Just bend me over and &#*@!&... what not to do to an electrical harness

[Spittybug]

It started so innocently, don't they all?

I noticed my speakers were dropping in and out occasionally and sure enough, the cheapo connector plug I used was the culprit. No problem, just a quick soldering of 4 males, 4 females and heat shrink them. It took longer to get to them than to fix them. I have to remove my center console to get to enough of the wiring to the side of the radio console. I also wanted to check my grounds there and generally straighten stuff up. No problem. Tested, fine. Put all back together. Carefully route the two big harness bundles past the shifter, the speaker wires, subwoofer wires, hoses, the kitchen sink... you know the drill if you've been under there.. poorly designed for the volume of wiring going under there.

Tightened all 6 nuts, fitted the shift console plate which in my case is a little more challenging because I added USB ports, a toggle to pop/lock my doors and moved my window switches up there. There! all done. One final test, turned on the battery kill switch and voila!!!!! FREAKIN PLUMES OF SMOKE FROM UNDER THE SHIFT CONSOLE! As quick as my brain could process it I turned the switch off. I thought that I had somehow not connected the cigar lighter + and that it had touched a ground... no such luck. My shift console plate screw did a nasty and perforated my harness. SEVERAL of these are now fused together. Just what I needed 2 days before the first show of the season. I know what I'm doing tomorrow. Aaarrrggggh.

PS. The stereo sounded great.

[opethmike]

Oh man, that suuuuucks. Best of luck with the fix tomorrow!

[stevedmc]

I hate deloreans.

[Canon20DFan]

Ouchy. Take photos of the surgery.

[Jeff K]

I hate deloreans.

Funny reply.

[Bitsyncmaster]

I just tied up my two console bundles last night. Your bundles should not go inside of those two studs. If you run them there your switches will hit them (along with the mounting screw). When you put the console on you have to move the bundles to get at those studs. I also put some edge guard up front where the bundles run beside the plate. I used my thick vacuum hose like I did in the fuse box.

[Ron]

Ah, hell man. hate to see it!

At least you have tunes to work by...

[AdmiralSenn]

Ouch, man. Luckily you caught it before it became an even worse problem!

[DeMopar]

Don't feel so bad-it happens to all of us.

I did something similar, but not on my Delorean. About a year ago I was changing the fuel pump on my small-block Challenger which lives underneath the alternator. As I was disconnecting the fuel lines, the wiring harness to the alternator was in my way so I shoved it to the side and changed the pump. Once everything was back together, I took a spin around the block and parked the car and left it idling. All of a sudden a white plume of smoke comes billowing out of the grille and the car dies. I hurry up and open the hood to notice that the fusible link at the starter relay is toast!

Well, after about an hour of trying to map out the cause (I was thinking it was an ignition problem) I notice I had lodged the alternator wiring harness up against the exhaust manifold and it finally melted the insulation causing a short.

[Spittybug]

That could have been a lot worse.

Only one of the wires was in poor enough shape to merit replacing a few inch section. The others were very isolated in their damage. I had originally thought I would simply strip away the melted insulation and wrap each wire with tape. I decided against that and snipped each one right where the damage was done, threaded on a good length of shrink tubing and then re soldered the ends together. There wasn't a lot of slack, but enough. Only the thick black ground one was tough to solder. That's the one with the ugly crimped on copper ring. I just couldn't get the joint hot enough with the soldering iron so I crimped and then 'globbed' a little. Not too pretty, but a good connection. Everything tested fine when I turned on the battery and turned on the key. :bigclap: I'm surprised (disappointed) that I didn't blow any fuses, but it may have been a case of two or three hot wires each grounding due to the screw and some strange new connections as a result... who knows. Locally very hot, but may not have been sufficient per wire??

After lunch and a beer I will reassemble all......very carefully. I also have a listing of all the colors of wire that go down the driver's side harness if anyone needs it. I tried to identify them all using the wiring schematic, then quickly came to my senses and quit.

Sorry the pictures are a little blurry, the macro setting on the camera must want it to be closer or something. I couldn't tell at the time that they were blurry. In any case, you get the idea.

[Dangermouse]

Almost happened to me on a wooden boat in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea.

I went to help my father-in-law install solar panels on his boat and he had kindly pre-run all the wiring behind the wood paneling in the main cabin. When I say "behind", I mean he removed a panel, installed the wires and then replaced the panels, complete with screws, which went neatly through all the wires he had just installed. :rant:

Luckily I was smart enough to wring the wires out before connecting anything. Flaming inferno averted.