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Re: Harness Conductivity


On  4 Dec 97, Ginger D.&Peter P. wrote:

> I have finaly tracked down an intermitant starting problem to a cut in
> the insulation on my coil power wire.  No strands have been cut, but
> there is a 1" long slice in the insulation where it enters the engine
> compartment.  If I leave the ignition on and go back to wiggle the wire
> at this point, I can hear the distributer "click", and the car will
> start right up.  

> Instead of shortening and splicing into the wiring harnes, I was
> considering clearing the old insulation off, melting in some soder, and
> using heat shrink tubing to reinsulate.  Is this too hokey?  What's the
> best way to do this, I'm not too experienced. (Yet)

>From your description, I believe you have a bunch of broken strands 
under the insulation somewhere.  You need to put a voltmeter or 
trouble light on the coil terminal while you slowly flex and pull on 
the wire to determine exactly where the break is.  Once you find it 
you will probably find that the wire is extra flexable there, and you 
can probably just pull hard and break the insulation since that's all 
that is holding things together there.

Then strip back a bit and solder and heat-shrink the splice.  Use a 
long piece of heat shrink if you are close to the skinned part of the 
wire, or slide an extra piece down to the skinned part before you do 
the splice.  Done carefully, this will make a permanent repair.

My guess is that this wire got caught during some previous 
removal/replacement of the engine.  It's good that you found it; this 
kind of thing can be very hard to track down.  It is a perfect 
example of the rewards of someone else's sloppy work.

Jim
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       Melissa Kepner                                    Jim Adney
                             Laura Kepner-Adney
                         jadney@vwtype3.org      
                             Madison, Wisconsin
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