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MG MGA - Cable Sleeving recommendation

I have to restore the harnesses sleeving on my MGA 1600 which is completely perished and showing the PVC wires in some parts, and was looking for a suitable product that is cheap. Can you recommend any specific one?
I have been doing some research and come to the products listed in this site;
http://www.cabletiesandmore.com/BraidedSleeving-starbucks.php

I thought the fire-retardant type would be good. Of course if I could find 'Cloth sleeve' similar to the original that would be great.
I am sure some of you guys have already done this...
Couldn't find anything on Barney's site.
Gonzalo Ramos

It's probably cheaper to buy a complete new harness
dominic clancy

Gonzalo,

Do you have the harness out of the car? If you just want the harness re-wrapped, and you don't want to replace it, check out Rhode Island Wiring Service. www.riwire.com

Here's an email I received from them regarding wrapping a custom wirig harness:

"Yes - but you would need to send the harness in here for us to run it through machines.
Put black electrical tape bands every six inches or so, and put the first and last tapes where you want the braid to stop.
We will go up to and just over the last tape bands, stopping the braid just at the outer edge of the last tape bands.
The cost is $4.50 per foot + a $5.00 machine set up charge.
You would need to specify the exact pattern you want us to braid for you, since lucas used MANY different patterns.
Feel free to call us at 401-789-1955 for suggestions on braiding patterns, or with any other questions you may have.

You can UPS your harness to:
R I Wiring Service, Inc.
567 Liberty Lane
West Kingston RI 02892

Thanks,
Kara Pease
R I WIRING SERVICE, INC."
Mark J Michalak

Gonzalo,

Since I am in the rolling restoration mode, I have been wrapping the bad areas on my harness with non-sticky vinyl electrical tape. Tedious, but effective and cheap. The end of each wrap is finished off with regular electrical tape. Moss carries the vinyl wrap tape as do most hardware stores. I am planning to replace the harness when I get to the full restoration. The link you posted looks like a good resource for higher quality harness wraps and repairs. I know that if I try to replace the harness now I will find several other things than need attention. If summer ever decides to show up here in the Puget Sound area, I would prefer to be driving.

John
jjb Backman

Thanks for the advice. I was just looking at doing a cheap but neat repair, and didn't want to replace the full harness for the moment, as my is like John's, a rolling restoration.

That is a good idea too using the non-sticky tape...I will look into it and post some pics once I am done.

Gonzalo Ramos

Gonzalo,
I recently fitted an alternator to my car and I had to modify the wiring slightly by adding an extra yellow output wire between it and the battery to cope with the increase in charging amperage.
To cover the yellow wire I bought some "self amalgamating rubber insulating tape" to wrap around the it and the small loom that comes from the alternator.
This is a black non sticky tape that when wrapped around the wires, bonds together to become a watertight continuous insulation. It looks pretty much like it was original equipment and it will not eventually come unstuck as do most insulating tapes in a hot engine compartment.
You can get it from most big electronics chain stores over here.
Colyn
Colyn Firth

If you just want something functional, get some spiral wrap:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062665
Del Rawlins

Back when I was a very keen restorer I obtained woven (cotton?) cable covering from a large electrical supplies firm. It would accommodate various thicknesses, the more you pulled it taught the smaller diameter it became. It was suitable for about 3 to 12mm diameter (say two,three or maybe four wires?), don't know whether it is still available. I also found that the laces on sports boots (eg football) were in fact tubular and would do the same. On larger parts of the loom I wrapped the area with black material that looked a bit like the original binding. All a bit of a "fiddle" but far preferable to looking at exposed plastic insulation!
Barry Bahnisch

I just bought a new harness from Moss with the correct cloth covering. The one I had been fiddling with was wrapped with electrical tape - ugh. Looked awful. The new one is so much prettier.

When I worked at a bike shop, we used this:

http://www.amazon.com/Newbaums-Cotton-Bicycle-Handlebar-Brown/dp/B003BSQRS2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1276280119&sr=8-4

Standard cloth bike handlebar tape might look pretty good - comes in colors or even patterns. It's sticky, but easily removable, and would look a lot better than the vinyl electrical tape.

Best yet, it's cheap and readily available (go to any good bike shop).

JIM
AJ Mail

There was a material we called "snake skin" that we used when making custom cables in our lab. I think you can buy this at electrical supply stores, maybe even Radio Shack. Take a look here:
https://www.americanrecorder.com/catalog.php?d=43&c=94

Cheers,
GTF
G T Foster

This thread was discussed between 10/06/2010 and 14/06/2010

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