heat shrink tubing to seal it up.
2. Replace the entire length of damaged wire, crimp on new pins, and reuse the existing connectors or replace with new.
3. Use readily available crush type connectors. Male and female Spade type, butt joint, etc. With no soldering.

I'm having a hard time sourcing replacement connectors and I'm thinking I'd like a good restoration kit. I would want to splice, solder, cover with marine grade shrink tubing, crimp new pins, and upgrade the connectors to waterproof (IP67) connectors wherever they might be exposed to water, dust, or mud.

Thoughts?

Sounds like your (last stated) preference is mine.

I'd rather replace a broken wire (not on the trail) by replacing back to the OEM splice point, with the same wire gauge (and color if possible), in the same fashion Mr. T did the job. I like the IP67 motive, but Toyota's methods worked acceptably for over 20 years; I'm not sure it's not overboard to do more. Not that there's anything wrong with better...

 

[MDarius]

Sounds like your (last stated) preference is mine.

I'd rather replace a broken wire (not on the trail) by replacing back to the OEM splice point, with the same wire gauge (and color if possible), in the same fashion Mr. T did the job. I like the IP67 motive, but Toyota's methods worked acceptably for over 20 years; I'm not sure it's not overboard to do more. Not that there's anything wrong with better...

I think there's a place for the sealed connectors. For folks that do a lot of water crossings, the pillars and places where fluids run and could leak, like the A-Pillar that shares a sunroof drain, or in the rear wheel well area where it fills with water if there's a leak. Otherwise, I agree. Toyota did a pretty good job initially. If we can match that quality we're doing pretty good.