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No wonder it caught fire...
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Posted by: MadScientistMatt

Yesterday I took a look at the Spitfire's wiring harness. What I saw scared me. I've dealt with old, corroded wiring. I've seen (and made) jury rigged electrical repairs. But nothing prepared me for what I've dubbed The Abominable Wiring Harness of Inexorable Doom. Here are some of the problems I found with it:

1. The insulation had melted off the high beam wire - in fact, the electrical tape had been melted clear though, leaving inches of bare copper wire.
2. The previous owner's idea of how to splice wires together was to strip the insulation off the ends and twists the ends together. That's it - no connectors, no solder, no electrical tape in case it touches something and shorts out.
3. Several wires had been added that didn't go anywhere.
4. Other wires had been replaced with lamp cord. The kind with clear insulation.
5. One of the components that originally mounted to the sheet metal had been unbolted and taped to the wiring harness where it was swinging around.
6. As I previously mentioned, one of the fuses had been replaced with a straight piece of wire.

And I suspect there are a lot of other, less obvious problems. I wasn't able to get good close-up pictures with my digital camera, but I will post some pictures I've taken with my SLR once they're developed. This is a truly scary piece of wiring. I'm buying a brand new harness - I am not going to try and fix what I've got.

Posted by: Mr. P

the lamp cord tells volumes, better make an afternoon out of it with some good wire, soldering gun, and fasteners.

If you don't have a Pertronix kit on it now, go ahead and get it done, it will be the best investment in reliability and some performance you can buy.

Mr. P

Posted by: MadScientistMatt

Nah, I'd rather replace the whole harness than try to solder up a new one. There are just too many things about that harness that need fixing, and I'd rather not find out I missed one of those things while driving down a lonely road at night.

Posted by: MikeT

So, this guy that owned it before you did he work for lucas?

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