todays wiring harness

I don't know about anybody elas, but I'm getting real frustrated with the quality of the harnesses we can get today. They no longer have the indicator light bulb sockets. The last dash harness I got I even had to splice in the hazard switch plug. The main harness came with one of the main plugs in a bag with the connecters to install it. The alternator plug was the wrong one, and again I had to splice in the old bulb sockets in the radio console.

It's not British wiring's fault. They just can't get the parts to build them anymore. I called Moss to see if they built their harnesses. Thinking maybe they have a more complete harness. Well they get theirs from British wiring as well. Another thing all the bags that the harness came in had a sticker that said made in England. That's the first time I have seen that.

Another thing that bugged me. I called Oreillys to get a 50' box of 1/2" heater hose. They advised me they could order it as they weren't handeling 1/2" heater hose in their store anymore. Because no one ever asked for it except me. I wonder how long it will be before they have to order spark plugs for our cars. It was 1985 when the last car was built that uses our plugs.

I'm sure glad I'm in my last years of working on these old cars. I spend as much time looking for parts and making them work as I do fixing the cars. My partner was trying to get some timing gears for a Fiat Spider. The supplier told him they were no longer being made. So now he has all the timing gears of the Spider and at best he will try to find some good used ones in our warehouse of used parts. Not a good way to do buisness. Nor is it good that I have to splice a BRAND NEW $300-$400 harness to make it work.

Sounds like those discarded harnesses may have some value after all.

Tom,

You are right, some new parts are not up to original standards. Sad. In my case, I bought a new harness for my '71 B from VB. Everything matched up nicely to the original harness with the exception of the dash lights. The sockets were not screw in type. The sockets were for push in type bulbs, which I had to buy seperately. I was very pleased overall.

Mike

Count your lucky stars, Mike. Not only did I have to buy the different bulbs for the larger sockets. As I said the smaller bulb sockets weren't there at all. So I had to cut the sockets off the old harness and splice them on. Also once with an early harness that doesn't have a separate dash harness. Instead of using the ground wire that has eyelets for each gage and one bullet connector to the main harness. It had a seperate ground wire for each gage that I had to attach to the stud on the gage while installing the dash. That was a real PITA. I'm going to up my labor time to cover all this PITA stuff. I have no choice. It's a sad state of affairs when I have to charge more for less quality. Just a sign of the times I guess.

Wow, that does sound like a PITA. Hey, if an owner cannot do this stuff himself, then he has to pay. I am sure you do great work for your customers. When a job is done right the first time, customers are happy. Unfortunately, even premium labor and parts costs do not necessarily lead to quality results.

Mike

Tom, the last harness I bought from Moss had it all, but the sockets took a different kind of bulb.
I was told that Moss does not get their harnesses from British Wiring. That may have changed since I asked.

The harnesses Moss sells are made in the UK by Autosparks www.autosparks.co.uk

I found this out a while back when the dash harness I'd ordered from Moss for my V8 (72-74 dash) had the correct layout but the wrong light sockets for the year. I called California and found out Autosparks makes the harnesses.

I returned that dash harness, emailed Autosparks, told them what had happened and they said they'd make and ship me a new dash harness for cheaper than Moss can sell it.

I've dealt with them for the GT harness as well. They'll make up a stock harness from their diagrams or modify it according to your requests.

this thread sure sounds like a good plug for harnesses from advance auto.

Where does TRF get their harnesses? Autosparks?

Well, while everyone else has jumped ship and gone elsewhere, I still use Moss harnesses and have no issues other than you do have to order the new bulbs for those sockets. No biggy.
Y'all order what and from where you want.

The bulb problem, according to the Cernicks who ran BW for years, was that the tooling for the bulb sockets was shot and no one would step up and re-tool for them. The socket maker's attitude was "you're buying everything I produce so why would I pay to make new tooling?"

I used a Moss harness in the '74 and was very pleased with it - but that year has a separate dash harness, so the bulb holders were not an issue.

I love the service I get from British Wiring, I did get an O/D harness from them, and I buy all my wire and bullets from them for my kits. They are great to do business with!