Engine wiring harness

"i'm considering redoing m

"i'm considering redoing my wiring harness for both engines. they appear to be the original harnesses. i could just snip off the connectors and replace, but, the whole thing seems like such a birds nest I think i could make it neater. anyone ever done this? or should i just replace and shrink the connectors?"

"Ho-boy! Are you looking at a

"Ho-boy! Are you looking at a nightmare.

After a few plant tours of a locomotive manufacturer's shop, I can tell you how wiring harnesses are created. They have a large plywood board with the required harness painted on it (and with pins to hold the wires in place). If I were you--and thank God I'm not doing this!--I would carefully remove the old harness and reverse engineer it on a plywood board of my own.

But whatever you do, don't go snipping off anything! You'll put yourself in a helluva mess!

Jeff"

"I've seen the plywood met

"I've seen the plywood method also, and it is a great way to make sure everything is correct ( did this for my old Cub Cadet tractor! ) Depending on the year and the set up I MIGHT be able to get you a brand NEW one. Are you looking at only the engine harness or from the engine to the bridge also?

Dave"

"on my boat it appears there i

"on my boat it appears there is a busbar setup that goes to the bridge for all the gauges and some seperate wires for the ignition. my thoughts were to simply trace each wire back to the busbar and then label the busbar and my diagram for the correct guage/engine. I'm only looking to replace from the busbar to the engine. not from bridge to busbar.

The other option i thought of, when i discussed 'cutting' what i mean is to snip off the ends one by one and replace the connections and shrinktube them one at a time.

any suggestions?"

"I replaced both harness'

"I replaced both harness' on my boat fairly easily by using ABYC color coded individual wires and then placing then in some split loom. Not sure what you got but I had very few wires. 12V, ign, water, oil, etc. Ran to a bus bar the to the lower dash and similar new harness to the bridge. If you do replace I would recommended adding an extra wire(s) and save the headache when you want to add any items later."

"Hi Dan,
that's what i wa

"Hi Dan,
that's what i was thinking of doing. I have some of the split loom and i bought a bunch of the marine grade wire, so, i have plenty of different colors. It's going to be a winter project for sure!!"