Friction tape on TI wiring 65 vette

[Jack Steele]

Just to keep me from making a mistake Is the Friction tape used on the TI wiring JUST a 12 inch piece that wraps around the TI and other engine compartment wiring? Also in the AIM it shows a 6 inch piece taping the wiring from the distributer to the wiring harness on the centre of the fire wall. Are these the only place to use friction tape? Is the TI wiring loom wrapped in plastic tape?

Keep up the wave.

Jack Steele

1965 396 Corvette.

[Bill W.]

Re: Friction tape on TI wiring 65 vette

Howdy Jack,

Not sure I understand your first two questions, but the TI wiring loom does not use plastic tape. It should be wrapped in cloth type tape. Bill

[Jack Steele]

Thanks BIll, That is the answer I am looking for *NM*

[Wayne M.]

Pic of original early 396 harnesses

At least I think they're early, as the F40 front & rear shocks were dated 3A65 and 4A65. Several Bubbas have been on my late L78, so that harness is of little help.

As Bill says, TI harness (top) is wrapped in friction tape.

Main engine harness (bottom) is in plastic tape with 4" of friction tape holding the 2 black plugs for ignition bypass (2 purple 14 ga. wires for neutral safety [auto trans] connection). I figure this tape is called out as item 1B on cancelled AIM UPC L78 sheet D2, and also 1B on UPC K66, sheet 5.

As 396's had a unique engine harness and NEVER M35 trans, I can't figure why they went to the trouble of installing these 2 plugs on the purple wire. Besides, I believe all regular engine harnesses already had the tape holding this plug set to the main harness, and if auto trans was specified, the tape was removed to separate the plugs.

As for the rest of the tape locations, I would suggest you read the above AIM sheet, as well as '65 AIM K66 sheets 2, 3 & 5. Sheet 5 best explains the reason for taping distrib. leads. Because the TI amplifier is on the RHS and the main harness to alternator and horn relay is on the driver side, none of the AIM diagrams apply exactly to the 396 configuration.

Would sure like to examine a bone stock original .

[William C.]

Re: Pic of original early 396 harnesses

The TI wiring harness is taped with friction tape in it's entirety, with 1 inch wide friction tape. No vinyl tape is used in any area of the TI harness.

[Jack Steele]

Thanks to all who responded.Incredible resource *NM*

[Bill S.]

Re: type of tape for 6 and 12" ?

what type of tape was used to tye the 2 harnesses and how wide? bill

[don22567]

Re: Pic of original early 396 harnesses

Wayne, the dates on your shocks are March, 1st week, 1965 (3A65) and April, 1st week, 1965, (4A65).

[Wayne M.]

Per '65 TIM&JG, F40 codes DDMYY; 3A65=3 Jan, no? *NM*

[Wayne M.]

Regular friction tape; 3/4" wide

This common tape is shown everywhere in the AIM as part # 3724851.

However, for 396's, I don't think you'll find any reference to 12 inches of tape required at a single location (unlike '66 and '67 K66).

The location on the MAIN L78 engine harness (per my photo, plugs and purple wire) requires only 4 inches. This applies to all three different 1965 engine harnesses [C60, L78 and all others]. Another 3 locations for 4" lengths are shown on '65 AIM UPC L78 cancelled sheet D2; you may safely conclude that location 1C is not required. Location 1D is definitely not necessary as the '65 K66 harness is all by its lonesome on the RHS, contrary to the horn wire routing shown.

In 1966 and '67 K66, they show 6 inches to adjust slack in wires to distributor, and 12" to tie the K66 harnes to the headlight harness at the rad support.

But as I said in my earlier post, whether they followed these lengths and locations in actual production is another matter.

[don22567]

Re: Per '65 TIM&JG, F40 codes DDMYY; 3A65=3 Jan, n

Wayne, I had asked this question on the message board a few weeks ago because I was going to buy a set of 67 rear F41 shocks and one of them was dated 5B67. February 5, 1967 fell on a Sunday so I was skeptical. Up until this point I too thought the dates were read as day / month / year but the odd thing was that with all my research on these shocks I had never seen the day go above 12 nor the month go beyond E. I received a response to my message offline from a Bloomington and NCRS judge stating that these dates are in fact read as month / week / year. I was told that this is going to be documented in the upcoming NCRS Tech manual. Don

[Wayne M.]

Re: F40 / 41 --- what you say makes sense

Don -- sounds like the TIM&JG's for the 4 (5?) years involved may all say DD/M/YY, which does not agree with observations of known cars. I was always wondering why a '66 rear F41's were dated 10A65 .

P.S. Those 3A65 and 4A65's that I quoted were (I assume) off the same car from which I purchased [eBay] the TI and 396 engine harnesses. Seller didn't know the VIN as was selling for a friend that parted out the L78. So I used the shock dates to estimate the time frame of the car. Now, per your statement, it looks as though the car would have been built sometime after the first week of April '65, based on 4A65 dated 3171489's. The engine harness has black w/pink stripe wires from the starter solenoid to the coil, and to the volt.reg connector.

My very late 396 has the solid pink wires. I don't know when the wire colors changed.