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kindbus
Samba Member
Joined: February 21, 2007
Posts: 6
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 Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2018 3:19 pm Post subject: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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hey fellas,
anyone have any insight on the best place to get the best wiring harness for my 78? I have looked on Bus depot and CIP1 and the CIP1 seems to have the best set up.
thanks in advanced |
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aerosurfer
Samba Member
Joined: March 25, 2012
Posts: 1603
Location: Indianapolis, IN
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| Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2018 4:10 pm Post subject: Re: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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are you looking for the fuel injection harness or the main harness running under the bus?
what's there now, that needs to be replaced?
_________________
Rebuild your own FI Harness..My Harness
77 Westy 2.0L Rockin and Rolling Resto!
72 Sportsmobile (sold)
79 Tran$porter... Parts car money machine (gone) |
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ivwshane
Samba Member
Joined: May 19, 2011
Posts: 1920
Location: Sacramento ca
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| Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2018 4:58 pm Post subject: Re: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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I'll be getting my FI harness back from north west wiring soon, so I'll be able to give some feedback on them. They aren't the cheapest but their harness looked really good in their pictures.
https://www.northwestwiring.com/price-list/
I've also got an alternator harness coming from them too but that will take a couple more weeks.
_________________
77 westy 2.0 FI
69 ghia coup 1600dp
70 single cab |
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busdaddy
Samba Member
Joined: February 12, 2004
Posts: 52901
Location: Surrey B.C. Canada, but thinking of Ukraine
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kindbus
Samba Member
Joined: February 21, 2007
Posts: 6
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| Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2018 5:19 pm Post subject: Re: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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| I have my bus completely apart and just want to put all new wiring in. It's the fuel injection model. also grabbing new gas tank as well. Just want to do her right all around |
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Hoppy Camper
Samba Member
Joined: April 13, 2013
Posts: 413
Location: New Hampshire, USA
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| Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2018 6:46 pm Post subject: Re: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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| Quote: |
| I'll be getting my FI harness back from north west wiring soon, so I'll be able to give some feedback on them. They aren't the cheapest but their harness looked really good in their pictures. |
$500 plus core?!!! Wow... You can do it yourself https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...p;start=20
And for way less money. This is how I did mine. 4000 miles later, no regrets, no issues and I get to keep my core.
I'm all about supporting the vendors and my time is valuable. But what's way more valuable is how much I learned about the fuel injection by doing this myself. That's priceless....
_________________
1979 Mexico Beige Westy auto
The Wilds of New Hampshire!
www.hoppycampernh.com
https://youtube.com/@hoppycamper |
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ivwshane
Samba Member
Joined: May 19, 2011
Posts: 1920
Location: Sacramento ca
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| Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2018 6:56 pm Post subject: Re: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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| Gregg in the 603 wrote: |
| Quote: |
| I'll be getting my FI harness back from north west wiring soon, so I'll be able to give some feedback on them. They aren't the cheapest but their harness looked really good in their pictures. |
$500 plus core?!!! Wow... You can do it yourself https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...p;start=20
And for way less money. This is how I did mine. 4000 miles later, no regrets, no issues and I get to keep my core.
I'm all about supporting the vendors and my time is valuable. But what's way more valuable is how much I learned about the fuel injection by doing this myself. That's priceless.... |
I was planning on doing it myself but once I got the quality wire and the type of wire sheathing I wanted, along with the proper connectors, I was looking at over $300. Add the time it would have taken me and I figured the extra costs were well worth it.
Kyles automotive is also $100 cheaper than what I paid and the feedback has been positive.
_________________
77 westy 2.0 FI
69 ghia coup 1600dp
70 single cab |
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chittychittybangbang
Samba Member
Joined: August 12, 2006
Posts: 194
Location: portland, or
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| Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 2:01 am Post subject: Re: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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If you build your own harness you will have a new understanding of how your fuel injection system works. Its very gratifying when your done, but a hell of allot of time!
_________________
If your into busses youve got issues and you likely don´t know it yet. - El_Güero
The question of whether the resulting usage is "correct" or "incorrect" depends on one's notion of correctness. |
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Zed999
Samba Member
Joined: March 04, 2018
Posts: 1406
Location: UK
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| Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 5:40 am Post subject: Re: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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Most people I know that have replaced all their wiring wish they'd never started.
My own experience doing total restos on many buses is that once you strip out a bin liner full of 40 years of radio and alarm wiring, what's left is neat as can be and still working fine. One or two connectors might need replacing or a relay or the ignition switch but the harness itself has always been good. |
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curtp07
Samba Member
Joined: November 28, 2007
Posts: 874
Location: Mass
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| Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 5:46 am Post subject: Re: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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I used Kyle on two of mine. I prefer the older style over the “gm” style. Haven’t had the slightest issue with either.
He’s dependable, provides an excellent product,
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Subaru |
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aerosurfer
Samba Member
Joined: March 25, 2012
Posts: 1603
Location: Indianapolis, IN
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| Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 10:23 am Post subject: Re: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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| chittychittybangbang wrote: |
| If you build your own harness you will have a new understanding of how your fuel injection system works. Its very gratifying when your done, but a hell of allot of time! |
I did too. See my signature link. it's a very doable project, with the right tools and proper parts
_________________
Rebuild your own FI Harness..My Harness
77 Westy 2.0L Rockin and Rolling Resto!
72 Sportsmobile (sold)
79 Tran$porter... Parts car money machine (gone) |
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raygreenwood
Samba Member
Joined: November 24, 2008
Posts: 23222
Location: Oklahoma City
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| Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 11:22 am Post subject: Re: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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If you are building an EFI harness....and/or acquring a ratcheting crimper for this and for doing all proper electrical crimping in your VW.....while I cannot complain about buying budget priced knock off crimping tools.....do not cheap out on the dies for the crimping tool.
The best quality and widest range of crimping dies out there are from Paladin. Paladin was acquired by Textron/Greenlee in 2008. You may have to go to the Greenlee site.
The Paladin/Greenlee dies fit most of the better knock off crimper framea like Like Eclipse/Lunar brand and others.
Do not cheap out here. The difference in die quality is huge!
Not only are quality dies harder and last longer....they are more precise. Crimping is about absolute precision. Few thousandths of an inch of slop....and the barrel of the terminal and the stranding of the wire do not get compressed into a hermetic seal. The ability to carry signal can degrade, resistance can increase...and you leave access to air and moisture for corrosion to grow. Ray |
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Hoppy Camper
Samba Member
Joined: April 13, 2013
Posts: 413
Location: New Hampshire, USA
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| Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:22 am Post subject: Re: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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Thanks Ray. Any chance you could link the specific dies to use? I want to cross-check what I use.
_________________
1979 Mexico Beige Westy auto
The Wilds of New Hampshire!
www.hoppycampernh.com
https://youtube.com/@hoppycamper |
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raygreenwood
Samba Member
Joined: November 24, 2008
Posts: 23222
Location: Oklahoma City
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| Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:55 am Post subject: Re: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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| Gregg in the 603 wrote: |
| Thanks Ray. Any chance you could link the specific dies to use? I want to cross-check what I use. |
There are a few that you can use.
Here is a good selection of what they have but this is not all they make.
http://www.lashen.com/vendors/paladin/die_sets.asp
For working with both fuel injection and chassis terminals there are what I use:
For working specifically with fuel injection terminals across several families...D-jet, L-jet, Motronic, Digifant....you have mostly similar length of barrel and strain relief designs.....but on some systems you have some barrel sizes that are thicker or have more wires in them ...or are longer so one crimp die does not quite do both barrel and strain relief at one time....so you can not always "perfectly" get away with the die set that is made for miniature timer style "D-sub" terminals. You need something a little larger.
The definitive "D-sub" style die that does "most" EFI terminals is PA-2097
The other one to have for EFI terminals is the PA-2096. Note that this is a metric specific tool...and that its great for those really small gauge single wire female terminals.
I consider the PA-2096 and PA-2097 the primary dies for EFI terminals.
Note that these both have "curl" or roll guides and serrations to crimp the barrel/ferrule and strain relief at one time.
The BONUS one to have that works mostly for chassis terminals but also helps for those odd EFI terminals I was talking about above.... is PA-2033
On the PA-2033...the larger 12-10 gauge opening can also be used to crimp some of the chassis terminals.
Chassis harness terminals:
Most of them can be done with the PA-2033
But a bonus for chassis terminals if you have a little money to spend....is PA-2095. It does great crimping on a wide range of standard chassis harness terminals...but does not do the strain relief.
Thats when you get into a double crimp situation. Crimp all of the barrels with PA-2095...and then finish the strain relief with PA-2033.
Why do this?
Because the PA-2095 has such a wide range of opening sizes that you can make quick work of a whole bunch of terminal ends so that the main barrel is generally locked or set..and then go back over them with the 2033 for proper strain relief locking.
An oddity that I picked up with my Paladin 1300 series crimping frame....I bought it at a micro center so it was a package set up for working on coaxial cables.....is either PA-2034 or PA-2652 or PA-2051. These are hex openings for squeezing coaxial cables.
These work really well for crimping the snot out of butt connectors even though that is not what they are for. They make the very best hermetic seal connections on un-insulated butt connector tubes. They pressurize and compact on six sides of the butt connector.
The hex dies are also so plentiful they are usually quite cheap and can be found for as low as $10. What size of hex die you need is really up to you.
But in the end....you can largely get away with two dies for all EFI and three dies total for the whole car. I think going off memory...the only crimps still difficult are the larger flag style terminals used on some headlight plug connections. Ray |
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aerosurfer
Samba Member
Joined: March 25, 2012
Posts: 1603
Location: Indianapolis, IN
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| Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 11:43 am Post subject: Re: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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Ray you are always the overachiever! what great information, and I agree the flag terminals for the headlights are a pain to crimp.
The crimp die I used were from amazon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00788IUJU/ref=o...k129040-20
They are definately an invaluable tool, used throughout the bus electrical system.
I run mine in a simple HF crimping pliers
_________________
Rebuild your own FI Harness..My Harness
77 Westy 2.0L Rockin and Rolling Resto!
72 Sportsmobile (sold)
79 Tran$porter... Parts car money machine (gone) |
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raygreenwood
Samba Member
Joined: November 24, 2008
Posts: 23222
Location: Oklahoma City
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| Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 1:18 pm Post subject: Re: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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| aerosurfer wrote: |
Ray you are always the overachiever! what great information, and I agree the flag terminals for the headlights are a pain to crimp.
The crimp die I used were from amazon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00788IUJU/ref=o...k129040-20
They are definately an invaluable tool, used throughout the bus electrical system.
I run mine in a simple HF crimping pliers |
The fact that HF crimpers fit GOOD dies....is a HUGE boon to do it your selfers. The quality level is just fine for the occasional project or maintenance....and even if you do it for a living...just having good dies will make any decent ratcheting crimper frame work like a quality product.
I have Paladins...yes the best...but I also bought them when there was little else (Chinese wise) available. Ray |
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Hoppy Camper
Samba Member
Joined: April 13, 2013
Posts: 413
Location: New Hampshire, USA
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| Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 4:14 pm Post subject: Re: thoughts on new wiring harness for my 78 w fuel injection |
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Thanks as always Ray, this is fantastic info. I'm going to copy and paste it to the thread covering the rebuild. What a great addition, thanks
_________________
1979 Mexico Beige Westy auto
The Wilds of New Hampshire!
www.hoppycampernh.com
https://youtube.com/@hoppycamper |
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