So my biggest pet peeve is wiring. I hate dealing with it and I hate even more looking at it. When I lift the hood that's all I see. 3 or 4 wires coming off of the positive battery terminal and a bunch on the inner fender taped together by the po with hockey tape. It's disgusting and clutters up the engine I'm trying to make prettier and hangs down out if the dash covering up my beautiful new carpet.

I assume these trucks came with a generic wiring harness. By that I mean the same harness no matter what options the truck came with. My truck has no automatic trans, no overdrive, no power windows or mirrors and no a/c. So I'm pretty sure I don't need half the wires under the hood and dash.

A guy I work with has an 80's s10 with a 350 and the same deal. His is a 4 speed with no power anything and mechanical gauges. He told me he simply stripped his truck of every wire in it and just ran the ones he needed. There is no wire mess anywhere on his truck and I love it.

It sounds kind of crazy but could I do this to? Would I be any further ahead of the mess? Has anyone else done this? Thanks for any input

 

I did it when I swapped a Cummins into my Ramcharger.

I didn't re-wire everything, like you suggest, rather I cut the looms and tape off of everything, deleted what I didn't need like grid heater wires, A/C wires, ABS stuff, etc. and used that bada** 3M electrical tape or corrugated wire loom to tightly wrap it all back up. It's dark out now, but if you'll wait 'til morning I'll go out and snap a picture of my wiring harness. It's crazy clean.

I hate wiring, too, and it's always been my weak point, but if your memory isn't bordering on Alzheimer's patient, it's not hard at all.

 

Pics would be awesome

 

Wiring harness are not difficult to figure out, its when people who not know what they are doing start hacking into them to add on accessories like stereos and too many lights without not using relays and burn up the harness as a result.

I would not start cutting wires out of the harness unless I checked each wire endpoint against a good wiring diagram, the grounds are a weak point on these trucks and one wire serves several ground returns that are not necessarily related.

Also unless you draw up a very detailed diagram it will be a nightmare for the next owner to find any problems should they arise in the future.

If you want to have fun, work on a military genset harness where all of the wires are the same color, the only way the circuit is identified is be a small metal tag at the end of each wire that corresponds with the drawing on the master diagram, some aircraft are also the same.
Some of the reasoning behind this is if you have to destroy the equipment by hacking the harness it would be impossible to repair by the enemy.

The correct tape to wrap a harness has no sticky on either side.

http://terminalsupplyco.com/Store/De...px?CAT=TAPE110

I like to see a harness that is laced and shellaced, a long lost skill.

Jim

 

 

I'd like to see the stone tablet where that law is written. When you find it, be sure to call Chrysler and let them know they're doing it wrong.

 

HUH?...Mark

 

He didn't say Chrysler was doing it. Actually, he didn't say ANYONE was doing it. He just stated that the correct way to do it was with non-sticking tape. And it is. I've never done that and I probably never will, but I've done a LOT of wiring and I'm good at it. There are a lot of things that should be done a specific way, but for reasons of convenience, or costs, or practicality, things just don't get done anymore.

 

Wow, I didn't know y'all's sensibilities would be so easily offended.

I didn't put any words in anyone's mouth, so maybe you ought to consider slowing your roll, there, fella. I made a simple statement, the point being that I'd like to know where it says that the correct way to wrap a harness was with glueless tape, and that Chrysler, et al., obviously didn't get that memo because they have, do and will continue to do it contrary to this "correct" way.

If I'd have known some people were so sensitive to a little hyperbole, I'd have put my kid gloves on. Pardon me.

 

I know that you are new around here and my comment had nothing to do with what you said, it was the delivery. Jim Lane and bc847 have about 1000 threads in the sticky and I personally wouldn't doubt anything the either one says about these trucks. It is just that you might have said something like: "Really?, I have never heard that before. I don't think that Chrysler does it that way. Can you please explain further?" Or something similar. Welcome to the board by the way...Mark

 

Even most Chrysler vehicles i have ever worked on the wiring in were done with non-adhesive tape.

 

I always thought that somebody had redone mine. It kind of looks like that white first aid tape, maybe it is the original non adhesive type...Mark

 

While I do not have the actual stone tablet, I do have the specification numbers for the 3 major manufactures for the correct wrapping tape.

GM Specification M4515
Chrysler Specification MSDC 13A
Ford Specification ESB-M3G40-A

Check here to reference the Spec # to its description and application.
http://www.egitape.com/portals/0/Aut...Industrial.pdf

Quote from a harness manufacture:
Every harness is wrapped with the correct wrapping material (i.e. non adhesive vinyl tape, cloth tape, paper braid, plastic conduit or tar dipped loom) to ensure a 100% factory appearance.
http://www.wiringharness.com/chrysler.htm

Appears to be the correct tape for A-Body, B-Body and E-Body Mopar cars.
http://www.mrmoparts.net/wire-harnes...ll-cars-truck/

Technical specifications of the tape.
http://plymouthyongle.e.tradeee.com/...ss%20Tape.html

It is easy to think that your wiring harness is wrapped using regular electrical tape if you do not know how Dry Vinyl tape works, an easy way to check is to unwrap a few inches of your harness, you will see that as the tape unwinds, it is not stuck to the wires after 20 years the wires might be some sticky from the insulation breaking down but like if it were wrapped using electrical tape you would have a gooey sticky mess on all of the wires.

I have been an electrician for many years and I have unwound many miles of electrical tape.

With the heat in the engine compartment the adhesive of regular electrical tape would soften, ooze and the tape would start to unwind.

Although Dry Vinyl tape has no adhesive when tightly wrapped it adheres to itself and not to the wires inside, this might lead you to believe regular tape was used.

I have been working on vehicles since the 60’s and have worked on many electrical systems and I know my 1965,1970 Mustangs had non adhesive tape as well as probably all of my 70’s and 80’s Chevy trucks.

Hey, I do not claim to know everything but I am pretty confident that the information I give is correct to the best of my knowledge.
Also to be honest, I really cannot tell you what the newer vehicles are using because of all of the federal guidelines about flammability and toxicity in case of an accident.

Jim

 

Usability and longevity are probably going downhill, especially as we follow the European dive into "green" as they are backing out of it because of the unintended consequences.

For example, my son's Mercedes E420 failed to proceed one foggy morning. The cause was that the insulation on the engine wiring harness had done what it was designed to do. Would you believe it was biodegradable? Yep, it was crumbling and decaying. 'bout $1100 later it was back in service.

Jim, thanks for the link to TSC. How are their prices, which seem to be hidden?

 

By the way you jumped in, it seems you assumed I had my nose in the air as I typed that. Instead imagine me setting my beer down and smiling as I typed it. I don't know Jim Lane and I don't subscribe the notion that post counts or sticky threads are necessarily the yard stick by which real-word knowledge is measured; it'd be a mistake to automatically assume otherwise. I do, however, know David personally. He lives right down the road and was the first person to hear the Ramcharger rumble into his driveway when it was finished. I've got a lot of respect for the guy because I've seen that green monstrosity run low 7s with my own two eyes, not because he's a site administrator or has a ton of posts on a forum. That said, this ain't my first rodeo. Just because I'm new to this site (which David put me onto in the first place) doesn't mean I'm new to these trucks. At any rate, despite my true tone being missed and the misunderstanding, I'll concede that you and every other person I've dealt with, including Jim, are very reasonable and pleasant to talk to. This site beats the brakes off of every other site I've been on, both technically and socially, and I appreciate the welcome.