There is a product called "rubber renew" out there that I have used on a few
occasions.  Softens rubber and plastic up to almost new!  I mainly use this
when fixing laser printer paper rollers but it does loosen up brittle wiring
a bit...

David Marshall

Fast Forward Autobahn Sport Tuning
4356 Quesnel Hixon Road
Quesnel BC Canada  V2J 6Z3
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-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf
Of David Beierl
Sent: January 28, 2001 6:01 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Wire harness hardening

At 08:39 PM 1/28/2001, Zoltan wrote:
>As the headline says, I am concerned about the cracking of the wires and
>the subsequent short it can make or touching each other.  Is there a way
>to make the plastic fresh again?
>I remember there was a thread about the trims to renew by warming them up
>to 300F.  Is this possible in this case too?
>Or is there some kind of liquid to soak it in or a spray that would help?

I have a nasty feeling you're out of luck on this one.  The insulation is
probably PVC which like most plastics is by nature hard and
brittle.  Plastics as manufactured contain as much as one-third of various
stuff called "plasticizers" which impart the desired flexibility -- but
they evaporate and degrade from heat and/or ultraviolet and/or ozone.

Sorry...
d

David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"