Painless wiring???

I bought a painless kit that someone else had !!! FAIL !!! It was complete except some of the underdash stuff had been "cut to length" the GM column connectors had been installed, and all of the rest of the accessory terminal packs were used/ gone.

I used this kit to do a "partial rewire" of the Dart, for now tying into the factory front section of the headlight harness, and tying into the factory tail lamp harness at the plug in the kick panel. I re-used my connectors (heater, etc) that were OK, and replaced the dash PC board connectors with "Molex" style from Radio Shack.

Painless could have saved "us" a ton of work, if they had

1 numbered the wires ONLY instead of labeling their function. This is because if you want to use, say, the power windows circuit to power something else, it would only have a wire no. and not SAY "power windows" while it's REALLY going to something like the fuel pump

2 For the money you pay for these, you would think they could afford to give use Mopar drivers MOPAR WIRE COLORS, and stop shoving "GM style" column connectors down our throats

3 Neither Painless nor Francis seems to be able to just "deal with" Mopar ignition (bypass) and regulator circuits. They all want you to "do something different." (All it would take is ONE MORE WIRE from the ign switch through the bulkhead!!!!!)

4 The fuse panel, while having a HUGE multitude of fuses are NOT necessarily connected "where you want" and the way the panel is bussed, it's rather difficult to re-direct. For example, there are circuits I want to use "for other use" but because a circuit was on the accessory buss (and I wanted ignition run) I really could not utilize it. Also, some method of re-labeling the fuses would be handy. I now have to "remember" that the fuse marked "power windows" REALLY feeds part of the stereo system.

5 In my opinion, some of the wire sizes are a little anemic. Ya, they may BE at least as big as factory, but we all know how many accessories "we" tend to hang on our cars!!! Some of the new HP ignition systems draw WAY more current than factory!!

6 In the case of Painless, THERE IS NO DIAGRAM!! I finally sat down in my chair, with the fuse panel, and DIAGRAMMED where each fuse was fed from (hot, accessory, or ign run) and charted it all out. There IS a chart that if followed exactly, details where each wire "goes" but in some cases they are not CLEAR where that wire comes FROM

I would say that you have to have a GOOD understanding of how your Mopar system was supposed to work, as well as wiring in general to launch into a Painless kit.

The more complicated your car is, the worse this will get. If you have a "boat" with stuff like delay timers, security system, A/C, cruise control, etc, etc, this will only get worse. You need a GOOD ACCURATE factory diagram, know how to read and understand it.

(Another example is the later cars using the so called "field loads" relay on the high output alternator.)

All this extra "junk" just adds up, and is nowwhere documented in these "eazy" kits.

In my case, I found a late Mopar minival power center box (fuses and relays) which I mounted on the left apron in front of the washer bottle. These relays give me fuel pump, ignition, and high and low beam headlights, with a "blank" for maybe security/ alarm or some other.

THE ABOVE is one of the smarter things I've done, goes a long ways towards solving the "dim headlights" thing.

I also made the decision to just feed wires directly through the holes in the bulkhead connector and eliminated it, as well as ran a nice big wire directly from the alternator to the start relay.

On my 67, I found an article to convert a cheap voltmeter and mount in the ammeter spot, and did so. PERFECT. Adjusted the reading to be 14V when centered on the old ammeter scale.