What Wiring Harness Should I Get?

[Moparman01]

Well the other night I about burned my General to the ground, when I hooked up my battery something shorted and smoke was pouring out of the bulkhead connectors and looked like the ballast resistor to, I mean it's fried! So, I have very little electrical knowledge, a buddy of mine said to pick up a complete new harness kit and he'd install it for me no problem, but I have no idea what to get? I know there is Painless Wiring kits, I checked them out on Summits site, are they good kits? (Summits discription of the kit says "includes column ignition, now we all know Chargers do not have the ignition in the column, I found that curious). I've also looked at Ez wiring, but again I'm not sure which kit is best for my car, but I like the price! Anyways, is there anything I should know or be aware of since my car is a factory 68 318 car with points ignition and now has a 440 with Mopar Performance electronic ignition when I order a kit? I really do want to start fresh with all brand new wiring as mine is speghetti factory of bad wiring the way it is anyway!! Thanks for any help!!

[Back N Black]

I would go with a new stock wiring setup, just plug and play. M & H makes the original harness and Year One sell the harness. There are 4 different harness:

Forward headlight harness.
Engine harness.
Dash harness
Taillight harness

Here's their number for technical support 562-926-9562

[lukedukem]

i just went thru the sme thing. back n black is right. yearone sells them. it can add up. my car too was a 318 turned 383, the harness you get is for the 383 (engine harness). if you have anymore questions let me know. i can find my order forms and pull part numbers if you want. be carefull, these harnessess can add up in total cost, but its worth it. what else did you burn up, miine took my ammeter with it. so i had to get a new one and re do the dash and all the guages.
i just saw your was a 68, part # might be different but i can still help
luke

[bull]

I would go with a new stock wiring setup, just plug and play. M & H makes the original harness and Year One sell the harness. There are 4 different harness:

Forward headlight harness.
Engine harness.
Dash harness
Taillight harness

Here's their number for technical support 562-926-9562

i just went thru the sme thing. back n black is right. yearone sells them. it can add up. my car too was a 318 turned 383, the harness you get is for the 383 (engine harness). if you have anymore questions let me know. i can find my order forms and pull part numbers if you want. be carefull, these harnessess can add up in total cost, but its worth it. what else did you burn up, miine took my ammeter with it. so i had to get a new one and re do the dash and all the guages.
i just saw your was a 68, part # might be different but i can still help
luke

If you play the discounts right you can get 25% - 30% off. Check the discounts section for deals on Year One stuff. It's still a lot of money but I don't really like fooling around with the Painless type kits because when it comes to working out gemlins it's real nice to be able to go by the factory schematics.

Mopar Nut is posting Year One discounts all the time: http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,101735.0.html

[Mopar Nut]

I would wait a little, should be a 30% off discountable items coming up soon.

[Moparman01]

Thanks for the help! But now i'm not sure which harness i really need, the engine harness or the dash harness? Should i just get both? Just out of curiosity, what kinda problems are there with the complete Painless Mopar Muscle Car kit? Are they just a problem becuase they are not OEM correct as far as style? The car is a General Lee so i'm not to worried about factory concourse correct, i just want it to work and run reliably. I have almost no electric knowledge so i ask becuase i really don't know! Do the new Year One harness's came with a new fuse box or just re-use the old origional?

[lukedukem]

the reason i went with the OEM style from m&h is because the  field service manual tells you every wire and color and were it goes. i had no electrical knowlege either (and i'm color blind) but with that book and the OEM wires, with others help on here, i think it went pretty well. i have no expr. with painless. but i think if you already have OEM in there its good to repolace cause you can stick them side by side before you pull the old one out, and label it. as far as which ones to get. get both if you can afford it.

luke

[Finn]

I have done both the M&H harness on my 68 charger and the EZ wiring harness (EZ-21, which is the big kit) on my 63 Savoy. They both have their own fuse blocks, M&H having the original glass style and EZ using the modern fuses.

Here are some pros vs cons:

M&H-Pro

OEM colored wire and connectors
Plug and play design. You can't mess this up.

M&H-Con

Friggin Expensive.


EZ Harness Pro

Cheap price for a quality product.
Great Tech support.
It's easier than it looks.
You'll be more confident with wiring by the time you're done.


EZ Harness Con

Not OEM style.
More time to install

My girlfriend and I figured out the EZ kit and re-wired the car without any electrical knowledge. If I wasn't concerned with keeping a stock appearance, I'd do the EZ kit for every car. 180 bucks is a heck of a lot easier to stomach than almost 800 in total for the M&H harnesses.

[Moparman01]

Just a follow up post here, i ended up buying the engine harness from Year One, after some inpection that was all that i needed. I must say the Year One harness is very nice, looks good, and seems to work great, we installed it a couple weeks ago. I'm thinking about getting a lighting harness now to upgrade that wiring too! Also, we found the cause of the short, the plastic insulator that goes over the alternator post where the eyelet screws on had fallen off, and when i re-installed the alternator i just put the wire on and did not notice the insulator was gone, which created the short!

[Ghoste]

I had the same type of short once.