1973 Duster wiring harness compatibility question

[Trevor B]

Much of the Duster's under-hood wiring is brittle and cracking. It needs to be replaced.
She is a 318 (but getting a 360 in the coming weeks), 904 Torqueflite, power steering, power brakes.

I found a wiring harness from a 1973 Dodge Dart locally but it's a slant six car. Would it work in my V8 car?

 

[SalC]

It should, the only differences might be the ignition setup (electronic) and alternator so check those.

To be honest there's quite a few good new wiring harness options out there which are priced really well. I'm rewiring my entire 75 Duster using the EZ Wiring harness ($185) and it's well worth it. American Autowire has an entire connector to connector harness for $799 if you don't have a lot of electrical experience.

Why replace a dry rotted 1973 harness with another 1973 harness that's gonna be there soon?

 

[whitepunkonnitro]

The 73 up engine harness is two piece. The part that plugs into the firewall is universal, the second half is engine specific.
The only difference in your case is that the coil wires and oil sending switch wires are going to be different lengths.
Unwrap that part of the harness and put the wires where you need them, then rewrap.
As for aftermarket wiring, you are miles ahead using even decent original stuff than rolling the dice on Chinawire

 

[Trevor B]

The appeal of original wiring is that it would look the same and have all the connectors in place - it is also pretty inexpensive. If in okay shape, I feel like it would be a good cheap upgrade.

The 73 up engine harness is two piece. The part that plugs into the firewall is universal, the second half is engine specific.
The only difference in your case is that the coil wires and oil sending switch wires are going to be different lengths.
Unwrap that part of the harness and put the wires where you need them, then rewrap.
As for aftermarket wiring, you are miles ahead using even decent original stuff than rolling the dice on Chinawire

Thanks, Tony. I guess the coil and oil pressure sender would just be a little longer on a slant six - better longer than shorter, no?

 

[RedFish]

Follow your wires from alt' back toward firewall. You'll find a white plastic connector. This connector was added to the later models to make any engine plug and play on assembly line. Before this addition they were all different from bulkhead connector forward. Anyway...
Aftermarket offers reproduction of the engine harness from this connector forward.
I've seen this added white connector melted, wires shorted together a few times. Maybe better to have a fault/melt down there than at the bulkhead? I wont state a preference. I would definitely have a larger gauge BATT wire from alternator and route outside this connector. OEM was undersized here, wire and terminals in my opinion. Having factory terminals for senders, etc... is kind of nice though. They are all different so they don't interchange ( idiot proofed ).

 

[whitepunkonnitro]

Follow your wires from alt' back toward firewall. You'll find a white plastic connector. This connector was added to the later models to make any engine plug and play on assembly line. Before this addition they were all different from bulkhead connector forward. Anyway...
Aftermarket offers reproduction of the engine harness from this connector forward.
I've seen this added white connector melted, wires shorted together a few times. Maybe better to have a fault/melt down there than at the bulkhead? I wont state a preference. I would definitely have a larger gauge BATT wire from alternator and route outside this connector. OEM was undersized here, wire and terminals in my opinion. Having factory terminals for senders, etc... is kind of nice though. They are all different so they don't interchange ( idiot proofed ).

1975-76 they did route the alternator wire outside that mid point connector.
They did the same with the ign. switch connector under the steering column

 

[Trevor B]

Well... the harness (actually, "harnesses" - fronts and rear) looked better than mine but certainly not perfect. That said, for $15 it ended up being a pretty good deal. I'm going to go through and replace the various cracked and dried out wires and my connector, which is, in fact, melted!

One more question: is there a simple way to pull individual wires out of the plastic connectors without breaking one or the other?