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MG MGA - cloth wiring harnes colors

What is the color of the stripe that goes around the black cloth wiring harness on original cars?

Thanks, George.

G Goeppner

George, On the early 1500 cars with the cloth covered individual wires the Harness overbraid is black with a brown trace and a white trace. As for later harnesses I have no idea. The reason I know what the early 1500 harness looks like, is that I have one.
James Johanski

MGA harness cloth cover is black with yellow (gold) intermittent bumble bee stripes. I would have to go count threads to tell you how many treads are in the yellow stripe. Some concours enthusiasts go ape over such minor details. For me if it's black with yellow strips and has the right wires I'm happy.

I have not heard of the early rubber wire units having different cloth cover design, but I don't recall looking at an original one up close (at least not since my '56 in '68), so I couldn't swear on it one way or the other.

If anyone has an original early MGA harness with rubber insulated wires, I would like to see it and get some close up pictures. The rubber covered wires were all black rubber insulated with individual cloth braid covers with the colors and stripes woven into the braid. These are commonly so faded that you have to cut the outer cover back some to find less faded parts of the wire sleeves to tell what color they are.
Barney Gaylord

Barney,
Todd Clark also verifies my statement of "black with a brown and white trace" in his rebuild manual. Additionally, Autosparks in the UK also verifies this statement. They built an early replacement harness for me recently. I will post a picture when I return from the trip I am on.
I believe that the next generation (I do not know where the cutoff was)harness has the black jacket with the yellow trace.
I cannot recall what Clausager says, but he is not always correct, even by his own admission.
Of course for the practical user this is all just ridiculus trivia.
James Johanski

Thanks for the comments. The harness I recently purchased from SF has the brown-white trace over the black. I couldn't find any information in Clausager, Green, Vitrakis, etc. A few pictures on Barney's website show the brown-white combination, but I think these were on restored cars. James J. I'd appreciate the picture when you get the time.
Thanks again!
G Goeppner

Does anyone know of a vendor that will wrap a custom wiring harness with cloth wrap? I am planning to make one that has provision for a couple more fuses, lighting relays, alternator, electric tach, and, possibly including a backup light utilizing the Sierra 5 speed transmission switch.

Thanks,
Steve
Steve Brandt

Steve, have a look at the Autosparks website that James J. mentions above. It looked like they can make a custom wiring harness.

George
G Goeppner

George, I went into my loft to find the remains of my original harness. I have about 18 inches left of the harness from my 1500. It has PVC wires, not the fabric covered rubber. The car is a late '56 1500 but when I got it there were mixed parts from a '59 so I'm not sure which year the wiring is from. It was ratty when I got the car in the late seventies so I believe the harness to be factory original. As you can see in the photo, there are 2 brown threads and 1 white or light beige thread next to each other as tracers.

I took a photo for you. Hope this helps.

Chuck

P.S. I didn't see you at the BCU meet this year.

Chuck Schaefer

For what its worth, the TF's had black with a yellow trace. I still have the original loom on my 1955 car.

Cheers,
Matthew.
Matthew Magilton

Chuck, thanks for the picture. I'm satisfied that my new harness is a reasonable reproduction of the original. My old harness was a mix of bits so I couldn't rely on it to determine what was original.
Missed the BCU this year, only the second one that I haven't attended. I was in Puerto Vallarto Mexico; had to leave the Chicago area to get some summer!
George
G Goeppner

"What is the color of the stripe that goes around the black cloth wiring harness on original cars?"

George,
You're not going Concours Crazy on us, are you? :)

My new harness was in a plastic bag, on the shelf in front of a window for so long that the black fabric had faded to grey. I wound up dyeing it in big pot using RIT fabric dye to return it to black. The stripe is a little off color now. No craziness here...

Gerry
G T Foster

Hey Gerry, LOL, that's a good story. No, not building a concours car, but if its just as easy to get it "right", why not....

Cheers
G Goeppner

This thread was discussed between 29/09/2009 and 01/10/2009

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