I am doing a complete rebuild and already have my harnesses out of truck.
Fuse block is in great shape but the haness itself is stiff.
I took and stripped old tape off harness and all the wires are plyable and in good shape. No splices or corrossion.
My question is would it be alright to retape the harness and reuse, and what type of electrical tape would you use. Dont want tape to start unravelling like most brands seem to do. Any help would be great.

 

Ford didn't use an electrical tape persay.

They used a plyable tape that "clinged" to itself...... rather than stick to itself.

I know where to get orange & Yellow (which is used for contruction areas) but, I don't know where you get this black vinyl.

 

Shrink wrap may work well for you too.

 

I would use that "stuff" that has a slit in it. You open it up and push the wires in it. It is plastic and comes in different diameters. I just can't think of the correct name at the moment. It has groves so it is flexible.

 

I have been doing a search on vinyl pressure sensitive and boy is it high doller, 10.00 a 100ft roll and up.
I did find a site that only sells tape products and they have this harness tape,They also say that it meets ford specs.
It is only .65 for a 108ft roll. Wow what a diff. in price.
I e-mailed them to confirm pricing and i asked if i can post there site in this forum for future users to check out.

I forgot to tell you earlyer that this is a 7 mil. tape.
Waiting for responce from company before i make up my mind on how i will go.
Thank you all for the posts.
(This site rocks)

 

What Mike is talking about is called, "split loom." It's good stuff and has been around a long time. The install is really easy, if you know the trick. Instead of trying to push the wires in the loom, fold the loom back on itself, so the slit opens up. Lay your wires in, then roll the loom onto the wires - keeping the fold as you roll the loom. Goes really fast that way. Then just snip it when you get to the end. Kind of hard to describe.

As far as the pressure sensitive tape goes - I put it on if it's required, but it is expensive and hard to work with. It's a self vulcanizing rubber type stuff. One mistake and it lookes bad!

3M has two types that are good: Scotch Super 33 and Scotch Super 88. I prefer the 88. It's weather, temp. and UV resistant and best of all - really easy to work with. It costs a bit more than cheap electrical tape, but not much more, ( about $4 or 5 a roll).

If you put the loom on the wires and then tape it up with Super 88, you won't have problems. Couple tricks: try and keep the loom bent in roughly the shape you want as you tape. It will stay in this shape and the stress will be taken by the loom and not the wires. Keep a bit of stretch on the tape as you roll it on, untill you get to the end. About the last inch of so, unroll it gently, don't pull, and just lay it down. It will stick that way and not produce a flag after a couple weeks.