American auto wire harness

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unicornhole

unicornhole

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i just bought an American auto wire harness for my 67 barracuda. Do I have to do the entire harness or can I do the engine bay first and the dash harness later? Was hoping to just do under the hood first and under dash in the spring but it doesn’t look like I can. Also, any advice for a first timer? Gonna go slow and easy and take lots of pictures. Am enlarging and laminating the wiring diagram. Any other tips or tricks?
 
If you can separate the harnesses, there's no reason you cannot piecemeal the installation. You have the harness, not us and you posted no pictures, so we're like a one legged man in a butt kickin contest here.
 
Just a quick glance at the picture of the harness and it looks like you can't piece meal it. This harness looks like a one time install deal.

I've never done one of these harness installs but I've wired a lot of stuff throughout my career. If it's the type where the fuse block mounts to the firewall and the engine bulkhead connects to the back of the fuse block, then I'd start by mounting those two first. At that point you can lay the wire runs out flat and start running them where they need to go. Don't make your connections until you're satisfied with how things are laid out. Otherwise you'll wind up connecting, disconnecting and reconnecting an endless amount of times because each time you think you're done, another wire will have to run under or over in a spot where you don't want it. You want everything to flow clean.

Take reference pictures of how your current harness is laid out under the hood and dash to help give you an idea of where the new harness is supposed to flow.

It seems daunting looking at the entire harness at once but just concentrate on one wire run at a time and it'll be quite simple.
 
IMHO

Unless it is a 100% factory style replacement harness I would return it and find the 100% OEM style replacements

I have yet to see a post start with " I just got a 100% OEM style replacement harness and ( insert your favorite electrical component here) doesn't work."
 
Dana67Dart said:
IMHO

Unless it is a 100% factory style replacement harness I would return it and find the 100% OEM style replacements

I have yet to see a post start with " I just got a 100% OEM style replacement harness and ( insert your favorite electrical component here) doesn't work."
Click to expand...
Who makes a "100% OEM style" harness for our cars? To date, I've never seen one.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Who makes a "100% OEM style" harness for our cars? To date, I've never seen one
Click to expand...
This is just the engine / front light section.
But the rest is there, minus some add on harnesses like AC? or a courtesy light package
Screenshot_20230901-204308.png
 
I have installed this on my 67 barracuda. I'd call them if trying to piece meal it. Im betting no but its pretty good replica of came with the car. connectors and all. Plus marked every 6". I got my car in boxes with no attached wiring. I followed the instructions and blammo!!! Sombitch worked!! There is some pretty good ideas on here with deleting the bulkhead nd I would probably not use them if I was not doing a factory build. (Im not now, I just didnt know any better...make sense?)



The Spiritual Teachings of Beavis and Butthead Part 3: The Great Cornholio — KILL PRETTY Graffiti Magazine
 
M&H auto wire actually makes the original type harnesses, but they don't sell direct to users. I have found that Year One and other outlets don't always show everything M&H makes, but you can go to the M&H site and find the part number for what you want and contact outlets. Many of these are made for your application when you order it. I believe that Summit is selling their stuff now with slightly lower prices.

I have their harnesses on three 70 Darts and it is such a breeze. The wires are the factory color and the connectors are exact fit. This way if you ever have issues you can use the factory wiring diagram to troubleshoot.
 
The American Autowire harness is not a stock replacement harness and you will not be able to piecemeal it like what you’re describing. The bulkhead connector is completely updated compared to the stock Mopar harness so you can’t do just the engine harness and mate it up to the factory dash harness.

I installed an AA harness in my Duster, it’s a massive improvement over the factory style harness. Set up for additional circuits so no scabbing in accessories, no alt gauge bypass to catch your dash on fire, expandable for additional circuits later, set up for a one wire alternator, etc.

The AA harness isn’t what you want if you’re looking for a factory replica. But a factory replica isn’t what you want if you want to run modern accessories. So it depends on your build. I’d never spend a penny on a factory replica harness, regardless of the quality. The AA harness is a high quality harness with lots of advantages over factory, but it’s also not what you want if you’re going for originality.
 
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