When redoing your wiring harnesses, you DO NOT want to use regular vinyl electrical tape. With engine heat and vapors from oil and gas, it will dissolve into a sticky gooey mess. When you unwrap it again, you'll be spending lots of time wiping down the wiring with a solvent soaked rag
TWO products you want to use.
Proper Wiring Harness Tape like the OEM stuff. No adhesive, but has a nice “cling” as you wrap and stretch on harness. Conforms very well to irregularities. Easy to work with. On Amazon and eBay - shop around. http://www.amazon.com/Corve...=wiring+harness+tape
Your local auto restoration shop for Mustangs/Camaros etc. may have a roll on the wall. I found it locally at The Mustang Shop - $7.50 for a 100' roll (NO ridiculous shipping charges to Canada YAY!)
Because the harness tape is not sticky, it will unravel with time unless you “lock down” the ends where you start and end the wrapping. Use 3M Friction Tape #3407NA for this. It a black fabric tape like the OEM stuff you found when you unwrapped the harness. Check Home Depot and Lowes (in Canada has it) for the product. http://www.lowes.ca/electri...?linkloc=reCanonical
Thanks for posting this. I was wondering what they used for the looms, seeing as how I have an Amazon Prime account I'll probably just order it.I'm gonna need a few rolls, gonna be redoing the harness for my 350 swap.
I design harnesses everyday, the tape is definitely sticky on one side The quality of the tape just varies wildly depending on the source.
GM and many other manufacturers are currently using a few brands, the more common ones are Nitto Denko and Tesa. The type of tape varies based on location in the car, need for high temperature environment, noise reduction, abrasion resistance, etc. I can get an exact part number tomorrow for black vinyl tape, I have a few rolls in my desk at work. It's MUCH nicer than anything you can buy in an auto parts store.
Isn't it strange that after a bombing, everyone blames the bomber, his upbringing, his environment, his culture, his mental state but … after a shooting, the problem is the gun?
When redoing your wiring harnesses, you DO NOT want to use regular vinyl electrical tape. With engine heat and vapors from oil and gas, it will dissolve into a sticky gooey mess.
Nice post fierosound, I had figured out the wire loom for the engine bay needed to be High Temp. but hadn't considered the tape? So I rewrapped mine before I installed the cradle assembly.
I was serching youtube to find something on how to tie off the ends of the non adhesive tape ,but couldn't find anything, I found this though. Looks a little unsafe though? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MehjltOq-jc
General purpose black vinyl tape (good to 80 Celsius) - Nitto Denko 2119TV
Engine harness tape -
Nitto Denko 2239FR Coroplast 512 Great Lakes Tape 4049 EX
Have you got any suggestions where to buy some of those Nitto Denko harness tapes you mentioned? I did some digging and didn't come up with anything that looked viable.
Thanks for looking into it. Let me know what you turn up.
I did find Nitto Denko's website and searched around a bunch, but was not able to find any reference to either of the part numbers you listed above. Are those numbers off the roll core? Maybe they've changed their part numbers since those rolls got buried in your desk?
I found the rest of the companies on-line as well, but it seems they're all geared up to sell to large manufacturers (like auto producers) and not onesie-twosie retail consumers like me. Makes sense, but usually there's an outlet for that kind of situation. I've just not turned it up.
So a question for you guys that used that used the Corvette Wire Harness Tape... Is it completely devoid of adhesive? No sticky at all on either side?
I understand that it will cling to itself reasonably well when you stretch it onto a harness as you wrap it, but what happens in a few days? Can you peel it off as easily as you put it on?
I've got a harness I want to wrap and the original tape came off pretty easily, even after 40 years. Since the old stuff came off so easy, I'm not sure if it ever had adhesive, or if it did but it has all dried up and turned to dust since it's so old. The old stuff seemed to work well and I'd like to recreate that if possible.
Now for something different...The branched portion of the harness which is suspended via metal clip , adjacent to the back cylinders of the 2.8 , looked frightful and the wires were exposed. I cleaned the wiring carefully with a white rag and solvent, then alcohol and wrapped that branch with a silver tape purchased at NAPA. It feels metallic and is quite sticky . The fix was made about 8 years ago andI have been pleased with strength and protection. Be careful if you go this route . It is not the silver colored "duck" tape. I think I have seen this tape in H Depot. It is about $10 per roll. Yes, I imagine it is not a good selection for future removal, but worked well in this application IMO.
The harnesses in the engine bay and under the front of the car are covered with wire loom. This non-sticky tape is clingy and is intended for the harnesses inside the interior under the dash etc. The tape will unravel - which is why you need the friction tape at the ends where you wrapped the harness to stop this.
[This message has been edited by fierosound (edited 03-13-2015).]
So a question for you guys that used that used the Corvette Wire Harness Tape... Is it completely devoid of adhesive? No sticky at all on either side?
I understand that it will cling to itself reasonably well when you stretch it onto a harness as you wrap it, but what happens in a few days? Can you peel it off as easily as you put it on?
I've got a harness I want to wrap and the original tape came off pretty easily, even after 40 years. Since the old stuff came off so easy, I'm not sure if it ever had adhesive, or if it did but it has all dried up and turned to dust since it's so old. The old stuff seemed to work well and I'd like to recreate that if possible.
The Corvette tape was sticky on one side, similar to electric tape when I used it. I would stretch and pull it as you suggested and it hasn't unraveled on me.... yet. I recently had to strip a portion of my harness and the Corvette tape stuck well, I had to use the utility knife a few times to speed up the removal process.
I used tie-straps and 3M 88 tape on the ends of runs, Somewhere I think I read where Fieroguru suggested heat shrink tube, to finish off the ends. After fussing with removing the corvette tape I didn't bother with any thing special, except a couple of extra wraps on the loom ends. I may regret it latter
That was interesting how they would wrap the harness in a forward direction, then back wrap over the gaps. I think my wrist joints would fail, doing that for 8 hours a day!
Thanks again for the help guys. I'm going to order some of the non-sticky stuff and see how it turns out.
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Originally posted by Jims88: I think my wrist joints would fail, doing that for 8 hours a day!
In my web searching, I saw a couple references to "light" or "easy" release when being pulled off the roll with the intention of reducing or preventing carpel tunnel issues. It's not just you!
Never did hear back from them. The rolls are also long gone, I asked the guy who sits where my old desk was in Michigan, and he said they had cleaned it out and sent the remainder back to the factory.
The part numbers may be older ones. They came in a box of 100 rolls, we had used them for reworking some prototypes about a year ago.
The quality of the tape just varies wildly depending on the source. 
