Method of making an electrical harness

Claim 1

In an automated method of making an electrical harness of the type comprising a plurality of discrete wires, each wire having a first end and a second end, the second end of some of the wires being connected to a terminal in a multi-contact electrical connector selected from a plurality of such connectors, wherein said plurality of discrete wires includes a wire of one type and a wire of another type, the steps of: (a) selecting only a single wire from said plurality of wires, the proximate end of said selected wire being said first end and feeding said selected wire through a single wire passageway so that said first end projects therefrom; then (a1) determining the type of terminal desired and pivoting a portion of said selected wire until said first end is presented to a selected press having said desired terminal; (b) terminating said first end by operating said press to attach a first discrete terminal thereto while said first end projects from said wire passageway; then (c) cutting a wire segment of predetermined length from said selected wire, the cut end of said wire segment being said second end; (d) terminating said second end of said wire segment by attaching a second discrete terminal thereto; (e) moving said second end of said wire segment to a connector loading zone and inserting said second end and attached terminal into a selected cavity in a selected connector housing; and (f) repeating steps (a) through (e) for a plurality of selected wires, wherein step (a) each wire is fed through the same said single wire passageway.