Cleaning up the Wiring Harness

Well, it's time to clean up the wiring harness so I can install it and get ready to install the engine in my Red SL90 project.  This is a task I'm not normally fond of as the old wiring harnesses usually are "toasted" from sun exposure, cut up, or missing proper connections (or all of the above).  Fortunately, I did find a NOS harness for my Blue SL90 project, but I was not so lucky with the Red SL90, so I have to "rehab" an old wiring harness.

In this photo (above) you can see the old wiring harness from the Red SL90.  The sheathing is cracked and brittle and the white plastic plugs turn into powder when you touch them.  It looks like a mess, but the wiring inside the sheath is intact and still shows good continuity.  I will take this wiring harness and strip off the old sheath, replace the plugs and any loose connectors, re-sheath/tape it and make it a spare.

I purchased a nice RTL open barrel connector crimping tool (with the blue handles in the photo) at a reasonable price from vintageconnections.com.  This tool is essential for making good connections.  I'm also using a nifty wire stripper (red handles) that makes life easier when it comes to wiring.  The connectors are the bullet type most commonly found on the old Hondas - the connectors also come from vintageconnections.com.  I purchased the 25 unit packs as I also have to rehab the kill switch controls.   The connectors come with the proper sheaths.

It took me a couple of tries to get the hang of how to properly use the RTL crimping tool. The connection shown above was my first try at attaching a connector to a 16 gauge wire for the wiring harness.  It came out fairly well (but the stripped wire was a little too long). You can see that the crimp for the insulation and the crimp for the wire came out as they should.  I'm really pleased with the RTL crimping tool - now I can replace connectors properly and quickly!

Here's the harness I'm working on.  I need to replace 3 connectors and clean all of the connections.  This harness is in pretty decent condition and it should work just fine.