Aftermarket Wiring Harnesses

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vitamindart said:
Thanks Joe! you posted a link to that tool once before and this time I didn't mess around I just ordered it and the jaws for doing spark plug wires too! no more messing with the little tool they send with the MSD wires.
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oh man.. didn't notice the plug wire tool.. that is sweet..
 
abodyjoe said:
no need to solider anything with a crimp like i posted a picture of. those babies are done right and are not going anywhere.
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oh I know! trying to reuse those damn things in a pinch is no fun!

vitamindart said:
Thanks Joe! you posted a link to that tool once before and this time I didn't mess around I just ordered it and the jaws for doing spark plug wires too! no more messing with the little tool they send with the MSD wires.
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yea we have a ratcheting tool to, it crimps, cuts and strips, just not all at the same time lol
 
dodgedifferent2 said:
I used the express kit
http://www.ronfrancis.com/prodinfo.asp?number=XP-68

Yes there are alot of GM connections and gm references or even the ididit steering column, but why complain that its based around gm? I am the only one that should be seeing the wiring behind the dash:violent1:
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For me its not an issue of them being GM parts. Its that the instructions are so damn vague for anything that is important or specific to a mopar. Like i said, its just a run of the mill GM kit, with mopar ignition parts, and has been relabeled.

In order to wire my column i had to use this forum to find a diagram to mate the wires correctly.
 
dodgedifferent2 said:
coming from knowing very little about automotive electrical work i went with Ron francis. I found it easier then i expected. I was a bit worried that i would get lost in a rat nest but it was very straight forward and very simple to install. There were a few stop and think moments but i believe it was mainly i would work a weekend on the wiring then not go back to it for a month. So my brain had to refigure what i was up to last.

I called ron francis tech line twice and it was an immediate response with no hassle about anything. Once was about the steering column wiring and turned out i should of been smarter and tested the wires (stupidity on my part) The aftermarket signal switch wires were different colors.
The other time was about the hazard lights and clutch neutral safety. If i would of read the back page of one of the instructions i would have sorted out the neutral safety and the hazard lights just needed to sort out terminals.

I personally would not try another company since i am extremly happy with ron francis. All the wires are labelled and easy to trace and does not take a rocket scientist to sort it out. Just need to know how to solder, splice, shrink tube and attach terminals.

Follow the instructions and do not look at a service manual, unless sorting out wire colors at a light or switch. Mounting the fuse box took some thinking, but after that it was like riding a tricycle.
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I used Ron Francis as well and I called the tech line for the same reasons you did Ignition, Turn signal, neutral safety switch. The tech line was good and if they didn't answer they called right back (during normal business hours).

The one issue I had was I had to figure out the dome light, wiper switch, reverse light and blower motor. It wasn't to hard. Just weird those items were not included.

I would probably use the American Auto wire kit if I had to wire another car as it appears to be more complete. I looked at that kit after the fact.

I removed all of the plastic insulators from my terminals and used heat shrink after I crimped the terminal. I also used the factory ignition and turn signal connectors. The terminals that are used are called Molex and can be purchased from Terminal Supply Company.

As mentioned in the other post good crimps and taking your time will be the key to success!
 
Thanks for the link to that tool. That is way better of a price than what I have found.

Now does anyone know what to use to remove the wires from the connectors? In the past I have used a small jewelers screwdriver but I have broke a few connectors by prying to hard.

As for soldering, I would be the one that gets the wire to hot and makes it brittle. I have not perfected that yet LOL. So I think I will buy that tool and crimp all mine. If that was the same tool you used it sure did leave a very nice factory style crimp.
 
straightlinespeed said:
Thanks for the link to that tool. That is way better of a price than what I have found.

Now does anyone know what to use to remove the wires from the connectors? In the past I have used a small jewelers screwdriver but I have broke a few connectors by prying to hard.

As for soldering, I would be the one that gets the wire to hot and makes it brittle. I have not perfected that yet LOL. So I think I will buy that tool and crimp all mine. If that was the same tool you used it sure did leave a very nice factory style crimp.
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on mine i just cut them off and used a brand new molex plug and crimped new ends on.
 
I'm not sure if you Checked out Bill Evans... but he's got some pretty nice stuff if you want to keep it original (not saying you do)

He doesn't make the Dash Harness but he has the parts you'll need if you want to bring the original stuff back. When I reconditioned my Dash harness I bought the connectors and other stuff from him. I've spoken with him a few times and he's been super helpful.

http://www.evanswiring.com/

Take care
-AlV
 
Do not use that garbage from Evans. You'll be chasing bad crimps all over the damn thing. If you are going stock then buy the m&h from year one.
 
abodyjoe said:
Do not use that garbage from Evans. You'll be chasing bad crimps all over the damn thing. If you are going stock then buy the m&h from year one.
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Oh? Okay...Thanks for the heads up.! Guess you've had bad experience with his stuff.
I only picked up some connectors and engine side bilk head stuff which were fine.

I'll defer to your experience with him because I didn't buy a complete harness.

-AlV
 
abodyjoe said:
Do not use that garbage from Evans. You'll be chasing bad crimps all over the damn thing. If you are going stock then buy the m&h from year one.
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I bought a engine side harness from him. I looked it all over prior to installing and it seemed very well made. I am however rewiring my entire car soon and picked up a EZwire harness. I did however get a smoking deal on it locally so that is the only reason I went with it. Otherwise I was looking at American Autowire before I found this one.
 
Any wiring kit you buy for these cars will be work to install it. It all comes down to the install. A butchered install on a $500 Harness is still a Butchered Install.

This kit here will do the job just fine. Any kit you buy you will have at least $200.00 into other items needed to make it complete so may as well not over pay for someones "Name" that none of you like anyway…. LOL They also have a 12 Circuit one. Price is just about the same though. This one will work good on my TT Dart with EFI etc.

[ame="http://www.ebay.com/itm/EZ-WIRING-21-CIRCUIT-WIRING-HARNESS-/261336772800?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3cd8e2b0c0&vxp=mtr"]EZ WIRING 21 CIRCUIT WIRING HARNESS[/ame]
 
I bought a engine side harness from him. I looked it all over prior to installing and it seemed very well made.
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oh my evans engine and wiper harness looked great sitting on the table before installing it. especially compared to the original wiring.. even looked great after i installed it right up to the point that my wipers no longer worked. traced that to 4 bad crimps in the harness.. then the car would be driving down the road and just die (never had this either problem with the old brittle and patched harnesses in the car). traced the car shutting off to multiple bad crimps in the engine harness. the last one i never did find. it was in the blue with white tracer wire somewhere though. ended up rigging up a relay to bypass that wire until i could rewire the car.

the year one harness is too close to the price of an evans harness not to use it considering the quality is light years ahead of the evans junk.

thought maybe i just got a bad one. then i stumbled onto this thread. quite a few guys with the same issue. http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=A12&Number=5911578&fpart=&PHPSESSID= then i had a friend with a road runner have the same issues. took the evans crap out and installed a year one harness and it fixed the problem..
 
Agree with abodyjoe.....I really hate to bash, but my experience with a new Evans engine harness was a nightmare. Besides their harness being a POS, he became difficult to deal with........poor customer service IMO :sad:
 
I'm glad this forum exists and I value all the feedback. We really need to hear the good and bad of a product or a vendor so each experience counts.

I'm going to have to do my engine compartment over the next few months. After redoing the dash Harness myself I have no desire to rewire the engine compartment (read: Lazy) lol.

For my project I want to keep as much originality as possible so I've pigeon holed myself to a limited pool of suppliers or do it myself.
 
Once I saw how much the new harnesses cost and read that they were not terminated so the customer has to trim and terminate the ends I decided to make my own. I ordered a bunch of spools in different colors, in different gauges. Also ordered two new fuse blocks. Got everything from Del City and Waytek. It was time consuming but to me worth it. I was able to really clean up the engine bay by routing the wires around the perimeter of the bay. Also laballed all wires with a Dymo label maker and put clear shrink wrap over the labels. For the price of the aftermarket harness, I figured it should have been alot closer to plug and play.
 
One other thing I did when rewiring. Instead of doing the entire job, then trying to trace all the in inevitable problems, I tested each individual circuit as I went along with the job. When I finished it and powered everything up, I only had one problem with the wipers. Took about 30 seconds to trace it to a bad ground.
 
I used a painless kit on my 70 Duster and had not a minute problem with it. All wires were labeled well and the paperwork likewise. If I had it all to do again I would still use painless..
 
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