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Covering metal tabs for wiring harness

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Bill Redd

Bill Redd

Jedi Hopeful
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What is typically used to cover the metal tabs on which the wiring harness sits?

I don't want to use electrical tape, as that gets messy as it gets older. The stuff there now (some missing), appears to be more like the plastic covering for insulated wiring.

Any thoughts?
Thanks
 
The TR2 to TR3A didn't have anything over the sheetmetal tabs. The tab was bent over backwards to rub and scuff on the cotton covered sheath on the wire harness.

You could buy some heat-shrink tubing at Radio Shack and fit it to length, then with the heat from a hair dryer, the tubing will become tight and will not be sticky like electrical tape.

Don Elliott, 1958 TR3A
 
Bill, I used the shrink tube that Don mentions, on the tabs when I did the GT6. It works great, and there is no messy adhesive.
Jeff
 
I use the casing from an old 16/3 black extention cord. I cut around at about an inch and a half from the end and just slide it off. Slide over the tab and trim. The cord is about 3/8ths diameter and works great. Check the attachment.
 

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Rob some of the black plastic casing from a wiring harness of a car in the junkyard, it matches up pretty close
 
Definetily go with shrink tubing. The thickest you can find. Once you have heated it up and it has shrunk it will look very nice.
 
Re: shrink tubing. It wouldn't hurt to use two pieces, one piece of a larger diameter than the other. Slip the smaller piece on first, shrink it, then repeat with the larger piece. Be careful not to get heat shrink with too small a diameter. If it's too small, it will be stretched too tight after shrinking and will have a tendency to split open with time, exposing the bare metal of the tab. The tubing should be just tight enough to stay on and not slip off easily.
 
danmas:

"The tubing should be just tight enough to stay on and not slip off easily".

Do you mean that that's the way it should fit prior to heating it?
 
TRF and other suppliers offer this but it is more expensive than just buying the heat shrink tubing.
 
I use harness tubibg as used on headlamp and light harness from TRF:

p/n LUCZB404/72
desc CON TUBING,72",WIRING PROTECT
price $4.95
 
[ QUOTE ]
The TR2 to TR3A didn't have anything over the sheetmetal tabs...

[/ QUOTE ]

Another tidbit for the TR3 'vault'. I always supposed that the tubing on mine had been discarded over the years and have put shrink-tube on it to protect the harness -- now I know different. Don, someday I want to see your car and take about a thousand digital pictures.

BTW -- cleaning out a tool drawer in the garage I came across a copy of 'The Triumph Tribune' from April 1993. I had saved it because one of the featured cars was my TR3A -- but the major article was Don's account of how he came to buy his TR3 back in 1958. Quite an interesting story.
 
[ QUOTE ]
danmas:

"The tubing should be just tight enough to stay on and not slip off easily".

Do you mean that that's the way it should fit prior to heating it?

[/ QUOTE ]

After heating. You may have to experiment a bit to get the correct sizes, depending on the width of the tabs.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I use harness tubibg as used on headlamp and light harness from TRF:

p/n LUCZB404/72
desc CON TUBING,72",WIRING PROTECT
price $4.95

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, this is the same as the stuff originally used on my TR4. It's not heat shrink and is held in place when the metal tab is bent over. I pulled off and saved most of the original pieces, about 1 or 1-1/4" long, to reuse when the new wiring harness is installed. There were longer sleeves of the same stuff used elsewhere on the car, such as the headlight sub-harness, etc.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
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