WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO............

What is the best way to clean a wirring harness before i reinstall it. its grease and dirt and would looking bad in a new engine bay,how do you clean it to look new again? thought about a cup of cheer and 10mins in the washer but there must be an ez way???
thanks.....................

I would unwrap it (electrical tape) and probably use lighter fluid to gently clean then re wrap it if originally wrapped. I never did a whole harness. I don't think the cup of cheer and 10 minutes on the stun setting is a good method

Just helped a freind clean up an old engine bay. We took the harness out (Chevy Cube van, ugh!) and used good old Sunlight dish soap and hot water in a bucket, dunked the cable in and swished it around for a while. Took a few buckets and a small fine brush, britsles similar to a small fingenail brush to get the heavy spots off. Rinsed it all with clean water, and sprayed and wiped the connections with a water repellant ignition spray. HAd to take the plastic loom off in a few places, as well as replace some tape here and there, too make it look nice! So far so good, other than with the snow we have been getting, he had a slip, and the van hit a curb, an died. Didn't quite get the main connection plugged back into the firewall properly! it fell out, in rush hour off course!(-:
Martin

This may be extreme but on my old '69 Cobra Jet, I cleaned up the under hood harness by throwing it into a tub of 50% water and 50% purple stuff(need rubber gloves for this). After a few minutes I went over the whole thing with a small brush, and rinsed it with clear water. After a good blow dry with the air hose, I sprayed the whole thing(especially the connectors)with WD40 and air hosed it again... Then let it lay in the sun for 4-5 hours and installed it. That was in 1991 its been fine...

If yours is caked with grease, use the WD40 to clean it as much as possible before the purple treatment. If the purple stuff scares you, just clean it as Pete suggested, but I'd still use WD40 instead of the lighter fluid. DEFINATLY DO NOT use gas...

The purple stuff leaves plastic shining like new, but is rough on aluminum(cleans it, then turns it black) so use it sparingly on anything with alum(I don't think there is any in the wiring harness even on the '80s stuff).

i would be afraid of using a solvent type of cleaner with it eating thru the shield of the wire. I used mild dish soap and a plastic brissle brush with hot water and it worked great. my dads friend is a mechanic for jaguar and he told me to use liquid wrench as a water repelent. Said its all he uses so i use that instead of wd-40. He got the trick from all his days four-wheeling. then let sit dry in the sun for a couple hours.

Spray can of electro contact cleaner...environmentally safe of course!

If all else fails, you can go down to the Auto Zoo and get a can of electric parts cleaner. You can spray the heck out of everything without worry. Remember to hold your breath.

I would use the purple stuff (Castrol). I buy it by the gallon and dilute it 50% (as mentioned above) into a spray bottle. I clean wiring with a light spray and a wipe until clean and follow up with silicon spray.