A–2 INTRODUCTION–GENERAL INFORMATION Terminal (Female) Housing (Female) Housing (Male) Terminal (Male) Electric Wire Terminal Housing Wire Harness — Fuse (W/H) — J/B (Junction Block) R/B (Relay Block) Other Insulator Copper Wires (Conductor) What is Wire Harness? The wire harness (W/H) is systems of electric wires for automobiles to connect all the electronics parts in automobile electrically and work them. As more electronics parts are introduced in automobiles recently, the electric wires used for the wire harness are increasing in number and the structure is becoming more complicated. As a result of that, there are hundreds of connectors, which is the parts which connects wires mechanically and electrically, in one vehicle. Therefore, numbers of the connector terminal (Terminal) or the connector housing (Housing) are designed to meet many kinds of uses of circuits. Various components have been improved to ensure the product reliability or realize a wider space in the vehicles. Wire Harness Components Wire harness mainly consists of wires, terminals, or housings. There are various components are designed for many parts of vehicles, such as one with high heat–resistance, water–resistance, or bending ability, ones have different current capacities, or ones are hardly influenced by electromagnetic noise. Electric Wire The electric wires used for the wire harness consists of the conductor made from numbers of twisted mild copper wire with a diameter of less than 0.5 mm and the insulator surrounding the conductor. The insulator is generally made from vinyl chloride and covers the conductor with even thickness. The insulators are color–coded in order to distinguish each wire. The base colors or the stripe patterns is used to make difference between insulators. Each color of wires is indicated by the abbreviation in the repair manual and the electrical wiring diagram. B = Black W = White L = Blue BR = Brown V = Violet SB = Sky Blue R = Red G = Green P = Pink LG = Light Green Y = Yellow GR = Gray O = Orange Wire Harness Repair Manual (RM1022E) 3