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MG MGB Technical - Wiring Harness Alternative

(1) Short of buying a new wiring harness for cosmetic purposes only, is there an alternative, like some sort of kit that you can re-cover a cloth wiring harness on a 67?
(2) Other than the obvious, is it a big problem re-building the front end and dropping the rear for some work after the car is back from the paint shop? The paint shop wants it by the 27th and time won't allow me to do this before hand.

Many Thanks
Steve C.
Steve C.

Cosmetic purpoaes are not the only reasons for new wiring. If you do other than the stock colors, you will need to construct a new wiring diagram and edit your manual to be consistant. I really cannot imagine maintenence and trouble-shooting if the wire colors are odd and/unknown. recoveing the old harness is a possibility, but you will still likely have to remove the harness and tthread it through a new fabric tube.
Perhaps it willbe best to bite the bullet and replace the whole system.
You will need to remove the front and rear suspension agter the car is painted anyway in order to remove the overspray and repaint. It's a good time to renew bushings.
John
John Simmers

Cloth-covered harnesses are still produced to the correct spec but whether you would be able to talk a manufacturer into recovering yours is another matter. I did read of someone who needed one with yellow flecks but could only get white, so he coloured all the white bits yellow with a felt-tipped pen.
Paul Hunt

The wiring is 35 years old. I think I would bite the bullet and just go ahead and replace the harness. It's cheap insurance against that time in the dead of night, in the wrong side of town and on a weekend, when acrid smoke starts rolling out from under the dash, the ignition light comes on, the tach drops to zero, it gets real quiet and you roll to a stop. It happened to my '64 in 1969. Insulation is subject to a lot of vibration and as the years go by, the volatile oils that make plastic plastic evaporate, The insulation gets brittle, and from there it's only a matter of time and luck before something goes wrong. (BTW, military aircraft have regularly programmed rewirings over the service life of the plane.) That's a hint.
R. L Carleen

British wiring (http://www.britishwiring.com) is an EXCELLENT source for quality wiring products. I use their harness in my car, and it's spot on perfect. You won't go wrong using their products.

Justin
Justin

Thanks folks, its not my car so a new harness it is. The wiring seems fine but like R.L. says, its good insurance.
Steve C.
Steve

. I really cannot imagine maintenence and trouble-shooting if the wire colors are odd and/unknown. John try working in a radio repair shop where half the time you get stuff that you have no circuits or data on and the other half the item has been so often modified it no longer ressembles the circuit you do have - ARRggggghhhhh
Simon

I am also in the market for a wiring harness repair/replace. I have looked into a aftermarket hotrod from Painless Performance, it has color coded and labled wires. But thanks to Justins link to British Wiring I may give them a try.
P.A. Smith

A new harness will help in finding and correct any errors or deviations from the original diagrams. My British Wiring harness was one of the best investments I made.
Mike Zaffarano

You might want to build your own custom wiring harness:

http://www.britishv8.org/tech/mgpanel.pdf

I have built and installed a few of these, and they work out real well.
Dan Masters

I just opened the britishwire.com page and I'm amazed that these harnesses are being reproduced.
I drive a 73b that has had little to no wiring problems. Last weeked however while running with the heater fan on I smelled some burning wire and proceeded to blow an in line fuse just below the fuse box. Evidently the hot wire to the heater fan shorted out.
Here are my questions. When you install a new harness, does the dash have to come out? Is this a pretty easy project to complete on an assembled car or is this a step that needs to be completed on a restoration that is in process of being assembled?
I may be off to Walmart this am to potentially stock a fire extinguisher in the the LBC.
john

Until about 74 in North America and 77 in the UK the main loom wires went direct to the backs of everything on the dash, after that there were one to three multi-way plugs and a separate dash harness. So in the latter case if replacing the main loom only it *might* just be possible to replace it with the dash in situ, but for the sake of half a dozen bolts, the glovebox and connections to the back of the oil pressure gauge and speedo it isn't worth it, you'll probably have it out in about 1/2 hour once you know what has to be undone.
Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 16/01/2003 and 18/01/2003

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