building my own wire harness

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71dustar

71dustar

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Been thinking about instead of dishing out money for new harness (mine is in good condition just want to switch fuse block to add more fuses) has anyone made their own harness? I want to use same connectors or atleast try but not sure what size wire to use. i'd just take one wire at a time to make sure i'm not confusing up wires.
 
I did see a wire diagram that had the wire colors and gauges. You might even improve over the old design. There's a place here in So Cal that carry alot of the orig. connectors. It would be good to get the correct crimping tools. The name of the place is Del City.

http://www.delcity.net/
 
In the time vs. money side you would be better off buying a universal type harness like this one from painless http://www.painlessperformance.com/webcatalog/Keywordsearch.php?partsearch=10127 and buying the terminals through either Del city or through your local parts house and repinning your original connectors. You can buy universal type kits cheaper than all the correct wire and a good quality fuseblock alone and half the work is already done for you. On the other side if your time is worth nothing to you then go for it and build your own harness. I have done it in the past on cars. That is a route I will never go again. Too much of a pain in my opinion. And always remember when buying wiring harnesses. You do get what you pay for. There are a lot of companies out there that sell what appears to be about the same thing and there can be almost $200 difference in them. Some are becasue of the quality of components used and/or they just coppied someone else's design. Happens in all form of parts as most here know.
 
I've thought about this myself only because I like to save money for things that I absolutely cant' do myself. Time is the biggest cost, but make sure you have a good (inexpensive) source for the wires an connectors or you will spend just as much on the pieces as you will on a kit. Look for an electronics surplus in your area, they will have tons of colors to choose from and really cheap too. I've also toyed with the idea of pulling a harness from a new car and chopping it up for the wire (millions of colors, way more wire than I'll need, a power distribution block and fuse block to boot) but then again I'm just thinking out loud.
 
player1up said:
but make sure you have a good (inexpensive) source for the wires an connectors QUOTE]

That right there is where most people get themselves in trouble. They think about the inexpensive part and don't think about the quality side of it. Its funny how we (and yes even me at one time) will spend money on quality parts to do something on our cars and then the wiring is the last thing left and we'll "make due" or "go cheaper" with wiring. Guess where most people's problems start!
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BJS racing said:
player1up said:
but make sure you have a good (inexpensive) source for the wires an connectors QUOTE]

That right there is where most people get themselves in trouble. They think about the inexpensive part and don't think about the quality side of it. Its funny how we (and yes even me at one time) will spend money on quality parts to do something on our cars and then the wiring is the last thing left and we'll "make due" or "go cheaper" with wiring. Guess where most people's problems start!
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Hey Bobby!
I like to keep things simple as much as possible. I couldn't imagine wiring the back side of the 21 circuit fuse panel without pulling my hair out.
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BJS racing said:
In the time vs. money side you would be better off buying a universal type harness like this one from painless http://www.painlessperformance.com/webcatalog/Keywordsearch.php?partsearch=10127 and buying the terminals through either Del city or through your local parts house and repinning your original connectors. You can buy universal type kits cheaper than all the correct wire and a good quality fuseblock alone and half the work is already done for you. On the other side if your time is worth nothing to you then go for it and build your own harness. I have done it in the past on cars. That is a route I will never go again. Too much of a pain in my opinion. And always remember when buying wiring harnesses. You do get what you pay for. There are a lot of companies out there that sell what appears to be about the same thing and there can be almost $200 difference in them. Some are becasue of the quality of components used and/or they just coppied someone else's design. Happens in all form of parts as most here know.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. I did my own because I am an electronics technician and thought why pay for something I can do. I took a week off to do some work on my car and it took me 3 of those days to just rebuild/modify the wiring harness and get it positioned on the car. More time later to get everything neatly hooked up. Never again. On my job I would have made about $140 per day and figuring it took me 3+ days to do it the harness cost me $420 in labor and anther $50 in supplies whereas I could have have bought it for half that and only had a half a day hooking everything up.
 
340sixpack said:
Does the Painless wiring eliminate the bulkhead connector?
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Yes, there is a plate that goes over the hole in the fire wall. I didn't go this route as I wanted to keep my car some what original looking under the hood. I bought a color wiring diagram off ebay that came laminated and properly color coded. The diagram helped a ton as its large and easy to follow. Here is the seller http://stores.ebay.com/Classic-Car-Wiring its woth the $17 IMO
 
Thanks GTS,stock appearing not an issue,just exploring some options and my
connectors are in bad shape as far as the insulators go,may be best to
eliminate.
 
340sixpack said:
Thanks GTS,stock appearing not an issue,just exploring some options and my
connectors are in bad shape as far as the insulators go,may be best to
eliminate.
Click to expand...

I just re worked my old one. Cleaned up all the connections and did a fair bit of soldering and heat shrinking new connectors on. Mine was in good shape though. The diagram is great. I've rewired several old land rovers I've restored and have always bought new harnesses as most of them have been farmerized "no offense to ant farm folk intended". I've seen some interesting repairs over the years. If your harness is really hacked its cheaper to replace the whole thing in the long run. Way less headaches that way. One land rover I bought was all taped up with masking tape and had the light switch labeled "OFF, DIM and FLICKER". At least he has a sense of humor.
 
Mine is a hack.I did do a repair job on it 3 yrs ago replacing connectors and
soldering but its been added on to and cut up and i have major electrical
problems now,may be easier to start over.
 
340sixpack said:
Thanks GTS,stock appearing not an issue,just exploring some options and my
connectors are in bad shape as far as the insulators go,may be best to
eliminate.
Click to expand...


What I did with mine is took the entire bulk head out. Pulled all of the wire and metal connectors out so I was left with the bulk head main body and three plastic connectors. I then drilled out each slot with 3/16" drill bit and installed the bulk head main body back on the car. When a wire needed to go to something in the engine bay I just pushed the wire through the bulk head connector and straight to where it needed to go. It has stock appearance without the wire being cut or connected there at the bulk head. I will never have to worry about dirty, loose connections there at the bulk head. I hope you understand all of that. lol
 
I redid a harness for my charger years back when no aftermarket harnesses were available. First, I used a wiring diagram to make sure I had the correct gauges of wire available. Second, I unwrapped the original harness back from the plugs several inches and cut the wires offsetting the cuts so all the new connections would nor overlap and create a thicker spot in the harness. Third, I laid the old harness (minus the plugs) on the floor and started laying replacement wires on top of the old harness to make sure routing was correct and the wires were long enough (make sure you leave plenty extra at the plug ends). Fourth, I used short wraps of electrical tape at each of the spits to ensure that the new harness would be dimentionally the same as the old one and to prevent a tangled mess. Fifth, I solderd the tag ends of the wires left on the old plugs to the new harness. Make sure you slip shrink wrap connectors in the wires before you solder them together, then heat the connecters to insulate the newly soldered joints. Finally, I rewrapped the harness with electrical tape (you might need to find old style cloth tape AKA hockey tape if your old one came that way). Make sure you use a continuity connector to check each of your new connections (from plug to plug) before you wrap everything up. All in all, it took an evening with my wife's help, and 20 years of her reminding me not to ask her to help me do it again.

My wife just reminded me to add one more instruction ... try to find the replacement wires not only in the same gauge, but in the same colors if you can. I used only a few rolls of wire so had to be really carefull not to mix up or cross wires.

Good luck!
 
mullinax95 said:
What I did with mine is took the entire bulk head out. Pulled all of the wire and metal connectors out so I was left with the bulk head main body and three plastic connectors. I then drilled out each slot with 3/16" drill bit and installed the bulk head main body back on the car. When a wire needed to go to something in the engine bay I just pushed the wire through the bulk head connector and straight to where it needed to go. It has stock appearance without the wire being cut or connected there at the bulk head. I will never have to worry about dirty, loose connections there at the bulk head. I hope you understand all of that. lol
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Got it Mullinax!I have a few connections like that now as well,i just have such a mess i almost want to start over but thats another option too!Stupid
electrical,it was all fine till this spring.Something got bungled when i did the
body work but that bulkhead was always a problem from what dad says.

Hey 67Dart,i had a 65 Impala in high school the guy before me wired EVERYTHING in red!Wiring nightmare.Thanks for the input guys.
 
340sixpack said:
i had a 65 Impala in high school the guy before me wired EVERYTHING in red!Wiring nightmare.Thanks for the input guys.
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Man you think that's bad. I used to work on forklifts for Hyster and they made some electric trucks that used all black wires. They had very tiny numbers printed on the wire every 6 inches and you had to use a magnifying glass to read the numbers to figure what was what. SHEEESH!!!
 
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