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74 standard
Samba Member
Joined: January 23, 2014
Posts: 410
Location: Canada
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 Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 1:35 am Post subject: Is replacing a 44 year wiring harness necessary? |
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| Is it a given that I should go ahead and replace the harness during my reassembly or is wiring that old worth chancing ? It was working fine when the car last drove 6 years ago but it’s been sitting outside since the rebuild started. |
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vwjetboat
Samba Member
Joined: May 11, 2017
Posts: 1732
Location: Florida
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| Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 2:07 am Post subject: Re: Is replacing a 44 year wiring harness necessary? |
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| it would be wise to.. as you said... its 44 years old.. and yes wire does go bad..connections go bad.. all the dang spade ends get flared.. all kinds of reasons to say yes replace it.. if they make one to replace it with like factory.. |
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bluebus86
Banned
Joined: September 02, 2010
Posts: 11075
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| Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 6:06 am Post subject: Re: Is replacing a 44 year wiring harness necessary? |
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original harness is a one time thing. things can ruin a harness, but most are repairable. having correct wire colors, and connectors is a nice things. Unless original harness is damaged beyond repair, I d go for saving original. usually 90+% of the harness is fine, often only needing a clean up, retension of some connectors or replacement of some connectors. my 57 year old harness is working fine, I expect it to last in excess of 100 years.
Many aftermarket harnesses suffer from poor quality, and non correct color coding. a quality authentic harness would be pricey, and may be totally unneeded.
Id make efforts to save the original.
_________________
Help Prevent VW Engine Fires, see this link.....Engine safety wire information
Stop introducing dirt into your oil when adjusting valves ... https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=683022 |
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Frodge
Samba Member
Joined: October 04, 2006
Posts: 1991
Location: Dump
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| Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 6:30 am Post subject: Re: Is replacing a 44 year wiring harness necessary? |
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| I agree with bluebus. |
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Cusser
Samba Member
Joined: October 02, 2006
Posts: 31362
Location: Hot Arizona
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| Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 6:48 am Post subject: Re: Is replacing a 44 year wiring harness necessary? |
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| 74 standard wrote: |
| Is it a given that I should go ahead and replace the harness during my reassembly or is wiring that old worth chancing ? It was working fine when the car last drove 6 years ago but it’s been sitting outside since the rebuild started. |
I kept my original wiring when I resurrected my 1970 1.5 years ago. I cleaned up the fuse block terminals, cleaned terminals/connections, etc. My oil warning light wire was cracked/old, so I soldered on a new wire for that. Also, since I had long-ago had my wire to the coil short out, I used a heavier new wire for that, and added an inline fuse for that circuit at the fuse block connection, as that circuit is unfused.
I found a bunch of the female push-on terminals would be loose, so had to tighten those up.
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1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2014 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297 |
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VW_Jimbo 
Samba Member
Joined: May 22, 2016
Posts: 9960
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
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| Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 8:42 am Post subject: Re: Is replacing a 44 year wiring harness necessary? |
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Keep the original loom. Repair as needed. Agree with Bluebus and others.
You can replace single wires easily if needed. The big wholesaler still have wire available that has similar colors and stripes.
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Jimbo
There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!
| TDCTDI wrote: |
| Basically, a whole bunch of fuckery to achieve a look. |
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GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo!  |
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Spezialist
Banned
Joined: July 01, 2005
Posts: 1941
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| Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 9:00 am Post subject: Re: Is replacing a 44 year wiring harness necessary? |
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| bluebus86 wrote: |
original harness is a one time thing. things can ruin a harness, but most are repairable. having correct wire colors, and connectors is a nice things. Unless original harness is damaged beyond repair, I d go for saving original. usually 90+% of the harness is fine, often only needing a clean up, retension of some connectors or replacement of some connectors. my 57 year old harness is working fine, I expect it to last in excess of 100 years.
Many aftermarket harnesses suffer from poor quality, and non correct color coding. a quality authentic harness would be pricey, and may be totally unneeded.
Id make efforts to save the original. |
I agree,
I doubt any new harness will last 44 years.
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74 standard
Samba Member
Joined: January 23, 2014
Posts: 410
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 10:15 am Post subject: Re: Is replacing a 44 year wiring harness necessary? |
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| Thanks for the replies. Ok, since I had intended on replacing as many of the connectors as I could, I think I'm going to give the original harness a try. |
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Chris333
Samba Member
Joined: July 30, 2017
Posts: 656
Location: Ohio
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| Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 10:51 am Post subject: Re: Is replacing a 44 year wiring harness necessary? |
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| When you strip the wires to add new connectors look at the wire. Is it shiney or dull and greenish looking. Sometimes corrosion can creep up the wire. You may be able to just cut off a little more to get good wire. |
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joey1320
Samba Member
Joined: September 12, 2006
Posts: 2325
Location: Cleveland, OH
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| Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 10:54 am Post subject: Re: Is replacing a 44 year wiring harness necessary? |
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| Chris333 wrote: |
| When you strip the wires to add new connectors look at the wire. Is it shiney or dull and greenish looking. Sometimes corrosion can creep up the wire. You may be able to just cut off a little more to get good wire. |
^^ this.
Also, make sure you use the best connectors available with good shrink tubes. If not using connectors and instead soldering, please use a good quality solder and don't overdoit.
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https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0 |
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bluebus86
Banned
Joined: September 02, 2010
Posts: 11075
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| Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2018 12:22 pm Post subject: Re: Is replacing a 44 year wiring harness necessary? |
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| 74 standard wrote: |
| Thanks for the replies. Ok, since I had intended on replacing as many of the connectors as I could, I think I'm going to give the original harness a try. |
here is a link to a connector seller on samba, I have no connection, no pun intended
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1987285
other folks sell simular original style connectors. You want to a have a decent crimping tool also, practice.
Now one viable repair is go to a local wrecker, and search for German, and some other european cars, VW, porsche, etc... you can harvest a foot of the wires or so that have connectors already crimped on that are same type as VW used. many VW harnesses of today have some of the exact wire colors you need.
then cut out the damaged wire on your Bug harness to back under sheathing or so, then solder and sleeve the appropriate length wire you harvested at the wrecker onto your harness!
I have done this many times to restore a vintage harness. If I only needded to replace a few bad ends, consider it as an option, because is really hard without the correct crimp tool to make the original style terminals look factory crimped. If you dont have the tool, the harvest and solder repair is a good method, of course try to get the cleanest, un corroded, damage free wire ends possible at the wrecker. harness from under the dash usually is in better shape than that in the engine bay.
Bug on!
_________________
Help Prevent VW Engine Fires, see this link.....Engine safety wire information
Stop introducing dirt into your oil when adjusting valves ... https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=683022 |
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bluebus86
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Posts: 11075
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