1959 Buick Invicta

[Guest WalterEh]

Was cleaning up the carburetor today.

Wiring bundle crumbled and fell apart in my hand!

Anyway - to order a new one, I need to know the name of the wire and contacts that attach something in the car (wires wrapped in bundle which joins another bundle) to the

Carburetor Starter Switch Terminal Cap.

Anybody know this?:confused:

[Guest Jim_Edwards]

Was cleaning up the carburetor today.

Wiring bundle crumbled and fell apart in my hand!

Anyway - to order a new one, I need to know the name of the wire and contacts that attach something in the car (wires wrapped in bundle which joins another bundle) to the

Carburetor Starter Switch Terminal Cap.

Anybody know this?:confused:

These should help you identify what you attempted to describe: 1959 Buick Service Manuals Le Sabre Electra 225 Invicta - eBay (item 360296605688 end time Dec-31-10 09:20:30 PST)

[bhclark]

Walter,

I've posted your request over on buick-59.com as well!

[Rusty_OToole]

Walter, under hood wiring often deteriorates before the rest of the car due to heat, gas, etc. You may be able to just replace the damaged wires and the rest of the car is OK. You will have to trace the wires and replace the bad parts. A wiring diagram will help.

[Guest WalterEh]

Already have the shop manuals, no help there.

Any ideas relative to best type of wire to use?

I am sure there are differences in resistance, etc.

Walt

[Larry Schramm]

Just a crazy suggestion is to go to a u-pull em salvage yard and get a harness a large current like 80's GM car. Take the harness apart and lay it out on the drive. That way you can pick and choose wires with a lot of colors and lengths so the colors match and maybe you will get connectors and terminals that are already pre crimped. I actually have a big box full of old wiring harness that I keep to get the right wire when I am doing a wiring repair.

[Guest Jim_Edwards]

Already have the shop manuals, no help there.

Any ideas relative to best type of wire to use?

I am sure there are differences in resistance, etc.

Walt

Give these guys a call, they specialize in GM wiring harnesses.

GM WIRING HARNESSES - GM SPARK PLUG WIRES - GM BATTERY CABLES - GM SWITCHES and more

Jim

[bhclark]

Here's a suggestiong received via Barry on the B-59 boards.

This sounds like the carb switch connection. That is the end of the bundle. From there it goes back about a foot then has a yellow wire that goes to the coil, then back about 6 more inches to the ignition resistor. It has a yellow wire on the bottom of the resistor and a red wire on the top of the resistor. From there it goes inside and all the way back to the firewall plug. He's not going to buy just that part.

He needs to go back to where the harness is in good condition. Probably only the 12 inches or so at the ignition coil. Someone needs to send him that much wire along with the plastic connector that fits. There are others on the car that are the same, just won't have the same wire colors or color of connector.

Crimp an uninsulated connector on one wire, slip a proper sized piece of shrink tube up the wire and past the connector, crimp the other wire into the opposite end of the butt connector, solder the connection if you like, then using a hair dryer on high or a heat gun if you have one and slip the shrink tube over the connector and heat it with the dryer to shrink the tube and make a nice connection. Tape it up with electrical tape and you're ready to go.

Repeat for the second wire.

[Guest Jim_Edwards]

Candidly it is probably time to replace the entire engine compartment harness for a variety of reasons not the least of which would be the hardening of all the jackets (insulation) from both age and engine heat. Insulation on wiring now 52 years old will have become brittle and probably has cracks that are going to be leading to one electrical problem after another, including crumbling connectors. Easier and less frustrating in the long run to just get it over with all at once.

Jim

[bhclark]

You're looking at about $800-1000 for a new engine harness, btw.

Not a commonly requested part.

[Guest WalterEh]

Thanks to everyone for their assistance with this one, I know when I started calling parts places and got a kind of huh?? when I told them what I needed that it would not be an easy fix.

Walt

[Rusty_OToole]

Have you inspected the underhood wiring? How bad is it? If it is just those 2 wires it should not be a problem to fix. All you need is some wire of the same gauge (size) or larger and the appropriate connectors for the end.

If you are doing a 100 point restoration you will need the same color code and the identical plug on the end but other than that, should be no problem.

[bhclark]

You MIGHT be able to buy just the connector from YnZ's Yesterdays Parts | Auto Wiring Harness | (909)798-1498

I've never seen it available from anyone.

I actually need 2 of them. I just put on flat female connectors and crimped them on.

After all, you can't see it under the air cleaner anyway.

[Guest Jim_Edwards]

You're looking at about $800-1000 for a new engine harness, btw.

Not a commonly requested part.

Well Brian that is not correct. Correct engine compartment wiring reproduction sets for 1959 Buicks are $264.00 from Narragansett Reproductions. If one were to be replacing 100% of all wiring harnesses for a fully accessorized car then it probably would run upward to $800 - $1,700. If one isn't concerned about points judging there are engine compartment only wiring harness sets that can be purchased for less than $250.00.

http://www.narragansettreproductions.com/partspdfs/parts-gm.pdf

Old wiring under the hood and even under the dash can be asking for a boatload of trouble, including fires. All it takes is one wire with a crumbling jacket to ground out and it can be all over before you can get the hood up. Guess it just depends on how much risk one is willing to take with respect to potential fires and being unexpectedly stranded or seeing the house go with the car.

Jim

Edited December 31, 2010 by Jim_Edwards (see edit history)

[bhclark]

Wow...that's a helluva deal compared to ynz. They quoted over 2K for everything!

Thanks for the link.

[Guest Jim_Edwards]

Wow...that's a helluva deal compared to ynz. They quoted over 2K for everything!

Thanks for the link.

You're welcome. Their pricing for '59 Buick harnesses are probably unbeatable. What I can't figure out is why some harnesses for other brand vehicles are through the roof, especially when I know for a fact they are less complicated and the market volume potential would be about the same as a '59 Buick. Makes no sense.

Setting up a pin board to layout the harness is no real big deal and once done would be available to do the next order. Most certainly the putting a color code stripe on wire takes a pretty darn simple machine, wouldn't be too difficult to build a small one out of junk laying around in the garage. The big deal can be the connectors used if they are of the molded type, however even many of those have been reproduced and are readily available.

Jim

[Guest WalterEh]

Thanks to everyone again

Connectors actually are in very good shape, not a problem to remove and resolder, and having had one other car (not antique) burn from an engine compartment electrical fire, I believe I will take the advice to just replace the wiring, as you say, it is 50 some years old now.

Walt