Rewiring Muscle Cars
Harness reproduction business has unique challenges

By Ken Hanna,
President, Lectric Limited

Lectric Limited, is the oldest manufacturer of accurate "reproduction"
1953-82 Corvette wire harnesses in the world. Some might ask,
"What does the term reproduction mean?" Our explanation is simple.
Lectric Limited harnesses accurately duplicate, in every detail, the way a
Corvette harness was originally manufactured. Details like correct wire
specifications (type, gauge and color shade), OEM terminals, connectors
(configuration, material and color) are essential to Corvette owners when
their cars are being judged for originality at car shows.

Michael D'Alessio, Lectric Limited's shop foreman, set-up
the Artos CS26 machine to cut, strip and terminate a wire
in one quick operation. This machine is used daily for the
bulk of the cutting and stripping operations.

So how is this different from what any wire harness manufacturer
must do for its customers. The main difference is our customers
have no specifications. All they know is that they want a wire harness
that is identical to the one that was originally on their car when it left
the factory, sometimes decades before. They want to make sure that
when their car is being judged, no points will be deducted for non-originality.

This sounds like an impossible task. Where do you find specifications
to accurately reproduce a 30-year old harness? When we first started doing this,
we thought we could simply duplicate from a sample. We started our research
by obtaining original sample harnesses from automotive swap meets, junkyards,
and potential customers. However, in most cases, these sample harnesses were cut,
burned, modified and/or incomplete. Pristine samples, to meet our research needs,
were nonexistent.

We soon realized that it would be virtually impossible for us to provide our
customer with an accurate harness, without first obtaining the original factory
drawings. It took many years and countless hours of research, but eventually
we were able to identify, locate and obtain these factory harness drawings.
With these tools in hand, we thought we had overcome our biggest obstacle.
But that was just the first step.

Donna Nutile, uses the new Stapla Ultrasonic Splice
Welder to fuse wires together without using heat or a splice clip.

When Lectric Limited was founded, only the smaller wire harnesses were
built in-house. The larger, more complex harnesses were built by sub-contractors.
The biggest problem was that sub-contractors didn't understand how important
it was to make an "accurate-to-original specification" harness. They would make
substitutions when components became obsolete. But in the automotive restoration
market, accuracy is everything. If it's not accurate, it is unacceptable. It soon
became clear that in order for the job to be done right, it had to be done in-house.

Out of the garage, and the rest Is history

When Lectric Limited was still in its infancy, learning the ropes of the wire harness
industry, there was no inventory of original components, no machinery; in fact,
there wasn't even a building. But seeing the high demand for accurate reproduction
harnesses, potential sales could justify the costs involved in buying equipment and
components. The company consisted of two wire harness assemblers and one
receptionist/bookkeeper. The manufacturing facility was my garage. The equipment
we used was a handful of wire cutters, wire strippers, hand crimpers and two soldering
irons. Raw materials consisted of thousand foot spools of wire, small quantities of
Packard connectors and loose piece Packard terminals.

Steve Berg terminating exact reproduction ignition
wires using a 5-ton press.

In the old days, production time for a single Corvette dash harness could
take up to eight hours, since it was all hand-assembled. All wire was
hand measured, hand cut, hand stripped and hand terminated. The
harnesses were then laid out on sheets of plywood with nails used as
junction positioning. All connector blocking was done without the aid of
circuit testing. This made it necessary to have three separate inspections to
insure that terminal insertion was correct.

As the years progressed, we began to generate more sales due to the high
demand for Corvette wire harnesses, as well as to an expanded product
line which included Camaro, Chevelle, GTO, 1955-57 Chevrolet, and
other GM wire harnesses. The company also began an aggressive
marketing program. Automation became a necessity.

Machinery is organized to maximize space and efficiency.

We took the first step towards automation when we purchased a
Kenco three-ton terminal press and an Artos CS26 wire cutter.
We paid a premium price for this equipment, but we knew that the
high cost would be offset by the reduction in terminating time.

Two years later, in 1989, the company moved out of my garage into
a two-story facility in Justice, Illinois. Although the building was
shared with another business, the increased square footage allowed
us to grow rapidly. Classic car restoration was big business. We
were producing harnesses at full-speed. Production could barely
keep up with demand as individual automotive restorers and
restoration shops scurried to buy wire harnesses, spark plug wire sets,
and battery cables.

Most of the taped harnesses are wrapped using an
automated taping machine.

After the ignition wires are terminated, a booting
machine, operated by air, slides a spark plug boot over
the terminal.

We soon realized that additional terminal presses were needed,
and that they were very expensive. I began to look for a source
of used presses, terminal applicators and other machinery.
Except for word of mouth and a few local auctions, used machinery,
at a reasonable price, was hard to come by. We needed to be creative.

I first consulted the Thomas Register and compiled a mailing list
of harness manufacturers. With this list, I began cold-calling and
mailing these companies to request lists of available surplus machinery,
tooling, Packard components, etc. I uncovered some machinery and
components but not enough to justify the time invested.

Greg Hanna, Lectric Limited's General Manager,
performing a quality control check of a crimped terminal's
crimp height and crimp width.

Soon after this, the Wiring Harness Manufacturer's Association
(WHMA) came into existence; and Wiring Harness News became
another avenue for reaching wiring harness manufacturers.

One of the biggest boosts to our machinery inventory was a direct
result of the ads placed in Wiring Harness News. At first, I wasn't
sure how well the ads would do. But after only a short time, I was
getting calls from all over the country from companies wanting to
sell me their surplus machinery and Packard components. The lists
of surplus Packard components were not expected, but proved to be
invaluable. We were able to buy machinery at well-below market price.

Wire management is critical when using numerous
wire types, gauges and colors.

Each harness Joanne Woodworth assembles is
performed on a custom jig and 100% circuit tested
using a circuit analyzer.

I've also sold/traded some of our machinery that way. It's a great
way for companies to help each other out. With the help of
Wiring Harness News, Lectric Limited currently operates 80 presses
with dedicated terminal applicators, three wire cutting machines, a
molding machine, and other miscellaneous tooling. In addition, all
harnesses are built on harness layout boards. These boards incorporate
connector test fixtures wired into circuit analyzers. These analyzers are
programmed with circuit test parameters for each individual harness.
With the new equipment, it was possible to discontinue the time consuming
three-step inspection procedure, without sacrificing quality.

Material acquisition process gets an overhaul

With increased manufacturing capabilities and improved methods,
our next goal was to improve our component purchasing methods.
As more of the harness manufacturing was brought in-house, it
became essential to stock more components. Since we were reproducing
GM wire harnesses, 99% of the terminals and connectors came from
Packard Electric. This meant that we could "one-stop-shop" and acquire
most of the necessary components directly from Packard. Although these
components were expensive, they were available.

Most of the terminating presses have dedicated dies and
terminals to avoid change-over delays.

In time however, Packard began to aggressively obsolete some of
its older components, many of which were essential to our product
line. We then devised a software program utilizing lists of surplus
Packard components. This program was a database compilation of
surplus Packard products including lists submitted by other companies
hoping to discard obsolete inventory, and merged with Pioneer/Packard's
current product pricing catalog. This tool helps determine availability of
components and whether a component is obsolete, as well as its current
pricing, and quantity restrictions. Once this information is reviewed,
we can determine whether or not to purchase a component from
Pioneer/Packard or another company's surplus list. This procedure
benefits us in two ways. It allows us to maximize our purchasing buying
power, and to build a "strategic" inventory of components should Packard
decide to obsolete components.

In some instances, the components (terminals, fasteners, connectors, etc.)
used to manufacture our products have been physically changed or have
been discontinued for many years, and surplus inventory is non-existent.
In these cases, we have been forced to re-tool many Packard components
in order to maintain a high level of product accuracy and function.

Another view of Lectric Limited's shop area.

Today, Lectric Limited has an extensive computerized database
and inventory of Packard connectors and terminals. Since the
development of the Packard component database, research time
for new products has been reduced by 85 percent.

We can also use the Packard database to help other companies
to do research. Quite often, this reciprocal exchange of information
has led other companies to send us a list of their surplus components,
and vice-versa.

We also have a used machinery program. We were buying and
selling so many pieces of used/surplus machinery, this activity
just evolved into a side business. We now buy, recondition and
re-sell used presses, wire cutting machines, wire pre-feeds, terminal
applicators, etc. With the high cost of new machinery, the need for
used, reliable machinery is even more critical. Our new web site
(currently under construction) will host a section to buy and sell
used machinery. Our web site is: www.lectriclimited.com.

Lectric Limited's new press control box is very
reliable and easy to install.

Production has also started on new, universal control boxes,
designed to be user friendly, and to replace the obsolete control
boxes on older presses.

Our company has devoted over 25 years to research and development
of reproduction wiring products. What started as a niche market has
developed into a much broader business. Yet we haven't forgotten
our charter to build the finest, most accurate products possible. We
have been honored to provide a rather unique service to a special brand
of car enthusiasts with some interesting requirements.

Lectric Limited employs 14 people: a general manager, a shop foreman,
a secretary/bookkeeper, two wire harness assemblers, two spark plug
wire assemblers, a wire cutter, a shipping clerk, a part-time machinery
rebuilder, and four part-time laborers. The company plans to broaden
its product line and attract more sub-contracting business in order to
utilize its Packard terminating capabilities. Ken Hanna can be reached
at Lectric Limited, Inc.,7322 S. Archer Rd. Justice, IL 60458.
Phone:708-563-0400 or Fax:708-563-0416.
Visit Internet: www.lectriclimited.com