Can we talk about the wiring hack a senior tech showed me at the hangar in Tucson?

He told me to always wrap my shield grounds in spiral-wrap instead of tape (you know, so they don't fray) and it's saved me rework on two separate harnesses this month. Has anyone else tried that trick or do you stick with the old method?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_oscar11d ago

Woah, hold on. That spiral-wrap trick is solid, but nobody's talking about what happens when you're working with mixed gauge wires in the same harness. I've seen guys wrap everything tight and then a heavy gauge ground puts pressure on the thinner shield wires, causing micro-cracks over time. I learned the hard way in a cold climate where thermal cycling makes that brittle. So here's the real hidden gem: leave a little slack in the shield wire before you wrap it, like a half inch of wiggle room. That way the spiral-wrap holds it together but the wire isn't under tension. Saves you from chasing intermittent shorts six months down the road when the weather turns.

susanm5610d ago

Wait, you actually saw that happen @the_oscar? Micro-cracks from a heavy gauge wire pressing on a shield wire sounds like one of those nightmare scenarios you wouldn't catch until it's too late. That half inch of slack trick is so simple it almost makes me mad I never thought of it myself.

jenkins.reese7d ago

Had the same issue with a trailer wiring harness a few years back. Was chasing a gremlin in the auxiliary brake controller that only showed up when it got below freezing. Couldn't figure it out until I cut open the harness and saw a 10 gauge power wire had slowly crushed a 22 gauge signal wire over time. The insulation was intact but there was a hairline fracture in the copper inside. Took me a month of swapping parts before I found it. That thermal cycling is no joke, especially when you're in a place that swings from 90 in the day to 30 at night. Your half inch slack trick would have saved me hours of headache. I started using a small piece of heat shrink over the shield wire before the wrap now, gives it a little buffer zone.