Have YOU rewired your Charger yet?

[Kern Dog]

My beloved 70 Charger is technically 43 1/2 years old since it was built in December 1969. It started out as a 318 car and has seen many changes since it was first built. The wiring, however, is almost totally original. I did add a MP electronic ignition kit when I swapped in the first 440 in 2002, but aside from that, everything else is original.
I know that the headlights could be brighter, but I have had no other problems with the electrical system. The ammeter is still stock since I have yet to have the guages restored. I have a friend that is willing to rewire the engine side of the harness. He did this with his 71 Road Runner. He added relays for many components and his headlights are nearly as bright as newer cars. I'm tempted to move forward with this, but one concern is trying to maintain a factory-like appearance. I'm interested in reading from those of you that have made the move.
Thanks, Greg

[elanmars]

With my last Charger-it had so many problems and the wires had been spliced so many times it was ridiculous...that when I got the whole thing rewired, no more headaches, no more gremlins or weird stuff happening. Lights were all MUCH brighter and I wish I had done it sooner!

[charger Downunder]

Here to keep it original buy from here, they even have an engine harness to suit electronic ignition.
http://www.evanswiring.com/

[kab69440]

Pieces of it. The radio harness, the tail lamp harness is from an 87 Daytona, some of the engine wiring is uhhhh, "custom" shall we say...

[Bob T]

Pieces of it. The radio harness, the tail lamp harness is from an 87 Daytona, some of the engine wiring is uhhhh, "custom" shall we say...

Hahaha custom pieces here too, lets say the engine and cabin wiring was ''unorthodox'' and had to fix 30 years of hack jobs to make it safe and reliable. So, I had to make make own looms, not too much of a prob since I'm a sparkie anyway just time and a grind of a job , but, in hindsight I would opt for the Evans loom sets

[Dino]

Hey Red, I was going to do the relay mod for the headlights myself but instead am going with b5blue's solution.  My wiring has never been hacked so I see no reason to replace it.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,70008.0.html

[charge69]

While everything worked when I got my Charger way back in 1976, there was a "mysterious" wire or two on it. When we started the restoration i planned to get all new wiring harnesses for it and I did.

[Back N Black]

I rewired my car 5 years ago during the restoration, i used M&H wiring. Best money i ever spent on the restore. 

[68RT4ME]

While everything worked when I got my Charger way back in 1976, there was a "mysterious" wire or two on it. When we started the restoration i planned to get all new wiring harnesses for it and I did.

Since I'm about getting started on my 69's resto., I'm also wanting to replace the whole wiring harness. Since the wiring is over 40 years old, I'm not inclined to depend on the original wires to do the job anymore and don't want to be chasing shorts in the system so out with the old and in with the new.

[charge69]

Good plan!!   

[70 Charger RT]

If you're worried about factory appearance, hide the new headlight relays under the battery box.

[projectanimal]

When we bought our project 2 years ago it ran but only started with a toggle switch and there were no lights to even see if they worked.   We knew we would switch the wiring at some point, so we bit the bullet first and bought a complete wiring harness from year one.  Once we pulled out the old there were so many breaks and corroded bare wires we were lucky it wasn't hooked up!  What a great feeling to turn the key and have the car start and stop!!   Ran all the new harnesses and it will be great to Put it back together next month!  I would highly recommend the new harness, plug and play!   

[Wicked72]

I picked up a 21 circut complete front to rear harness for my 72 for $160 from ezwiring.com havent put it in but it comes with prewired headlight relays, horn and blinkers. everything color coded and even says what it goes to on the wires every few inches. i doubt you can beat it for the price however for an oe type deal it uses the mini fuses so it wouldnt be a good choice however they do have kits with the standard bus fuses with less circuts

[tan top]

  used all M&H harnesses going back after the resto ,  then went back inside the dash harness to do my own take on the madd amp gauge by pass 5 years later  , then proceded to get carried away & redesigned the charging circut & power supply to the fuse box , headlamp & ignition switch &  protected every thing with blade fuses , over kill yes !! but once started just escalated   

[projectanimal]

 

[miamivice]

  My wiring has never been hacked so I see no reason to replace it.

IF my wiring is all original in everything works perfectly, is there any reason why I would still want to buy an all new wiring harness when I restore my car (safety concerns I should still have?). 

[Kern Dog]

I see the point. If it works, why mess with it?
I know very little about electrical systems, but it seems that when things go bad, it can happen quickly without warning. I had a 76 Camaro in 1994 that once started cranking over even though I was 20 feet away! The starter leads had come cracks in the insulation and arced to the block. It didn't start, but it was creepy. The Charger is worth 10 of those Camaros, so the money spent on a rewire is cheap insurance. A fire to the car because of aged wiring is an avoidable thing.

[Darkman]

There was evidence of an electrical fire in my Charger. Most of the wiring under the dash was hacked into and spliced in a very poor manner.

Putting that aside, even if the splicing was done well, most of the wiring under the dash was brittle. There is no doubt that the wiring will be completely replaced. In my case, it will be custom made to run all the "gadgets" that are making up my rebuild.

[Kern Dog]

I picked up a 21 circut complete front to rear harness for my 72 for $160 from ezwiring.com havent put it in but it comes with prewired headlight relays, horn and blinkers. everything color coded and even says what it goes to on the wires every few inches. i doubt you can beat it for the price however for an oe type deal it uses the mini fuses so it wouldnt be a good choice however they do have kits with the standard bus fuses with less circuts

THIS is impressive. I may just look into this option for my car. Thank you, Greg

[Rolling_Thunder]

Been there and done that...      on a LOT of people's cars...    I've used EZ wiring, Painless, Ron Francis, Evans, Isis, M&H....      

All depends on what you want to do...     I used painless because of cost, simplicity, and the fact that not much on my charger was going to be stock...        

As for the debate "if it aint broke don't fix it" -- electrical wire degrades over time as power is passed through it...  so over 40+ years it is always better to replace it with new   

[projectanimal]

Last summer we witnessed a bad electrical fire on a beautiful 69 charger as it was trying to pull into a car show..     I couldn't in good conscious take any pictures (as I felt so bad for the guy) but thankfully he pulled right over and they got the burn to stop before it toasted the whole car.   It looked like it started by the firewall block around the brake boost.   not sure what happened after the car show, but hopefully we will run into him this year!  we already had the wiring harness on our list, but this pushed it to the front of the line and we went with the nice plug and play.  we were going to use the Painless system, but all our connections were toast so swapping them over would have been useless. 
If you have the time and money to invest in good wiring I highly recommend it....   

[Dino]

If I would see ANYTHING wrong with my wiring it would have been yanked out and replaced.  If you have doubts about the wiring in your car then by all means remove it.  I initially planned to rewire mine but when I found this car, the previous owner had taken real good care of the car and the wiring had never been touched, not even to install an aftermarket radio.

I'm hoping to drive this car for several more years until I am done with school and have a good paying job and free time.  First winter after that it'll get restored and I 'may' swap the wiring at that time but right now there's just no need for it.  I checked a lot of wires on my car and they are wrapped as they should, no splices, no burns, no hard insulation even.  At some point I thought someone must have replaced the wiring already but I can't find any proof of that.

I do check my wiring a lot, just to be on the safe side although even if you do replace everything, shit can still hit the fan and burn the car to the ground.

Honestly, I am much more worried about a gasoline fire than an electrical fire with these old beasts.

[Brightyellow69rtse]

i went with all new m&h harnesses and couldnt be happier with them. their customer service is the best ive ever had hands down!

[1970Moparmann]

In my book, wiring upgrade is a #1 thing that needs to be complete during a restoration.   

Look at the fire potential rats nest I have for my Bird I picked up a few months ago. 

[dodgey68]

yep same here, wireing had a real lot of issues, hacked, spliced, and hacked again, some fried, and since i was restoring the car, i got a complete new plug and play wire harness from year one, bloody brilliant and simple, reasonble price on kit, wasn't even  going to  try and repair the old one,  not taking that chance,,,,,,,
not to say the new one wouldn't give me any issues....

[Wicked72]

My car has been been on fire once already so im taking my precautions for sure. car was last tagged in the 80s

[FC7 V code]

My 70 had been sitting for a number of years and after getting it running for the first time since the mid 90's the under-hood harness to the coil/ballast resister/alternator went up in a cloud of smoke. The car had only been running for a few minutes when this happened...thankfully my Wife and Son were standing by with a fire extinguisher in case things got out of hand. It didn't require that as I hadn't tightened the positive battery cable down in case of something unforeseen like this happening. After I unhooked the battery it took the heat away quickly and I pulled the harness loose from the firewall connector. Examination of the harness revealed at least two wires with broken/cracked/no insulation on them that caused the problem. I ordered the new harness from Year One and that cured the under-hood issue. At that point, I was wondering what some of the other wiring looked like. A quick examination under the dash revealed multiple splices of many different wires, all made before I bought the car in 1983. It was a scary sight and I sprung for the Year One main wiring harness...costly but in my opinion worth every penny! Remember if you haven't looked your wiring over here's some info from the 70's...most young guys(tended to be the early owners of your ride) of that era were always cutting and splicing the under dash wiring to hook power to a combination of things...aftermarket gauges/stereo systems/speakers/CB radios/extra lighting...you name it I've seen it done. Just a tidbit from someone who lived thru the 70's era. 

[Kern Dog]

The work has begun. Today I bought 18 feet of 1/0 guage cable to relocate the battery to the trunk. I am using a battery box from an A-100 van. It is mounted behind the right wheel between the vent tube and the taillight panel. I decided to route the cable forward toward the seat, then across toward the drivers wheel tub, then inside above the rocker panel. It is nestled alongside the taillight wiring underneath that thin metal shield. I'll run it through a grommet through the firewall. It looks like the cleanest path is going between the steering column and the throttle pedal mount bracket, since the starter is just on the other side. The relocation of the battery will open up a spot to mount the box with the relays and switches.
Tomorrow the rewire work will begin.

[greenpigs]

All from Year One when they had the 20% off

Main Dash Harness
Rear Light Harness
Engine Harness
Front Light Harness
ECU Harness

Some are just a few wires but they give me piece of mind.

[Mytur Binsdirti]

This looks........good?   

[charge69]

All new wiring harnesses front-to-rear for me. Just too many possibilities with the old wiring.

[Kern Dog]

Bob and I have yet to actually rewire the engine side harness, but we have almost completed the battery relocation to the trunk. I bought a 1/0 cable and routed it through the trunk, behind the rear seat to the left rocker panel. It sits in the factory wire harness channel at the rocker panel. The cable continues forward to the firewall and loops over the parking brake cable, then passes through the firewall below the speedo cable. I have a thick plastic grommet in the firewall made from 2 pieces of sprinkler fittings. I'm using a FORD starter solenoid in the trunk to allow the 1/0 cable to remain dead except during engine cranking. I'll post pictures soon.

[projectanimal]

The work has begun. Today I bought 18 feet of 1/0 guage cable to relocate the battery to the trunk. I am using a battery box from an A-100 van. It is mounted behind the right wheel between the vent tube and the taillight panel. I decided to route the cable forward toward the seat, then across toward the drivers wheel tub, then inside above the rocker panel. It is nestled alongside the taillight wiring underneath that thin metal shield. I'll run it through a grommet through the firewall. It looks like the cleanest path is going between the steering column and the throttle pedal mount bracket, since the starter is just on the other side. The relocation of the battery will open up a spot to mount the box with the relays and switches.
Tomorrow the rewire work will begin.

We recently moved our battery to the trunk as well.  There is a local speed shop so I purchased a kit with battery box and then picked up some additional pieces.   I have the box on the passenger side of trunk, running the main line up along the passenger door will, and to firewall just below heater box.   Have a through wall plug with the original power line from the starter running along firewall to plug.  I can throw some pictures up tomorrow if anyone is Interested...    The previous owner had hacked an old battery tray up front and set it too high (hood could ground out battery) and I stalled aftermarket pulley set so you couldn't lower the tray.  Kind of nice to move the weight to the trunk and open up the area by the power steering! 

[Kern Dog]

I finished the battery relocation today and started the car. It is great when changes are made and all of it works right.
The Ford solenoid clicks a split second before the starter spins the motor. That is different to hear. The starter actually seems to spin faster than when the battery was up front.

[UH60L]

I bought the painless whole car kit for my '69 and have it laying loosely in the car.  I need to make a bracket to mount the fuse box retainer to (my intent is for it to be in the original location).

I am adding in a 6AL MSD controller and electronic distributer at the same time.

Unfortunately my car will remain "in progress" for a few more years due to finances and missing/broken parts.