Here is the damaged feed wire to the wiper. The blue-white wire at the end of my dirty finger is bundled with the broken wire and feeds the washer pump from the wiper motor. It appears to be damaged internally so I'll patch that one too. If you look closely you can see the blue-white wire appears to have been twisted where it was squashed under the tie wrap.

 

It's a little nuts that it was the zip tie attachments that did it, whilst obviously possible, i would have had money on a wear point instead. Seriously good job tracing it though, i wonder if one of the other wires would have gone, what other serious/non-serious issue would have occurred, what would a dealer have done, never found it? other owners likely given up.

 

Personally, I would not mess with any non damaged wires in the harness but just repair the damaged ones.

The cable tie damaged the insulation but I doubt it actually ripped the copper wires apart in any of the other conductors.

 

After hanging face way down way too long over the rad support soldering and shrink wrapping the damaged wire, I left the other one be. It powers the washer pump and the insulation looks good. Wrapped the harness with a rubberized 3M high temp tape (from Rona) that is waterproof and once I pick up a few new xmas tree attachments I'll secure everything to the rad fan shroud. Gently.....

I scanned for codes and all clear.

I also took the opportunity to remove and lube up the wiper linkage, according to the dealer they sell "lots" of them as they appear to be seizing up prematurely. And, for anyone considering removing the plastic wiper cowl covers, be prepared to purchase new retaining clips as they see to be designed for one time use unless you have incredible luck to not break them when they pop up.

Thanks again everyone.

Dave

 

Just got 2016 F150 back from the local auto electric person (Merv) and the culprit was this exact scenario! Wore through right at the zip tie. Thanks. Helped with diagnosis. Would have worked on it myself, but time and the weather just would not permit.