Can someone give me some advise on putting in a painless wire harness on my 73 SE 400 with AC. I am new at this, will I have to attache all the bulbs for the dash? is it pretty much a plug and play? I was thinking of getting the whole harness (inside & engine bay) will I need to to buy any adapters? Any kind of advise will be appreciated before I go and spend the money on the new harness. One other thing, my dash is out of my car so the harness will be easy to get to. Is it possible to build the dash with the gauges installed and then put the built up dash back in? Can I test the gauges and the harness before I put it back?
Thanks,
dabks73
Painless is based on GM ciruits , you still need to wire in all the end points such as bulbs in the dash Etc
it really is harder then a repro harness to wire in
Thanks for the advice where do i find a repro harness?
Thanks,
dabs73
You could try a harness from this company, http://www.ronfrancis.com/wiringharness.php although they look to be Gm Based also, but in general most car circuits perform the same functions to a point, so it will take more time to wire than a plug in repo harness, you can wait until a harness is made for you car, not drive your car or upgrade with what's available now.
Had a friend install a painless kit in mine . got the whole car done , and it turned out pretty well no electrical problems now. Believe me I had lots of those problems before then .
Well I can speak first hand.
First of all my painless kit works great and was worth the effort. I too never had tackled electrical before and found this doable.
Although the word "Painlesss" is a little mis leading. Yes you must terminate your ends, I used "Molex" connectors to create my own harness'. I love the fact I don't have a bulkhead junction anymore. It took me 4 months of hair pulling and finally finished it. I know every bit of my car because of this experience.
Have someone help you and do what I did, remove the old harness' and create your own using the kit it really isn't that hard. This job will require a lot of patience. Doing it this way will save you about $2000 over buying the original harness'.
Take care and I hope this helps
Michael
member 1970chargerRT used this harness.
www.itsasnap.com
my buddy just bought one so i'm gonna get some practice in doing his car first.
Man that pic of that chick working under the sink man. :icon_smile_tongue:
I'm really confused on this whole wiring thing too. I've looking at it for a long time now, and have looked at stuff from Painless, Ron Francis, and the repro stuff at Year One. I like the stuff from Painless and Ron Francis because it uses the newer style fuse boxes and spade type fuses. Not to mention that it's way cheaper than going with the Year One stuff.
But, I'm still confused on how you terminate all the ends. Can you still get all the connectors that hook up to the dash and to the headlights, etc.? Those don't look to be common connectors that would be easy to find. Anybody have a source for all the connectors?
Brent69
It is expensive but I went the YO repro route from bumper to bumper in my car and I have to say it was hands down one of the best and most satisfying investments I have made in my car.
My only regret is that no one can see all that nice new factory style wiring and admire it. My interior is all ratty and falling apart and everyone sees that. Meanwhile, I have twice the value of an interior kit into my wiring.
Hey Chryco,
My car came with a new Painless non GM 18 circuit kit....wouldn't it make sense to use it? :-\My factory wiring is junk,even the previous owner told me he had problems.Should I use it since it is new and came with the car? ???
Thanks for the response, Ghoste.
I suppose I'll have plenty of other things to worry while rebuilding this car, so if there is an easier way to do something - I should take advantage of it. I'm sure using the YO wires will make things much easier in the long run. I suppose I'll go with those.
Yes painless is a good brand, but if you want the EXACT same application for a fraction of the price check out EZ Wiring, just trying to help save money so you can use it somewhere else on the car
The Painless company do make a wiring harness for Mopars, with bulkhead..
(http://www.painlesswiring.com/webcatalog/catlarge/20103.jpg)
#20103 12 circuit harness and 18 circuit harness #20104
To make the connections on the engine compartment side of the bulkhead, order the wire connectors from ex. Year One # RU346
(http://www.yearone.com/images/parts/ru0_ru5/ru346.jpg)
The EZ harness also looks really good for the money spent, its cheaper than the Painless and will shorely do the job just as good. Only problem is that the EZ harness doesnt have the bulk head connector, so that has to be bypassed..
(http://www.ezwiring.com/colorharness.jpg)
Both the Painless and EZ harnesses comes with a far superior fuse box than the Mopar stock one...
/Tom