Painless?

-
I have some experience installing a few different makes of harnesses. Ron Francis, American AutoWire, Speedway Motors, Painless and Year One to name a few. There was no one that was "easy" or "painless". I do however like the ones that do away with the firewall connector. That's been a constant source of contention on these old cars right from the start. Not ONE THING wrong with General Motors color coding. These cars don't know what harness is in them. As long as you wire it appropriately, that's all that matters.

What should guide your decision is, how much electronics you plan on. Better, upgraded higher output ignitions, bigger sound systems, electric cooling fans and big electric fuel pumps all add current draw and that needs better wiring than just an "original" style harness. Even if you're not going to do any of that, but think you "might" upgrade something down the road, it's a good idea to go better than stock.

We all know the Chrysler electronics wasn't the best at carrying heavy loads in these old cars, even when everything was in good shape.

Just some food for thought.
 
RustyRatRod said:
I have some experience installing a few different makes of harnesses. Ron Francis, American AutoWire, Speedway Motors, Painless and Year One to name a few. There was no one that was "easy" or "painless". I do however like the ones that do away with the firewall connector. That's been a constant source of contention on these old cars right from the start. Not ONE THING wrong with General Motors color coding. These cars don't know what harness is in them. As long as you wire it appropriately, that's all that matters.

What should guide your decision is, how much electronics you plan on. Better, upgraded higher output ignitions, bigger sound systems, electric cooling fans and big electric fuel pumps all add current draw and that needs better wiring than just an "original" style harness. Even if you're not going to do any of that, but think you "might" upgrade something down the road, it's a good idea to go better than stock.

We all know the Chrysler electronics wasn't the best at carrying heavy loads in these old cars, even when everything was in good shape.

Just some food for thought.
Click to expand...
Well put..
I will add... Car manufacturers did a lot of things to make assembly faster and easier.. and wiring was/is a major one...
Bulkheads are the first thing I like to eliminate...
 
63SplitWindow said:
Thanks Sublime.......I will not be need the OEM layout so I will be cutting out those bad bulkhead connectors.
Click to expand...
One thing you might consider, (I did this on my daily driver not race car) kind of a hybrid, I used a painless panel for all the accessory junk but used a OEM front end harness then made a terminal strip on fender well. The racer in me likes easy to repair/trouble shoot options! That way I had all the factory ends and then had the latitude to wire it into painless as it worked. Think aluminum radiator dual fans etc etc. again by no means stock. If you look close at the pix you can just barely see where I tied in the OEM front end harness to a terminal strip. Then took it to box. It has worked great.
1A5D3F85-1D80-4C39-80BC-E560ED173CDA.jpeg
326A1EC0-6FD9-48E1-9B5F-3E807F54CCE4.jpeg
 
j par said:
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.
View attachment 1715844916
Click to expand...

looks like fun jpar!
 
Sublime one said:
One thing you might consider, (I did this on my daily driver not race car) kind of a hybrid, I used a painless panel for all the accessory junk but used a OEM front end harness then made a terminal strip on fender well. The racer in me likes easy to repair/trouble shoot options! That way I had all the factory ends and then had the latitude to wire it into painless as it worked. Think aluminum radiator dual fans etc etc. again by no means stock. If you look close at the pix you can just barely see where I tied in the OEM front end harness to a terminal strip. Then took it to box. It has worked great.View attachment 1715844951 View attachment 1715844955
Click to expand...

Nice work there Sublime
 
Having done 2 painless harness jobs what I learned was it color coded very well (mine were GM installs, mileage may vary lol) and the overall quality was pretty good. If I had to do another one the Fuse panel is probably not going to be under the Dash. IMO if you can get it to a different location the install will be cleaner and you have an opportunity to make for easier access.

And I can't stress this enough. Make a good wiring Diagram. Now that I am doing some Industrial electrical I can't begin to tell you how important a wiring Roadmap is.

But make sure your setup is worth a complete wiring makeover. To really make a nice job it takes quite a bit of work...

JW
 
Last edited:
What kind of gremlins are you having? As long as the bulkhead connector isn't melted, there really shouldn't be a whole lot there that isn't fixable for pennies on the dollar.

I just went through all the wiring gremlins on my car and it was relatively pain free. It's just grounds, hots ran to the battery and switched ignition. A handful of butt splices, a few connectors and some heat shrink and all the cheap aftermarket gauges and house style wire nuts are gone and everything is back to looking clean again.

Most annoying part is my misshapen head after banging it on the dash repeatedly while working underneath it.
 
ESP47 said:
What kind of gremlins are you having? As long as the bulkhead connector isn't melted, there really shouldn't be a whole lot there that isn't fixable for pennies on the dollar.

I just went through all the wiring gremlins on my car and it was relatively pain free. It's just grounds, hots ran to the battery and switched ignition. A handful of butt splices, a few connectors and some heat shrink and all the cheap aftermarket gauges and house style wire nuts are gone and everything is back to looking clean again.

Most annoying part is my misshapen head after banging it on the dash repeatedly while working underneath it.
Click to expand...
Alot of splicing and changing colors of wires.....including alternator wire
ESP47 said:
What kind of gremlins are you having? As long as the bulkhead connector isn't melted, there really shouldn't be a whole lot there that isn't fixable for pennies on the dollar.

I just went through all the wiring gremlins on my car and it was relatively pain free. It's just grounds, hots ran to the battery and switched ignition. A handful of butt splices, a few connectors and some heat shrink and all the cheap aftermarket gauges and house style wire nuts are gone and everything is back to looking clean again.

Most annoying part is my misshapen head after banging it on the dash repeatedly while working underneath it.
Click to expand...
Most of the issues I found are. Bubba induced.......3 way splices with with color changes that make it vey challenging to troubleshoot issues.
I have thought about relocating the fuse panel ......just need to find a convenient location.
 
FWIW...I got the engine harness, wiper harness, and trans/NSS harness from Evans Wiring. Laid them out against the original harnesses from my 71 Demon 340 and they are IDENTICAL. Every length, color, etc are dead on. But Evans doesn't make a front end lighting harness for the car so I got one from M&H. Laid it out against the original...it is close but nowhere near dead on. The branches come off further down the line and then the lines are longer. On the order of 3-5 inches off.
Just my observation - none are installed yet. Just not what I expected.
 
63SplitWindow said:
Alot of splicing and changing colors of wires.....including alternator wire

Most of the issues I found are. Bubba induced.......3 way splices with with color changes that make it vey challenging to troubleshoot issues.
I have thought about relocating the fuse panel ......just need to find a convenient location.
Click to expand...

I had the same issues. Using the continuity feature on your volt meter makes tracing a piece of cake. I printed out a schematic and just started at the battery and worked my way out. Small red wire on the battery goes to the post on the starter relay. Post on the starter relay goes to the J connection on the bulkhead. Put my meter on both ends, hear the beep that tells me there's continuity and I move on. You can trace everything under the hood back to where it needs to go and verify it's done per the schematic. Then you move inside the car if you need to and do the same process under the dash.

If there is a random hack job splice, follow it to see why they spliced in there in the first place. Once you find the other end you can decide if it makes sense to have that splice there and you can clean it up or you can remove it completely if its not necessary.

If you flip the original fuse box upside down, you'll see that there are some unused connections on the back side of the fuse holders. You can make a clean connection there to either constant 12v power or ignition switched power and you won't have to cut anything to make a splice.

It seems like a lot of work but I can guarantee it will be 2x less work than installing a new harness and you'll save hundreds or even over a thousand dollars. You won't have the brand new wires but as long as you have sound connections and nothing is melted, you don't really necessarily need the new wiring.
 
I just changed my under hood. Made a world of difference
 
I just finished a bumper to bumper rewire of my 71 Charger (I know, I know, not an 'A' body....) using the American Autowire harnesses. While I wouldn't call the project 'easy', it also wasn't hard, just time consuming. The documentation is mostly clear, and where it isn't they have excellent customer support. You have to know how to crimp, if you don't have crimpers buy theirs when you get the harness.
 
Jeff Erwin said:
I just finished a bumper to bumper rewire of my 71 Charger (I know, I know, not an 'A' body....) using the American Autowire harnesses. While I wouldn't call the project 'easy', it also wasn't hard, just time consuming. The documentation is mostly clear, and where it isn't they have excellent customer support. You have to know how to crimp, if you don't have crimpers buy theirs when you get the harness.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forum...:welcome:..
 
Thanks. Been pretty active on the B-Bodies forum, hang out here as well because these cars are mostly the same underneath.


Hopefully that comment doesn't start some kind of holy war.. ;>)
 
Jeff Erwin said:
Thanks. Been pretty active on the B-Bodies forum, hang out here as well because these cars are mostly the same underneath.


Hopefully that comment doesn't start some kind of holy war.. ;>)
Click to expand...
Like you said this is for a body's only not for b bodies only LOL... We are not as high strung more Blue collar down to earth...
 
Jeff Erwin said:
I just finished a bumper to bumper rewire of my 71 Charger (I know, I know, not an 'A' body....) using the American Autowire harnesses. While I wouldn't call the project 'easy', it also wasn't hard, just time consuming. The documentation is mostly clear, and where it isn't they have excellent customer support. You have to know how to crimp, if you don't have crimpers buy theirs when you get the harness.
Click to expand...
Don’t worry about the A body thing heck they let me on here and I race an E body! There is simply more technical expertise on here than the other Mopar sites. And the folks are more willing to share.
Welcome aboard.
 
Sublime one said:
Don’t worry about the A body thing heck they let me on here and I race an E body! There is simply more technical expertise on here than the other Mopar sites. And the folks are more willing to share.
Welcome aboard.
Click to expand...
And like he says, there are many on here who own more than just A bodies! Welcome!!
 
I just ordered 3 of the M&H harnesses (engine/lights, A/C and heater, and tail lights)during the 30% off sale. saved about $150 and still got the free shipping. I will have to order the main dash at a later date.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top