Rewiring an early A-body

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Valiant63

Valiant63

Early A-body Valiants
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eastern, PA and central Florida
So I have a 66 dodge dart with a slant six that I am making look like it is a 65 valiant hand we are having wiring difficulties getting the 66 under hood wiring to plug into the under dash wiring have a 65 Valiant.

Being that the car is 55 years old and the wiring is already quite brutal, I’m thinking that possibly we re-wiring it is the way to go. Is there an easy way to re-wire the car and is there a company out there that makes wiring for early A-bodies? I am also thinking that upgrading the lights on the car to LEDs would be a good idea. Any help would be appreciated.
 
I am using the Ron Francis Express kit on my 64 Wagon. It is pretty straightforward, the wires are labeled and the fuse box is color coordinated to the wire that is used. The one thing missing in the instructions is to wire ING1 and ING2 together if using a pertronix or hei set up.

Customer Service was great and responded to emails quickly.
 
I've used Ron Francis before and they are great. Where I am now, we use American Auto Wire almost exclusively and I have to say I am impressed. I am wiring two cars at the same time right now. A 70 Chevelle SS454 and a 63 300 HP 327 4 speed Corvette. Although the Chevelle is getting a custom OEM replacement upgraded harness from Painless, the Corvette is getting the American Auto Wire that we normally use. VERY easy to install. All wires are marked right on them what they are and where they go. A chimp could do it. Whatever you get, pony up for a good one. These harnesses we use cost over 1K dollars. They aren't cheap, but they are very high quality.
 
I beleive ron Francis and painless make kits. It's a new fuse panel and load of loose wire you cnnect yourself.
 
Whoever you choose, it is very smart to replace all that brittle old wiring. You will save yourself much pain by taking the plunge now in the long run! Every crack leads to 12” of corrosion. JMO.
 
1969383S said:
Whoever you choose, it is very smart to replace all that brittle old wiring. You will save yourself much pain by taking the plunge now in the long run! Every crack leads to 12” of corrosion. JMO.
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No, that's not just your opinion. That's a fat old FACT! you said a mouthful.
 
I was hummin and hawin over whether or not to rewire my 67 barracuda...so glad I did! The little stuff I saw that made me want to rewire it wasn't the half of it after I got into it. I went with the Ron Francis express777 kit...They built the kit according to my scenario and I can honestly say I do not know why you would need a better kit than this. Very impressed. Their bulkhead plate wasn't sized right so I had to build my own that fit but not a big deal.
That being said I have heard good things about American Autowire but I would like to know what they offering for the extra cash you got to pay for it?
 
Ed Kelly said:
I am using the Ron Francis Express kit on my 64 Wagon. It is pretty straightforward, the wires are labeled and the fuse box is color coordinated to the wire that is used. The one thing missing in the instructions is to wire ING1 and ING2 together if using a pertronix or hei set up.

Customer Service was great and responded to emails quickly.
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Are you using the GM or do they make a mopar kit?

Jake
 
Shmaako said:
I was hummin and hawin over whether or not to rewire my 67 barracuda...so glad I did! The little stuff I saw that made me want to rewire it wasn't the half of it after I got into it. I went with the Ron Francis express777 kit...They built the kit according to my scenario and I can honestly say I do not know why you would need a better kit than this. Very impressed. Their bulkhead plate wasn't sized right so I had to build my own that fit but not a big deal.
That being said I have heard good things about American Autowire but I would like to know what they offering for the extra cash you got to pay for it?
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The one for over 1K dollars was actually the Painless that I am putting in the Chevelle. It is considered an OEM upgrade and comes with every switch, socket, bulbs.....everything but a hot nekkid blonde to jump outta the box and install it for you. Very nice kit. The fuse panel bolts right into the factory hole in the firewall. The front and rear harnesses have modern weatherpack style connectors and plug into the main wiring harness. It all but installs itself. This is the one I am installing in the Chevelle. "Direct Fit"....and they frikkin mean it.

1970 CHEVROLET CHEVELLE Painless Performance 26-Circuit 1970-72 Direct-Fit Chevelle Harnesses 20130
 
I failed to say that I am not putting a lot of money into this pile of junk parts car that I am saving. I am just wanting to make it safe. $1000 is Way too much, $500 for wiring system is too much. I think I am around $200 max. $150 would be great.
Let’s get back to my car if we can.
 
Valiant63 said:
I failed to say that I am not putting a lot of money into this pile of junk parts car that I am saving. I am just wanting to make it safe. $1000 is Way too much, $500 for wiring system is too much. I think I am around $200 max. $150 would be great.
Let’s get back to my car if we can.
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You need to look on the Speedway Motors site at some of their universal harnesses. You'll have to convert to GM style connectors and such, but that's not difficult. I got one of their harnesses on clearance for 89 dollars. It was normally 399.
 
RustyRatRod said:
You need to look on the Speedway Motors site at some of their universal harnesses. You'll have to convert to GM style connectors and such, but that's not difficult. I got one of their harnesses on clearance for 89 dollars. It was normally 399.
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That sounds like more my speed. I am no electrician though. My skills are probably worse than that of your average jungle monkey.
 
Valiant63 said:
That sounds like more my speed. I am no electrician though. My skills are probably worse than that of your average jungle monkey.
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Each wire is still individually marked as to what it is and where it goes. Good instructions too. Mine is a 21 circuit, WAY more than I need for the rat truck, but it was in the right place at the right time and the right price so I snagged it.
 
I rewired my 63 dart sl6 with an american auto wire power plus 13 kit. Id have to say i spent more time reading the instructions than i did to rewire the entire car. The only wire that was to short was the fuel sending unit wire. Ive never rewired anything more than a stereo up to that point in my life. When i rewired it i added a homebrew HEI kit, a custom dash panel, a gps speedo and an electric fan.Three words of advice: if you're gonna crimp wires buy a nice pair of ratcheting wire crimpers, buy good quality connectors and do it before it gets to damn hot outside.
 
Oh and a good blown up pic of your factory wiring diagram for reference. I bought a cool color coded laminated set off ebay about 5 years ago but havent seen them lately.
 
Back in the day we would remove the harnesses and hang them on a piece of plywood. Unwrap it all and replace wire for wire and then re wrap it up. Time consuming but rewarding in the end. Tough getting all the exact color wires with tracers back then if I remember correctly.
 
This is how I do old motorcycle wire harness' . It's not all that hard to do and if you want to keep the color code you can find enough good wire in the original harness to pigtail it on the ends of each wire so it appears to be original and you can use the factory service manual wire diagrams later on if needed. If you get creative you can rewire your car for cheap and have a good harness .Just remember to solder every splice , to not rush , and only work ONE WIRE AT A TIME .
 
I used an engine bay and forward light harness from Year One, not sure of the manufacturer, but it was literally plug and play with the factory components. No instructions needed.
 
Thank you all for the good information. I am not sure about rewiring the whole car myself at this time, but I’ll take it under consideration. My biggest concern would be the bulkhead connectors as I think I would like to eliminate that from the equation because that’s an area that can go bad easily.

Does anybody know about installing LED lights for parking lights and especially for brake and tail lights?
 
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I unplug my bulkhead and spray with WD-40, then blow it out, I let it sit an hour and reconnect annually. (Disconnect Battery 1st) It's the Fusible feed wire that you should remove and run separately through the firewall with a grommet. That's the one that heats up and melts commonly. JMO

Read some of this post. Good info.
MAD ELECTRICAL?
 
xLURKxDOGx said:
Are you using the GM or do they make a mopar kit?

Jake
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They make a mopar kit. With that said, you will still have to splice into your steering column wiring. As they dont have a connector for mopar. It is pretty straightforward
 
I believe the 65 and 66 bulkhead connectors differ, and could be an issue.I may be wrong.
 
Not hard. If the underhood wires are still good and flexible, you can remove each from its plastic housing (squeeze longitudinally to close latch & wiggle out) and move them around, as needed (follow schematics for 1965 & 1966). The 1965 bulkhead has 2 connectors and large bus-bar feed-thrus for the thick ALT & BAT wires. In 1966, they added a 3rd connector since the wiper motor moved into the engine bay. To save space, they dropped the bus-bars and used regular 57 Terminals for the large ALT & BAT wires. Guess what? With a little corrosion, those terminals get hot and melt the bulkhead plastic. BTW, 1964 didn't have the bus-bars (1963 did).

Easiest would be to use the 1966 bulkhead (3 connectors). Smart to deal w/ the "wires will melt" issue now. Search "Mad Bypass". Some people drill the plastic and run dedicated wires thru for ALT & BAT, which the factory did as "fleet wiring", though in a separate grommeted hole. Some here replace the dash ammeter with a voltmeter.
 
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