Braiding Machine score!

[pfarber]

I go pick up two braiding machines this Thursday!

I have tried to make a harness with the 'slip over' type braiding and I was simply NOT pleased with it. And even after I got a complete Chevy harness from Vintage Wiring of Maine (I will review it once I get to that part of the Chevvy restoration) I was not happy with the harness. So as usual... you want it done right, you do it yourself.

Making a harness is not hard.. here's a kid doing it:

[youtube]OtCrmQvGpjY[/youtube]

[pfarber]

Picked up the machines. Forget camera.. only had cell phone. This is what I had to choose from:

P03-20-14_13-31.jpg (575.36 KiB) Viewed 6973 times

A little closer:

P03-20-14_13-31[1].jpg (534.21 KiB) Viewed 6973 times

The two I have are still in the Jeep. Guy started with over 400, down to about 100 or so. Says he sells quite a few. Just sold a dozen to a guy before I go there. He said most people use them as a little demo to power off hit-n-miss engines at shows. But he did know of a few that used them for harness braiding.

Clean them up, get some thread and start braiding!

[pfarber]

Got a call from Vintage Wiring of Main about my 'post on the G' (really?). Wanting to know why I was unhappy with his harness. I have stated several other times that I was not thrilled with the Chevvy harness.. so its not a new issue/topic. I don't intend for this to be a comprehensive review, but just the main issue:

CONNECTORS.

http://www.vintagewiringofmaine.com/Home.html

"At Vintage Wiring of Maine, each vehicle wiring harness is reproduced using patterns made from an original harness. Every effort is made to maintain correctness and originality. Correct gauge wire with proper color code and tracers are used, including the use of cotton covered wire. All terminal ends are crimped and soldered. NOS and quality reproduction connectors are used to ensure a correct fit."

No. Not even close. Modern off the shelf craptastic made in china connectors are used. They are aluminum, not brass, and at the best, in a dark room, kinda sorta look like the general shape of the original connectors.

Why did I not return the harness under his 100% guarantee? Because even Joe admitted there is nothing he can do to fix the problem. ZIP, ZERO, NADA he simply doesn't have ANY NOS flag connectors for the G506/G508 trucks. So I will end up having to take the connectors off the old harness and put them onto the new one. Now this is not a huge deal if you can solder, have the proper equipment and have original connectors to transfer over. If the harness was a $200-300 item no problem. I paid over $1200 for about 35ft of harness. So yeah, there's that.

In speaking with Joe (IIRC) his concern was more with the braiding than the hardware. I have not made a detailed inspection of the harness for proper tracers/braid because I'm not ready to.

So that's the issue. Its not an attack, but an honest review of the items I received. Most people will never even notice.. I did. It was the first thing I saw (you can read about my search for the proper flag terminals in other posts).

FWIW, I have DFX drawings of all the flag terminals used on the G506/G508 and I will be getting them laser cut from brass, then tinned as per original specs. So its not that these terminals are impossible to get, you just have to get them made. No big deal.

I will not be ordering a GPW, CCKW, Ben Hur or add on turn signal/brake light harnesses from VWoM. I have braiding machines of my own and will do it myself.

If you can live with the connector issue, the VWoM are a pricey way to get a harness. If you can layout a harness you can find shops that will braid it for $5-7 per foot. But if you want a turn key harness, VWoM is all you really have... for now.