Had to pick between chasing a wiring gremlin on a 2010 Freightliner or just cutting the whole harness out and starting fresh

I spent 6 hours with a multimeter tracing a short before giving up and ordering a new harness for $400, but at least the replacement only took 90 minutes to install and now I don't have to think about it again, anyone else get stuck in the pride trap of trying to fix the old stuff?

3 comments

3 Comments

william_carter27d ago

My old '92 F-250 had a ground strap that looked fine but was corroded inside the insulation where you couldn't see it. I must have swapped out three alternators and two batteries before I finally pulled the whole harness just to find that stupid strap. Ended up spending like $80 on a new OEM harness from a guy on eBay and the truck started right up. It's funny how we'll waste a whole Saturday and a hundred bucks in parts just because we don't want to admit the old wiring is junk. I mean, there's something satisfying about fixing what's already there, but sometimes you gotta know when to call it and just swap the whole thing out.

drewsullivan27d ago

Why is it always the ground strap that plays hide and seek like that though? I get the frustration, but I think there's more to keeping old wiring than just stubbornness. If you know how to trace circuits and clean connections, you can avoid those parts-swapping rabbit holes and save the hassle of sourcing a whole new harness.

joseph_adams6627d ago

Found a bad ground hiding under the battery tray once, drove me nuts for a month.