Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2015 08:00:47 -0500
Reply-To: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject: Re: Anyone have a write up for making a 86-91 door wiring diagram
In-Reply-To: <EF161306-0481-4B41-BE47-7D966E2AC025@aol.com>
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At 02:49 PM 11/14/2015, David Clarkson wrote:
>Has anyone out there got a good write up on
>building late model vanagon, 8691 with power
>mirrors and windows, wiring harnesses? I have
>door locks not working properly one window that
>doesn't work and worn-out speaker wires at a
>minimum. It's time to start over and I can't
>find anywhere to just buy these harnesses. I
>guess the easiest thing to do would be to
>extract the old harness measure each color
>wiring, and come up with a good way to bind the
>wiring together and protect it where the door
>opens and closes as much as possible. My
>vehicle is a 1990 and it has electric
I just rebuilt a door harness. One of the lock
wires had broken for the second time, and six or
seven others had insulation cracked across in the
flex area. I used sealed (shrink/adhesive) crimp connectors from Fastenal.
First, the wires were clipped where they enter
the rubber tube that crosses the hinge inside the
air duct, and the tube was extracted at both ends
allowing it to be pulled off the harness
wires. Then the harness was removed from the
door and laid out. The harness travels
horizontally along the door and then bends
sharply downward for about six inches before
entering the rubber tube. The plastic covering
was removed from this area so that the
reconnections could be made there, staggering them over the area.
Each set of wires in turn was remade, six inches
longer than the original; then bundled with
shrink tubing past the ends of the crimp
connectors. The long ends were lightly twisted
together and a collar of shrink tubing placed on
the end to secure it. For the heavier wires
Napa/Belden automotive wire was used. It has
fewer strands than the original`and may not last
as long in flex service. For the 0.5 mm^2
(equivalent to 19 AWG) wires in the mirror
harness, reclaimed wire from old harnesses was
used so as not to bulk up the harness with 18
AWG. In my opinion 20 AWG would suffice if
necessary. Wire color codes were followed as
closely as practical given available wire, and
the transitions noted. When complete, the
harness ends were bound together and connected to
a heavy copper fishing wire using adhesive-lined shrink tubing.
The wires to be fed through the tube, and the
inside of the tube, were powdered with ground
soapstone from a weldor's marking pencil. The
fishing wire was threaded through the hole from
the inside of the door into the air duct and out
to open air. The tube was placed over it and
worked into place through the hole, and the wires
were then fed through by pulling on the fishing
wire while feeding/guiding into the tube from
inside the door. The tube was then seated in
the other hole and an attempt made to finish
fishing the wires through. This proved
impossible, so the wires were fished completely
through in open air, fed through the second hole,
and then the tube seated into the hole. The
sub-harnesses were then separated one at a time
from the bundle and crimped onto the pigtails of their respective connectors.
The door side of the harness was then
reconnected, and after successful testing was
dressed and re-secured with zip ties, and checked
for interference with the window.
Yours,
David
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