Wire Harness Tape

I'm re-wiring the battery harness on my Jeep. The OEM harness is plastic loom wrapped in non stick or self fusing wire harness tape. It's not the fabric type of tape and I know regular electrical tape is a complete mess in the engine compartment.

What do you guys use?

This Berry wire harness tape on Amazon says it's for "Interior Automotive" which to me says no go for the heat of the engine compartment.

I think the term you're looking for is "friction tape."

Swank Force One wrote: I think the term you're looking for is "friction tape."

I think this is what I used when I rewired our Spitfire. Five years later it still looks the same as when I installed it.

I've never had a problem with using quality electrical tape. My 89 XJ was full of regular electrical tape in the factory harness. It might have been 23 years old, but it held together fine until I had to take it apart to fix the DPO's "fixes". When it sold, the tape that I had used was still fine, and it had already lived a fairly hard life with being taken off road and submerged a few times.

This is the stuff I used. I read a few message board posts somewhere that said it's what the factory used for those harnesses. It seemed to be about the same stretchiness, but the old stuff lost its adhesive properties when I pulled it off. 23 years in the engine bay of a Jeep isn't too bad.

I don't fully wrap wires anymore, only enough w/ 3M tape to hold them secure and cover w/ this for easier access:

If you want stuff that's adhesive, Super 33 is the way to go. If you want non-adhesive tape, there are tons of different types (search non-adhesive PVC tape or friction tape to get started). Personally, I prefer Super 33.

Bryce

F4 Tape is amazing. Self fusing and stretchy. I use it to cover connectors I'm not using, put it on chafe points and to hold the ends of the looms in place. It's really resistant to heat too, I use it in engine bays all the time. Only problem with it is that you need to cut it off since its self fusing and all.

Thanks! F4 tape looks like exactly what I was looking for.

i use summit extreme tape. its held up well for years, only bods to itself, and stretches enough to really make a good wrap. one woll will do about 6 foot of harness if you do it right.

On the two cars I rewired, I used no tape.

Zipties every 4-6" on the wires, then covered with corrugated split loom, then mount the loom using those push in, clamp shut mounts. Worked like a charm, easy to undo for future upgrades or troubleshooting, and tape residue.

Dusterbd13 wrote: i use summit extreme tape. its held up well for years, only bods to itself, and stretches enough to really make a good wrap. one woll will do about 6 foot of harness if you do it right.

Not going to knock it because it looks like the same stuff as F4 tape looking at the specs. But damn I'd just buy the F4 stuff for that sort of money. You 12 feet of DEI for $10 on Summit or 36 feet of F4 for $14 dollars on Amazon.

hmm... ill have to grab a roll of F4 tape and check it out. i like cutting supply costs....

93gsxturbo wrote: On the two cars I rewired, I used no tape. Zipties every 4-6" on the wires, then covered with corrugated split loom, then mount the loom using those push in, clamp shut mounts. Worked like a charm, easy to undo for future upgrades or troubleshooting, and tape residue.

Where do you get the mounts you're referring to? I love wiring that's all tidied up.

Anyone have a source for the zip tie mounts that have a plastic stud to push into a hole in the body?

Peterson, where are you from?

AngryCorvair wrote: Peterson, where are you from?

The land of canoes.

3M temflex works well in engine bays also. I would only suggest wrapping every foot or so if you are using loom. Just enough to keep the wires manageable.

I hear emergency plumber tape works great, but I've never found any.

jere wrote: 3M temflex works well in engine bays also. I would only suggest wrapping every foot or so if you are using loom. Just enough to keep the wires manageable.

That's what I usually do when making my own harnesses but Jeep fully wrapped the loom with self fusing tape when it was new. The entire harness was done this way. I'd say something between that and what Mazda does is good. On our Mazda5 the harness along the firewall about a foot from the exhaust manifold is open with wire ties.

Powar wrote:

AngryCorvair wrote: Peterson, where are you from?

The land of canoes.

i was wondering about that. i mean, he showed up today, commented on five different threads in grammatically and topically correct yet somehow nonsensical English, for example instead of "that sucks" he said "that vacuums". i was just thinking that he read the thread in English, typed up his reply in his native tongue, google translated it to English, and posted it.

You can either order them from McMaster-Carr (www.mcmaster.com) or pull them out of vehicles at the junkyard. GM uses some nice one that you can get out in a few seconds with a flat blade screwdriver and a panel puller.

You will want one of these if you start pulling lots of clips.

I have the Blue Point version and couldnt be happier.