I second Dan's reply. Recently while coming from the interstate down an on-ramp my '81 242 cut out and would not restart. Immediately I suspected the fuel pump relay when the pumps wouldn't run when I turned the ignition on. So I removed the relay and jumped the fuel pump connections and the car started but was low on power and the battery light was also on. None of the gauges were functioning besides the speedo. I didn't remeber the car ever acting like that when running with jumped fuel pumps and when I checked the relay it was fine. I looked at the fire wall connector of the wiring harness and sure enough the insulation was crumbling and the wires were shorting out. I made sure the wires were not touching and and attempted to start the car and it fired up and ran normally. I also used the liquid electrical tape to fix the bare wires but it seemed like as I put the stuff on more insulation was falling off in the process. So now I'm looking for a new harness as well.

Hope this helps,
Adam.