Electrical: A RATS nest!

[Guest]

Finally finished the brakes and a few other things, and now have taken on the wiring of the project Avanti.
This car had been in a barn for several years and previous owners did modifications to others modifications, splicing and dicing the wiring.



I have begun labeling and unbolting things to remove the dash and completely re-wire this car. Maybe by the fall I'll be ready for the road. Pray for me!

[Welcome]

>>>I have begun labeling and unbolting things to remove the dash and completely re-wire this car. Maybe by the fall I'll be ready for the road. Pray for me!

What year Avanti is it???

[AnAvanti4Bob]

Rats nest indeed - what a cobbled up mess...I'm prayin for ya...Bob

[63 R2 Hawk]

Looks like the formula for an electrical fire....!

[doug]

Wiring like this and electrical problems pushed me over the edge and I parted out a '75 last year.

[TheBiz]

Good luck. I am in the middle of rewiring my '63 Hawk with a Painless harness so I can sympathize. Have you decided what kind of harness you are going to replace the mess with?

[showbizkid]

Oh HELLS no! New harness, immediately!

What I found under Barney's dash wasn't that bad, but bad enough. I've never understood why people feel the need to butcher up wiring harnesses like this. If you're going to add accessories, there's much neater, safer ways to do it.

[64V-K7]

What's that little push button switch on the left underside do?

[nvonada]

Ejection seat.

[studebaker-R2-4-me]

You just have to love people who change colors midstream and mangle solder-less connectors, use tape for connections etc. I like to solder my new connections and use shrink tube to cover them. I don't even like to see blue plastic terminals in my car. I cover them with shrink tube as well.

Good luck with the repairs.

Allen

[sweetolbob]

Tom

That is an interesting rats nest you have. I would guess from the fuse box and labeled wiring that the car has been rewired at least once. It will be interesting when you get the dash out to see if you can use the labeled wires to figure out what goes where and rerun some of the b@stard wiring to match.

In any case, you have a nasty job in front of you.

Good luck, Bob

[FlatheadGeo]

Reminds me of the time I had to rewire the starting system on a friend's 50 Olds that he bought. When I got through taking the wires out from the ignition switch to starter, etc. I had more than 30 ft of wire. Most of which was wrapped several times around the engine bay?? Go figure?!

[Dick Steinkamp]

There does become a point when it is best to rip out all the old wiring and start over, but be sure this is one of those before you do it. Re-wiring a car from scratch is expensive, time consuming, and often even more frustrating than fixing an existing harness. It can also end up just as cobbed up depending on the skill of the electrician installing it.

From the picture, it doesn't look fatal to me (well, the one bare yellow wire doesn't look great ). In fact, if you look under the dash of most cars of that era, you see something very similar.

The car obviously already has an aftermarket wiring harness. That probably means a good fuse box, wires factory terminated at the box, correct gauge wires (except maybe in some sections), labeled wires.

I'd fix the obvious bad work (or non working devices) and insure everything is fused. Crimped on connectors are perfectly safe (millions are used in boats and aircraft) as long as they are the right gauge for the wires and crimped properly. This is especially true under the dash where it doesn't get wet.

It won't be fun standing on your head under the dash tracing and fixing, but it will be a lot LESS fun completely re-wiring in the same position.

[Guest]

Thanks Guys! It's a '63. When the p.o. hooked up the battery cables, wires began smoking. I knew I had my work cut out for me then.

Someone had engine bay wires nice and tidy in those black, plastic looms zip-tied every few inches, so yesterday I began taking it all apart and labeling things.
I don't have a replacement harness in mind, except to go slowly and take my time using the manual. I found the single-wire alternator wire insulation was severely melted.
Lots to do and thankful the weather is slowly warming. Oh, I took the front seats out to accomodate my height.