Full restoration, new wiring loom?

I've found most of the wiring to be in good shape but the plastic sleeving that Ferrari used has turned to stone. I've had to replace most of the exposed sleeving but not much wire so I just didn't see making a new complete harness as necessary. That said, I've created a few new sub harnesses and replaced just about every "external" connector with a more modern waterproof locking connector... so I've replaced enough connectors to have built a new loom.

Rick

 

So far its all been copper wire, good gauge and good casing. Copper is pretty stable in an anaerobic environment (inside a casing) . You will only see major or detectable resistance changes in low voltage systems if you have an extreme over current situation. In which case the wire gets cooked and the resistance goes up which begets more cooking... etc. I've found a few of these instances and you can just cut the wire back to shiny copper and reterminate or put a new pigtail on. But I think I've only found 3 wires that needed this done.

Rick

 

I have come across wire that looked fine from the insulation and cut it open to find that most likely due to a breakdown in the insulation that is not visible the wire had wicked up water moisture and corroded for significant lengths. It's happened with brand new and decades old wire. Not a common thing but something I have seen a few times, usually when trying to locate and fix an electrical issue. A real bugger of problem to find as the wire looks just fine from the outside. doing pin outs and checking amp draw can usually spot the problem wire.

For the most part the harness is in decent shape, sure it probably wouldn't hurt to replace it. At that point there are a number of improvements that can be made in circuit design and connectors.

 

Remember that Ferrari used some strangely marked & striped wires that you aren't going to be able to find correct replacements for.

I wouldn't arbitrarily replace all the wires. However, I'd take a good look at the high current wires & wires in high heat areas such as the engine compartment to make sure that the insulation was still reasonably flexable & that there were no signs of corrosion at the ends where the connectors are fastened on.

In general, I've not seen many wiring problems per se. Occasionally breakage where a connector was crimped on & flexed is easily fixed by stripping back & installing a new connector.

 

Verell makes some very valid points here. Fortunately I've amassed quite a collection of wire over the years and a couple of old harnesses to scavenge. The sleeving around the wires in the engine bay was some of the worst for being "baked". This is where I had to replace or cut back the longest lengths of wire in order to get rid of some of the darkened cores and high resistance connections.

But, the engineer in me said if it baked once... its going to bake again. So, I opted to redo the sleeving in this are with "fire sleeve" and corresponding "fire wrap" to seal the ends. Hopefully I'll never have to fix anything here again.

Rick
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I didn't have too much trouble getting new wire custom striped the same as the Ferrari wire colors. Except for the grey/yellow wire I found in my car which was actually just grey, but somebody had hand painted a few yellow bands on each end. The other cars I've looked at have a real grey/yellow wire. I guess they'd run out of the grey/yellow when they did my car!

I had the same thought, but wanted to remain reasonably close to OEM appearance. So went with a black sleeving that should last a bit longer than the OEM stuff, but likely will still get hard after a bunch of years. My engine harness was so cooked, that it was easier to make up a completely new harness (or two) than try and reuse anything from the old one.
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Nice work..

 

Very nice... and I KNOW the effort that went into those.

Rick

 

Thanks! The hardest part was sourcing the Bosch Junior Timer connectors, pins, and boots at a reasonable cost. I never did find a decently priced source for the boots. If I recall, I got them out of England at about $1.50/boot. I was wanting to pay about half that.

Here you can see the harness installed (photo courtesy of fastradio). The larger outer sleeving is a bit flatter than the OEM stuff.
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For me, If I was doing a full restoration, I would go with a new harness. Of course its more money, but I think worth it in the end. I hear good things from Rhode Island Wiring Service, Inc. They can build new harnesses to match OEM color-code, ect. Have not used them, but if I was doing a restoration, I would give them a call.
401-789-1955
www.riwire.com
got their info from my Hemmings Sports & Exotic car magazine.

 

+1 on Rhode Island - talk to Marsha.
If you're really doing a FULL nut and bolt restoration then the wiring should not be a stone unturned. I would check out Newman's restoration thread (search the archives) and see what he did. He did probably the most thorough and complete restoration ever done on a 308.

 

They are a GREAT resource and I've used them on a few projects as well as Narragansett Reproductions. I've don't lots of wiring, complete rewires, updates, a few "pegboard hand mades", numerous historic racers and a couple of pro race cars over the last 20 years. I've used RIW, Narragansett, Painless, American Autowire, Ron Francis and for the really top drawer stuff, PRS. I actually picked up a complete used harness for my car. I inventoried the entire harness for gauge, color and striping and NO ONE was able to come up with the complete catalog of wire needed to build a new harness as an exact match. Close, but no exact match. (in all fairness, I did not even contact PRS regarding the Ferrari, its not their game).

But what I found is Ferrari used a fairly good grade of wire. The connectors are common period connectors and suffer as such. Much of the water protection (when) employed distorts, leaks and becomes water retention. The Vinyl sheathing (or sleeve) they used turns to stone but did a good job of protecting what is underneath... which is good. Cut the terminals off, remove the old petrified sheathing, clean the wires, make minor splice repairs, replace the sheathing, re-terminate the wires and reinsert them in the connectors and you've got a harness good for another couple of decades. I'm not a purest so when I re-terminate the wires I'm using something more modern with better weather protection, better electrical connection and positive locking. Whether it be Deutsch, PICO or Delphi Packard, depending on the location and application.

I guess what I'm trying to get to is think hard before "throwing out the baby with the bath water". Unless severely hacked on or burned up, the factory harness is a good one. Some of the factory connectors are not available so you'll end up with a harness that will need to have them swapped. It's a lot of work restringing a harness through a car. Its more work wringing out a remake. BTDT. Just be thankful these aren't British cars and that there are few Lucas components.

Rick