Wiring Loom or Harness

[timberstone]

Making some notes in preparation for replacement of the replacement wiring harness which itself is 40+ years old.
The main question is whether all black should the the color of threads for the outer wrapping.
We think we remember that when the "original" wiring was removed that every stranded lead was insulated with cotton braid and the bundled leads were also outer wrapped mostly with black cotton that had colored tracers. That was sometime between 1976 and 1983. Is not known whether the previous owners installed this as replacement since its very frayed appearance could have made it "original".
At the time in the 80's when this was replaced, the loom harness that was commercially available did not come wrapped with black "cloth" but was wrapped with black PVC tape. Took it to an aviation electronics supplier and there the PVC tape was over-wrapped with Dacron threaded with multi-colored traces that made it appear similar to the one removed.
Now we see wiring harness looms bundled with ballistic nylon, or dacron, of mostly black color and also showing multi-colored trace threads in the outer wrapping. The inner wire strands are braided "cloth" of multi-colors that are based upon Lucas wiring charts that are hopefully correct.
Some major suppliers have the multi-colored threads trace through the outer wrap, but some suppliers have the outer wrap just all black. We do not see anywhere in the Lucas instructions, manuals and charts about the color and composition of the outer wrapping of the Loom harness bundle of wires.
Maybe there is some reference somewhere that could be pointed out.
Octagonally yours,
Boxley (Robert and MGTC0820)

[jeffnewey]

I understand the original cotton outer cover was black with a brown tracer..a company here in Australia does a very accurate harness with all wires colour coded....very happy with the one in my early car (TC0489)
Jeff Newey
Australia

[timberstone]

Yes, we are talking about the early TC's as distinguished from later years. Maybe there were added outer wrapping thread colors over the years of production ?
Would be nice to know chronology of colors for the outer wrappings of the wiring harness loom.
Octagonally yours,
BOXLEY (Robert and MGTC0820)

[Black Sheep TC]

Have you checked with AutoSparks, I got mine from them. Everything matches up as per the original wiring diagrams. The over braid is woven cotton as well as the individual wires. I made my own turn signal harness which matched the colors but the schematic is the same as the MGA as that was the signal box I sourced. The wires for that came from The Complete Automobilist. The AutoSparks harness and battery cables were very reasonably priced and shipped quickly.