How a wiring harness works

ender2664 · 09-16-2016, 08:49 AM

Couldn't decide if this should be in the electronics section or here...
Since their are many individual wires in the harness if one wire fails the rest don't necessarily fail, correct?
I was told, but does not make sense to me, if even one wire in a harness becomes damaged or fails that the whole harness shuts down. Is that correct?

MovieGuy · 09-16-2016, 08:59 AM

Only the wire that fails fails. It can be pushed out with a "pin pusher" and replaced. But typically they just replace the entire harness for the one wire.
I was a mechanical electrician for the BNSF for 39 years and worked with a lot of harnesses.

Darth Martel · 09-16-2016, 09:02 AM

I modified engine harnesses for GM's hybrid testing. No, one wire failing does not mean the whole harness fails. If one vain in your body gets blocked do you quit pumping blood through to the rest of your body?

HumanWiki · 09-16-2016, 09:25 AM

This is also true for the data cabling I work with. One conductor failing will not cause the whole cable run to fail. You may not be able to use the cable run because the system needs all the conductors up, but that's the demand of the device using it, not the cable/harness itself. Though, for data cabling, it's much harder to swap one conductor out due to it being hundreds of feet, twisted pair and sheathed. So, you run more cables than you need and if one conductor breaks, you just move to another set. No need to replace the whole run. FiberOp is similar. You can have your TX snap and your RX is fine. So you can move your TX over to another fiber and it's back up w/o needing to also move over the RX or have an entirely new fiber run pulled.

2SSRS@Gen5diy · 09-16-2016, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darth Martel

I modified engine harnesses for GM's hybrid testing. No, one wire failing does not mean the whole harness fails. If one vain in your body gets blocked do you quit pumping blood through to the rest of your body?

What happens if its the ground wire, does that mean its still works? as you know any thing that grounds off that ground will not work, so one wire can make more then one thing not work. LOL

BahamaTodd · 09-16-2016, 10:52 AM

You are making this much more complicated than it really is. A wiring harness is just a collection of wires bundled together because they happen to be following the same path. They might be related to each other or might not be.

MovieGuy · 09-16-2016, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2SSRS@Gen5diy

What happens if its the ground wire, does that mean its still works? as you know any thing that grounds off that ground will not work, so one wire can make more then one thing not work. LOL

There is one in every crowd

09-16-2016, 08:49 AM	#1
ender2664 Account Suspended Drives: 2016 2SS Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: Palm Desert Posts: 2,353	How a wiring harness works Couldn't decide if this should be in the electronics section or here... Since their are many individual wires in the harness if one wire fails the rest don't necessarily fail, correct? I was told, but does not make sense to me, if even one wire in a harness becomes damaged or fails that the whole harness shuts down. Is that correct?

09-16-2016, 08:59 AM	#2
MovieGuy Drives: 2016 Camaro 1LT Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Topeka KS Posts: 892	Only the wire that fails fails. It can be pushed out with a "pin pusher" and replaced. But typically they just replace the entire harness for the one wire. I was a mechanical electrician for the BNSF for 39 years and worked with a lot of harnesses. __________________ Life after retirement

09-16-2016, 09:02 AM	#3
Darth Martel Darth Martel Drives: Black 1SS with 20% tinted windows Join Date: May 2009 Location: Bizzaroland Posts: 1,495	I modified engine harnesses for GM's hybrid testing. No, one wire failing does not mean the whole harness fails. If one vain in your body gets blocked do you quit pumping blood through to the rest of your body? __________________ 2016 Black 1SS w/ MRC, low-gloss black wheels, auto trans. Self-created custom Dark Knight Edition accents. Rotofab CAI with dry filter and sound tube delete, PRAY ported intake manifold and throttle body, Texas Speed cam, Stainless Works headers and exhaust, Skid Mark garage E85 kit, JMS fuel pump voltage booster, Circle D torque converter. Custom E85/mod tune by Jannetty Racing.

09-16-2016, 09:25 AM	#4
HumanWiki Drives: Car Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Place Posts: 3,361	This is also true for the data cabling I work with. One conductor failing will not cause the whole cable run to fail. You may not be able to use the cable run because the system needs all the conductors up, but that's the demand of the device using it, not the cable/harness itself. Though, for data cabling, it's much harder to swap one conductor out due to it being hundreds of feet, twisted pair and sheathed. So, you run more cables than you need and if one conductor breaks, you just move to another set. No need to replace the whole run. FiberOp is similar. You can have your TX snap and your RX is fine. So you can move your TX over to another fiber and it's back up w/o needing to also move over the RX or have an entirely new fiber run pulled.

09-16-2016, 10:52 AM	#6
BahamaTodd Drives: 08 Accord V6/M6 / 04 Canyon Z71 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Palm Beach, FL Posts: 1,078	You are making this much more complicated than it really is. A wiring harness is just a collection of wires bundled together because they happen to be following the same path. They might be related to each other or might not be.

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