Custom Wiring Harness...

[v6spider]

Actually, heating up copper anneals it, that's why a work-hardened copper washer can be heated and re-used, that same goes for copper wire.

That's what I thought... as long as the insulation is in good shape I am good to go. I did see on my old spider the positive battery cable had corrosion that went up the entire length of the wire. The system wouldn't charge at all. On a hunch I pull that wire and replaced it with 1 gauge welding cable and everything started working correctly. So as long as the wire is not corroded also then yes I can reuse now that I think about it.

I will be pulling a lot of the emissions circuits out(if any)... I may use the extra wire for the circuits I am going to add..

Rob

[Daniel]

one was you don’t really want to solder the wire ends, it re-tempers the wire at the end of the solder and makes it brittle

Ken are you talking about soldering wire tips or connection points cause i feel connecting wires via solder is
far more trouble free in the long term as far as brittle wire cause of solder i see your point but if its in a area
that wouldnt need to flex or move it shouldnt be an issue .

[baltobernie]

Everything in a car moves, flexes and vibrates. You can Google "solder vs. crimp connectors" and read the various arguments.

[124ADDHE]

I still think that in the end, a proper soldered connection is much superior for the facts that it has 0 voltage drop, corrosion is only an issue where the connector meets the connector to the device or other wire (this is a serviceable point, a crimped connection is not serviceable) and if you do a good job of a nice shrink-jacket (or double and triple jacketed like I did) and let that solder work its way down the wire a bit (solder is cheap!), then the connector-wire meeting point is actually very strong.

I sure can visualise that a poorly done solder joint with small guage wire could be a weak point but a good job can and should be done, i have no fear that my wiring system will give me foolproof service for the rest of my life and im 30 so I image that will be some time yet

[v6spider]

With the proper crimping tool crimped connections are great especially with water proof heat shrink. However soldered is even better yet. Just don't over heat... they make single connectors that are crimp on and once you hit them with a heat gun they solder and heat shrink at the same time.

The multi-pin connectors won't be that easy but they do make nice waterproof ones.

http://www.route66supply.com/store/page2.html

The end result will be a nicer refurbished harness that is way better than stock. I also found some circuit breakers that fit an ATC style of fuse block and a ten circuit waterproof ATC fuse block.

Cheers!
Rob

[Danq]

Consider making a harness board, using the old harness as a guide.
Take a 4'x8' piece of ply wood and lay the original harness on it. Use finish nails to locate the fuse block and the locations of T and X junctions. Note the locations of tie wraps, starting and ending points of wire looms, grommets etc. At locations where the wires end use a tension spring stretched between two nails. Place the wire between the coils of the spring to contain them during the wiring.
We used boards like where I worked at one time years ago. I don't have any pictures on one of them unfortunately.
Happy wiring.

[v6spider]

the automotive wiring book I have talks about making a board like that... However, I have inspected the wiring harness the wire is in great shape. It is the ends that need to be replaced...

Cheers!

Rob

[Raze]

I rewired all the connectors on my harness and upgraded to an ATO style fuse block while I was at it. The pictures are on page 2 but I changed out the electrical tape around the connectors for heat shrink tubing over the whole spade connector. I went pretty simple and cheap on my rewire as it was to repair damaged wiring first and improve reliability with all the corroded old connectors second. End result, satisfied...

http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... aze#p98961

[Daniel]

If you do rewire your car you can mark wires with a stripe of your own using sharpies to help identify
if the harness ends up with a few of the same color wires but some will have stripes/colors of your choosing .
I just tie them to something on one end and lay them across a table or card board and run the sharpie
down the wire .