As the saying goes – Nothing lasts forever, and so it is with your car or trucks original wiring harness. Time, the elements, the ozone, and many an owner will cause the demise of an original automotive wiring harness.
At All Classic Car Service we’ve seen our share of “hacked-on” wiring harnesses. Some we just shake our heads at; stare in disbelief; or don’t touch for fear of creating a big blue flame in the shop. We’ve seen household romex solid copper wire, lamp cord wire, and extension cord wire being used for all sorts of repairs. The connections of those wires run the gambit. Trailer connectors are the most common. Followed closely with twisted ends and a household wire nut. Sometimes black electrical tape is used, and on occasion, duct tape or masking tape.
What we have noticed over the years is – most shops don’t want to touch a messy wiring harness repair. We can relate to that sentiment as well, but we don’t run from the challenge. I can give you three reasons why repair shops avoid wiring harness repairs:
- It’s time consuming. It would be hard to estimate the time and costs associated with replacing the harness on a Classic Car since the “flat rate” time calculation software doesn’t go back past 1984 (Mitchell, All Data, Identifix). So they avoid giving you a heart attack when you come to pay the bill, avoiding the discomfort on both ends.(*)
- They lack the expertise. Not every mechanic is a wiz at electrical problems. Especially if they are use to “plug and play” diagnostics (OBDII style computer diagnostics). Some mechanics are just afraid of burning up a wiring harness (because they’ve done so in the past), once bitten – twice shy.
- You can’t Fudge-It. For the most part, it either works or it doesn’t work when it comes to electrical repairs. Unlike a carburetor adjustment, you can’t say “….it’s better than when it came in!” But for electrical, either the lights On or it’s Off.
Back to number 1, the longer a repair takes, the more attention to detail it will take. Lets face it, humans are lazy. The best money made at an Auto Repair Shop is a repair job that comes and goes quickly. Long term projects never make the shop owner or mechanic any real money.
Lastly, if you forgo any repair, don’t let it be your cars wiring harness. Many a car and house has burned down because of a faulty wiring harness. Do yourself a favor – replace the wiring harness when the time and money permit. Try it yourself, or have a shop do the repairs. But by all means, don’t cut corners.
Use a good harness from M & H Electrical Fabricators, YearOne, Summit, Jegs, Classic Industries, Moss Motors, or a number of the other specialty wiring harness suppliers. Don’t go cheap. (Oh – we’re not a fan of the Painless wiring harnesses. Mainly because we like OEM style repairs. They work fine on RestoMods and so forth, but if you like to keep it original, go with an OEM style harness.)
(*) As a hunter and collector of old Auto Repair manuals, I have a few old hardback Chilton / Mitchell Flat Rate repair books. We use them as reference when calculating Classic Car repairs.
