At 02:49 PM 11/14/2015, David Clarkson wrote:
>Has anyone out there got a good write up on 
>building late model vanagon, 86�91 with power 
>mirrors and windows, wiring harnesses?  I have 
>door locks not working properly one window that 
>doesn't work and worn-out speaker wires at a 
>minimum. It's time to start over and I can't 
>find anywhere to just buy these harnesses. I 
>guess the easiest thing to do would be to 
>extract the old harness measure each color 
>wiring, and come up with a good way to bind the 
>wiring together and protect it where the door 
>opens and closes as much as possible.  My 
>vehicle is a 1990 and it has electric

I just rebuilt a door harness.  One of the lock 
wires had broken for the second time, and six or 
seven others had insulation cracked across in the 
flex area.  I used sealed (shrink/adhesive) crimp connectors from Fastenal.

First, the wires were clipped where they enter 
the rubber tube that crosses the hinge inside the 
air duct, and the tube was extracted at both ends 
allowing it to be pulled off the harness 
wires.  Then the harness was removed from the 
door and laid out.  The harness travels 
horizontally along the door and then bends 
sharply downward for about six inches before 
entering the rubber tube.  The plastic covering 
was removed from this area so that the 
reconnections could be made there, staggering them over the area.

Each set of wires in turn was remade, six inches 
longer than the original; then bundled with 
shrink tubing past the ends of the crimp 
connectors.  The long ends were lightly twisted 
together and a collar of shrink tubing placed on 
the end to secure it.  For the heavier wires 
Napa/Belden automotive wire was used.  It has 
fewer strands than the original`and may not last 
as long in flex service.  For the 0.5 mm^2 
(equivalent to 19 AWG) wires in the mirror 
harness, reclaimed wire from old harnesses was 
used so as not to bulk up the harness with 18 
AWG.  In my opinion 20 AWG would suffice if 
necessary.  Wire color codes were followed as 
closely as practical given available wire, and 
the transitions noted.  When complete, the 
harness ends were bound together and connected to 
a heavy copper fishing wire using adhesive-lined shrink tubing.

The wires to be fed through the tube, and the 
inside of the tube, were powdered with ground 
soapstone from a weldor's marking pencil.  The 
fishing wire was threaded through the hole from 
the inside of the door into the air duct and out 
to open air.  The tube was placed over it and 
worked into place through the hole, and the wires 
were then fed through by pulling on the fishing 
wire while feeding/guiding into the tube from 
inside the door.   The tube was then seated in 
the other hole and an attempt made to finish 
fishing the wires through.  This proved 
impossible, so the wires were fished completely 
through in open air, fed through the second hole, 
and then the tube seated into the hole.  The 
sub-harnesses were then separated one at a time 
from the bundle and crimped onto the pigtails of their respective connectors.

The door side of the harness was then 
reconnected, and after successful testing was 
dressed and re-secured with zip ties, and checked 
for interference with the window.

Yours,
David