Painless?

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63SplitWindow

63SplitWindow

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After a month of chasing electrical gremlins I decided to just bit the bullet and replace the entire wire harness on my 73 Dart. The engine bay was bubba'd with all kinds of color changes to the wires to wirenuts under the hood. I'm looking at the complete Painless harness right now. Anybody have any experience with them or better suggestions out there?
Thanks,
Bill
 
Do you want to do just the engine bay or the cabin as well?

I ask because often times the engine bay section is in much worse shape. I replaced my engine bay wiring with a reproduction harness. Not sure who manufactured it, I purchased it from a distributor. Good quality. Easiest option.
 
I agree with HotRod to a degree. If you plan and increasing the load to the system via cooling fans, stereo, and other components, I’d replace the system. We are talking about almost 50 year old wiring. The bulkhead / Amp gauge by-pass should be done.

As for the painless, the Mopar 21 circuit #90542 takes some work and is by no means “painless” the first one you do is always a PITA but well worth it. Go and download the 90542 instructions and read them about 25 times before you decide to start the project. After that it is easy. The one thing that sucks about the kit, is you “rebuild” all of the light sockets for taillights and markers and such. Kinda a pain in the butt. The wire is of good quality, with it color coded and marked each foot or so. Take your time, alway leave a little slack at the end of each run for service or mistakes. And for the love of your higher being, don’t use wire nuts and get yourself a good set of crimpers/strippers…
 
There is NOTHING Painless about a painless harness. If the car is basically stock, get an OEM replacement harness.
 
Wait for a 30% off sale at Year One, you JUST missed one I believe. You can also get M&H harnessess from Megaparts and Classics, but they have to source them through Year One anyhow and don't generally discount them.
 
I have used painless products for most every build I have done, (and love them) but by same token I am not stock. If I was OEM stock I would do as the above posts suggest and get a OEM style replacement from Classic or Hotwire or wherever. Painless rocks when you are reinventing the wheel and winging it a bit, if your wheel don’t need reinvented go with OEM replacement. Just my .02
 
Heads up! 30% discount at Year One will eliminate any free shipping, so actual price will be a discount of about 5-10%.
 
Sublime one said:
I have used painless products for most every build I have done, (and love them) but by same token I am not stock. If I was OEM stock I would do as the above posts suggest and get a OEM style replacement from Classic or Hotwire or wherever. Painless rocks when you are reinventing the wheel and winging it a bit, if your wheel don’t need reinvented go with OEM replacement. Just my .02
Click to expand...

Thanks Sublime.......I will not be need the OEM layout so I will be cutting out those bad bulkhead connectors.
 
After looking at all the choices, I think I will stick with the Painless option since I have mods to incorporate and it will aloow me to replace ALL of the old wiring.
Thanks guys......I now have some new vendors to check out during this build!
 
Ezwiring is another great one for rewiring a car, used theirs for my 67 dart and will order another one for my 68 valiant, cheaper then painless.
 
I already had a new dash harness, got a headlight relay harness off fabo, wired the rest myself, MSD distributor, alternator, eliminated ammeter, etc.

When I upgraded to efi, I bought a Painless 7 circuit fusebox for under 100 beans, the Mopar wire connectors that click into the stock plastic connectors, forget the name, and added a power and a ground hub.
Fusebox fit right into the stock fusebox location, powered everything with that, ignition switch, headlight switch, efi, radio, whatever else I needed, and I still had 1 circuit left.
Doing this also eliminated the factory 'splice' in the dash harness.

It progressed over time and other changes, but I'm considering the same method on my latest clunker.

It's all very neat, simple, with factory connectors, modern fuses and relays.
 
63SplitWindow said:
After a month of chasing electrical gremlins I decided to just bit the bullet and replace the entire wire harness on my 73 Dart. The engine bay was bubba'd with all kinds of color changes to the wires to wirenuts under the hood. I'm looking at the complete Painless harness right now. Anybody have any experience with them or better suggestions out there?
Thanks,
Bill
Click to expand...
I have had two cars with complete Painless wiring harnesses.
A 65 pro street Corvette that I wired and drove for 22,000 miles
And my current car a 67 fastback Barracuda wired by prior owner 10,000 plus miles
No issues with either car.
Install it and forget it and it is not that difficult, just take your time.
 
512Stroker said:
I have had two cars with complete Painless wiring harnesses.
A 65 pro street Corvette that I wired and drove for 22,000 miles
And my current car a 67 fastback Barracuda wired by prior owner 10,000 plus miles
No issues with either car.
Install it and forget it and it is not that difficult, just take your time.
Click to expand...
I used Lectric Limited comete harness for my 63 coupe but they dont carry Mopar harnesses.
 
Using that code now, seeing a lot of "Discount Exempt" and when it does work there is another message: The promo code you have selected has disabled free shipping.

Maybe it's just the parts I need.
 
I just pass'm along.. LOL, but if you bought a $600 harness and get $180 off and then have to pay 40 bucks for postage $460 is a lot better than $600.
 
I have an American Autowire headlight to taillight kit about to go in a 1973 Duster. I'll let you know how it goes. It won an award at SEMA in 2018 or 19 for best new product for Mopar.
That sold me. I've heard great reviews. Very spendy though.
 
dadsbee said:
Wait for a 30% off sale at Year One, you JUST missed one I believe. You can also get M&H harnessess from Megaparts and Classics, but they have to source them through Year One anyhow and don't generally discount them.
Click to expand...
As the Fonz used to say, "Correctamundo". M&H makes the BEST, most PERFECT looking and fitting harnesses around. They are exclusive suppliers to Year One. Go to Year One's website and sign up for their advertising emails, then wait for a 30% off sale. Do NOT be tempted to go with a cheaper alternative (if you can find one).
 
I've installed a few American Auto wire kits in Chevys and a Ford.. not to hard, but it ain't jumpin in there by itself...
Most wiring kits are generally Chevy based and most of the time don't offer much for windshield wipers... By a long shot I would never throw the original one away until the new one is 100% working because there will be pieces you need...
On the heels of this experience I'm installing a 20 wire generic kit in the Power Wagon project I'm doing... It's extremely time consuming and patience testing but should pay off in the end. I got my kit for 85 bucks on Black Friday sale.
PXL_20211230_225313172.jpg
 
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