It's the wire harness that runs along the transmission crossmember. Right now it's a mangled mess. Any advice on the best way to repair it? Thanks!

 

Splice, soder and heat shrink new wire to it.

 

Adam, that's the obvious way, but I wasn't sure if maybe that harness had plugs on the ends somewhere so I could just replace the whole thing.

 

Well, that is one I have not seen before...

 

I saw that earlier this summer when our young Daniff chewed up the brake wires on the trailer.

I'd try to find the label with the part number and research that. While seated with a bottle of Tums nearby. Might be best to remove it to find the label. Otherwise it's junkyard or repair. If choosing repair I'd be scrupulous given how wet it is likely to get and how critical it is to operation.

 

None that I know, they run directly to the pcm and other stuff. We have a squirrel infestation on my property they have chewed on a lot of electrical wire on junked cars I have laying around they even got to my trucks trailer connector harness. My dog has killed 3 so far, maybe 5 more to go.

 

I'm still trying to figure out what in the world a dog gets out of that kind of activity? Squirrels or mice make more sense to me. I have a '94 F150 that is sitting in my driveway that mice have rendered it utterly worthless scrap from the work they have done to the wiring harness and interior. It's unbelievable.

 

And I thought I had a bad dog. I hope you gave him more then a smack on the nose. My dog once chewed up one of my shoes as a puppy and after beating him with the shoe he don't mess with my shoes. Now he only eats the wifes and she won't beat him. So when you get that wiring harness out I hope you let him have it..

Now as it was already pointed out them wires run to the pcm and with most of them being signal wires that are low voltages repairing them could cause issues with the way the pcm reads the info. If you repair and the resistance of wires changes even alittle it will effect what the pcm will do. So I hope you find a new or used harness since that would be the best way to fix this problem.

After reading this I am going to go give my dog a hug.

 

That is most likely mouse work. They love the taste of the insulation.

To repair, buy some wiring of the same size as what is chewed and solder. Then stretch rubber tape around each spice to water proof.

If the copper is not damaged, you could just rubber tape the bare spots. BE sure to stretch the tape as you put it on, that will seal it.

 

Well, the dogs do hang out under the vehicles a lot, and they are still pups so are fairly destructive when it comes to chewing things. So, I'm pretty sure it was one of them in particular. Anyways, my biggest issue is that I'm really not very good at soldering. Simple, one-wire jobs are doable, but I could see this turning into an even bigger mess than it already is if I try to do it.

 

While it can be tedious, particularly when multiple wires in close proximity are involved, soldering them is more fear than difficult. Strip the insulation back, coat the wire with flux, heat up a good soldering iron (I have my father's old Weller gun) and pre-heat the wire a bit. Then coat the tip of the gun with solder. With the solder sitting molten on the tip touch it to the wire and let the heat soak into the wire. When the wire reaches the right temp is just sucks the solder in and coats it. Do that with both ends to be soldered and once you have that lay them together (this can be difficult to do) and heat them up. When they reach temp they'll glue themselves together. A good solder job won't let go without heating it. I would recommend getting good heat shrink (don't forget to slide it up onto the wire before soldering ) and heat shrink it to keep moisture out.

And check those dogs' teeth for particulate matter.

 

Try some cayenne pepper in the area after the repair is made. They won't mess with it again with a whiff, As in "Cool hand Luke".

 

You can buy a mini vice at harbor freight that has a magnetic mount. Stick that under the truck in a convent place to hold the wires where they can be manipulated and soldered. Be sure to wear eye/ face protection, solder will run like water when hot.