Entire 69 dart wiring harness

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DentalDart

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Ok… so here’s my dilemma. I’ll preface with Im an electrical idiot…

Got a new 69 dart in pieces… needs a wiring harness, but came with a brand new wiring harness.

Only problem is the wiring harness it came with is a universal wiring harness, the American Autowire Highway 15 wiring harness. There is also this other stock harness and I am supposed to be getting a couple other stock ones the guy found in his parts stash.

Has anyone used this wiring harness before? Should I try to figure this one out or should I get a new wiring harness specific for the 1969 dart? American autowire makes one for the dart and it’s $1200.

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IMHO

The "universal" , "EZ", "Painless" are nothing but a pain in the butt.


I would take all the harnesses you are given, look them over carefully,

  1. Is the wire stiff and brittle?
  2. Are the wires intact?
  3. Are the wires for a 69?
  4. If most of it is in good shape can you repair the defects?

After you see all that, and the answers are no, yes,yes, yes then repair and install

if the first answer to the first question is no then I would buy a 69 specific OEM style harnes.

there are some harnesses that have upgrades built into them.

  1. like 70 up electronic voltage regulator for an isolated 2 field wire alternator.
  2.  electronic ignition
The more stock it is the easier it will be to put things together with ease and success.

If you search FABO for don't see any posts that start with, "I just installed an OEM harness" you do see many that start with " I just installed an EZ wiring harness"
 
Electrical in our cars is a system of sending power to an a enable part and that part having a ground on the other side to complete the circuit. Some times it happens when the key is turned to on or to start. Sometimes it happens when a switch is enabled. Sometimes it is live all the time. It is daunting, but not impossible. There are several seriously smart electrical gurus here.
Ask.
Listen
Apply.
 
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As I always do, I recommend Evans Wiring for harnesses. Look him up and give him a call to get any you can from him. Whatever he doesn't make, then you can go on to the more expensive other makers!
 
As I always do, I recommend Evans Wiring for harnesses. Look him up and give him a call to get any you can from him. Whatever he doesn't make, then you can go on to the more expensive other makers!

Yeah I have read about the Evans harness and the Year One harnesses.

Evans doesn’t make a dash harness lol. I just painted the dash and figured maybe I would build the dash first.
 
IMHO

The "universal" , "EZ", "Painless" are nothing but a pain in the butt.


I would take all the harnesses you are given, look them over carefully,

  1. Is the wire stiff and brittle?
  2. Are the wires intact?
  3. Are the wires for a 69?
  4. If most of it is in good shape can you repair the defects?

After you see all that, and the answers are no, yes,yes, yes then repair and install

if the first answer to the first question is no then I would buy a 69 specific OEM style harnes.

there are some harnesses that have upgrades built into them.

  1. like 70 up electronic voltage regulator for an isolated 2 field wire alternator.
  2.  electronic ignition
The more stock it is the easier it will be to put things together with ease and success.

If you search FABO for don't see any posts that start with, "I just installed an OEM harness" you do see many that start with " I just installed an EZ wiring harness"

I just want as dummy proof as possible… I want something that is “plug this piece into this piece and viola! Everything works.”
 
I'm an elec idiot but remade my entire dash harness for 67 cuda. Tedious, but no way in hell I was paying $1000 just for dash harness.
You have the skills, do it OEM and upgrade what you need/want to.
 
M&H makes the wiring harnesses that Year One sells (and other places like Classic Industries and Summit). Their harnesses are 100% spot on reproductions of the factory harnesses - same wire colors and tracers, same plugs. They are expensive, but compared to the time or cost of a universal wire system, they are well worth the money. The biggest advantage is that when you are done, you can use the wiring diagrams in the factory service manual to work on electrical problems. You can find the correct part number for your harness on the M&H wiring web site. I have found that the distributors don't always get all the applications right, but you can find your part by using the M&H part number on the disdtributor's web site. One of the big problems with wiring harnesses is the built up resistance in every connection due to slow corrosion. Whatever harness you use, get a tube of dielectric grease and treat every connection - especially the bulkhead connectors.
 
My electrical teacher say -

"Electricity come out of battery, thru wires goesa to conatacta point (switch), go in here, (appliance?) goes roundy-round inside, creates heat, light, or magotism only, goes out here, back to battery, thru wire, ground, body .
That's it, - simple ".

He was a brilliant man from Asia, his family kept an entire town hospital running, with bamboo generator rod shells changed every Sunday during Church .
Hope it helps someone, lol, Cheers !
 
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Start with the interior dash harness. If it's correct you can lay it out on plywood, unwrap and replace wires one at a time and rewrap.It seems daunting but 1 wire at a time and you'll get better at it. I dread wiring but in the end I enjoyed doing the modifications on my 68 Hardtop.You probably have all the wires you may need with that kit.(Not my Pic just sole it for an example)
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Start with the interior dash harness. If it's correct you can lay it out on plywood, unwrap and replace wires one at a time and rewrap.It seems daunting but 1 wire at a time and you'll get better at it. I dread wiring but in the end I enjoyed doing the modifications on my 68 Hardtop.You probably have all the wires you may need with that kit.(Not my Pic just sole it for an example)
View attachment 1716066261

I don’t have a dash harness. Only have the American autowire highway 15 universal kit and one of the engine bay harnesses.

When I read the description on the highway 15 kit it says it has everything needed to wire a car but… I’m sure the electrical gurus would be happy seeing me as little as possible :rofl:
 
I'm an elec idiot but remade my entire dash harness for 67 cuda. Tedious, but no way in hell I was paying $1000 just for dash harness.
You have the skills, do it OEM and upgrade what you need/want to.

I commend you, that’s a bite I do not wish to take.

I spent the past 2 days, maybe 8 hours just painting the dash not including setting up and cleaning up. All I did was spray paint…

Point to my story is it would probably take me 6 months to figure out the wiring… and it would still be wrong most likely haha.
 
Buy one of those big laminated wiring diagrams for you car. They are very easy to follow and lays out flat. Joe
 
Others seem to have more experience than me with these harnesses but here is mine.

For the avatar car, I designed and wired it 100% to my own specs. Every wire in the car, 1 at a time. 2 fuse panels mounted in diff locations, battery in trunk, all the race car switches, etc, etc but also all the lights, turn signals, wipers, etc, etc. Fully street legal stuff. Took me 5 weeks in the evenings. Came out great without issue (well, I did have 1 issue. The front rh turn signal and parking light wires were flipped at the bulb socket. Quick and easy disconnect/reconnect fix.)

For my 71 Demon 340, I wanted it to be as original as possible but new wiring as 50+ year old wires just were not going back into this car on its restoration. Bought the engine, wiper, and NSS harnesses from Evans. Think they were $165 at the Mopar Nats. Laid them out to original and they were dead nuts 100% the same. For the forward lamp harness, Evans doesn't make it so I bought the M&H harness It was close but had some extra wires for fender-mounted turn signals (Demons don't have those) and the wire breakouts were off by a few inches up past the battery by the rad support. I made it work but it was a surprise it wasn't dead on based on how others speak about them.

So me personally, I will buy everything I can from Evans and then get anything he doesn't (or won't) make from others.

FWIW - just my own experiences!
 
@Demonx2 this is what I am leaning towards. I like supporting small businesses if I can and I would also like to not have to worry about the harness.

I’m not to concerned with OEM colors, it’s a plus if they are oem colored but my big thing is 1. Does it work and 2. Time.

I don’t have 7 days a week to work on the car and need to make use of my weekends wisely. Between the kids, wife and cars. I can only dedicate so many hours to the car, sometimes buying over restorating parts is actually cheaper in the long run… Divorces because of mopars are expensive :rofl:
 
back in town. Looking at the dash harness, I. The description it says “since many of these assemblies are not available you have to remove old assemblies from original harness and reuse them on new harness…” what the hell does that mean? What assemblies or portions of the harness do not come with the dash harness?

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Map light, console, ac, defrost. Probably more lol
back in town. Looking at the dash harness, I. The description it says “since many of these assemblies are not available you have to remove old assemblies from original harness and reuse them on new harness…” what the hell does that mean? What assemblies or portions of the harness do not come with the dash harness?

View attachment 1716070508
 
I don’t have a dash harness. Only have the American autowire highway 15 universal kit and one of the engine bay harnesses.

When I read the description on the highway 15 kit it says it has everything needed to wire a car but… I’m sure the electrical gurus would be happy seeing me as little as possible :rofl:
Every single wire has printed on it what it is and where it's supposed to go. Armed with that and a factory wiring diagram and some new packard terminals, you can do anything. I've installed several AA harnesses and if I can do it, a chimp can.
 
There's no FRAKKIN way I'd buy something else if I had a whole wiring harness.
 
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