Wiring Harness (again)

I've been chasing this thing round this tree several times now and I have to pull the trigger on it. Anyone know of a decent wiring harness that's not as high as a giraffe's ____.

I almost bought a 'It's a Snap' harness for $175.00, but after Googling them, some say their quality is hit or miss and you should go with something that's better quality. (They do have cool headlight lamps though).

http://www.itsasnapwireandcable.com/

I may end up ordering this one:

http://www.kwikwire.com/wh_22Circuitstreetrodwiring.html#optiondesc

Your thoughts?

the only one that I know anyone has used is painless but it most likely cost the most. wonder where they got that name from. where is youe problem at under the dash or the engine bay. the reason i asked is a freind in cleavland took a mid 70's b200 van harness from the engine and and spliced every thing under the drivers seat.stated that most of the color codes stayed the same. he was very happy with his results...

If you saw my existing wiring, you'd either laugh your ___ off or have a coronary. My splices have splices. The POs were masters of the twist and tape method. My fuse box is corroded which frustrates my turn signals. Idiot even bypassed the starter relay. How 'it runs' is a mystery. lol

Anyways, I want to strip it all down and start over. Anticipate getting a head unit, amp, electric radiator fan, 12 volt receptacles, 7 pin trailer harness, maybe an inverter, etc.

I understand . but can't help ya. hope someone can...

No problem. Thanks for the heads up dix.

Yeah, the taillight and doghouse wires would be longer. I was quoted $300.00 on a modified one last year, but money got tight. My thought was that it would be nice to have the GLX color coded wires and not have to buy a bunch of spools of wire. It would also motivate me to get it installed lol.

$750.00 for a Painless harness seems a bit rich, but I can see where guys won't want to chance things on a cheap electrical job.

Gonna do some more pondering...

The guys on the HAMB run into this all the time.
Plenty of threads on rewiring, Rebel wire is a fav.

http://rebelwire.com/

For connectors, I like the new stuff. This is the best deal I've found for them. You can use these for sub-harnesses, like the rear harness.
http://www.diyautotune.com/catalog/755-piece-weather-pack-kit-p-380.html

This is a great topic and as usual full of insight and suggestions. This morning Im beginning the removal of the complete wiring harness from one of my donor vans. I too am planning on rewiring the 67 A100 currently in the body shop. So I will be checking all of the recommended sites for kits, parts etc. I'll post what I come up with, and maybe we can come up with a good, simple solution to 40 plus years old wiring.

i bought one of those ez anybody can doit cheap off ebay. im confused as hell. the old fuse block had only 8 fuses, the new one has 8 millon. now- the old block say as example the horn fuse has only two leads off it. the new block has 3 leads plu a wire luping bac under going to another spot in the bloc. my fear is if i hook every wire to lites, clock, ect, ect. can i trust the block? will it go up in smoke?????

Wylee, do you have more info on the kit you bought?
I can probably walk you through at least some of it if I know what you have.
Most fuse blocks have a lot more curcuits than our old stuff.

I finished mine a couple months ago with a Ron Francis kit. If I remember correctly it was about $450, but it included a new headlight switch too. I eventually replaced the ignition switch and wiper control with RF models, so the knobs would match and make it as easy as possible.

This was my first time taking on a complete rewire, so I spent more to get a good kit that wouldn't frustrate me more than necessary. There is PLENTY of wire in this kit, so even the runs to the tail lights weren't a problem. If I had it to do over again, knowing what I know now, I might go with a less expensive kit, but I'm very happy with how it came out.

I spent a lot of time carefully thinking through how I wanted to route wires, and I'm glad I did. No real do overs, just snugged up a number of connections once I was sure everything worked. (And leave yourself more slack than you think you'll need. Mine is fine, but there were a couple where I cut it a little shorter than maybe I should, but it all worked out.)

I learned a LOT doing this project, but so glad I did. The worst part is some of my best work is where no one will ever see it. No matter - I know it's there, and done right.

Gearhead off of Ebay. Instruction book is poor quality.


Sucker sticks up quite a bit. Didn't come with fuses or flashers.




What about those single terminals above "Turn Signals" and "ACC"?:


Do I worry about this?:

no i don't think so you can run your wire there for the amp, or power antenna, acc, in the back of the van

See my posts on electrical harnesses??

Twinpilot001 wrote: See my posts on electrical harnesses??

Yep, I saw it, but I'm going to be going way past stock on this thing. May even put the block behind the driver's seat. Probably going to be improvising a bunch as I go along. These wires have their destination hot printed into them which is what sold me on it. I'll try to take notes as to how much wire will be needed to go to each device.

One thing I noticed in your pictures is that the wires seem pre-attached to the fuse block. This may make it trickier to get the lengths right (mine had connecters I attached to the wires at the fuse block and, most of the time, to the other end as well).

I found it useful, after everything was in and working, to snug everything up at the fuse box by working from the gauge, light, switch, or whatever and take up the slack as I worked back to the fuse block. Then I would cut the excess and put on a new connecter at the fuse block. Perhaps those connectors just push into the fuse block, so you might want to have a supply of those connecters on hand.

I suppose you could do the same thing in reverse - just something I noticed from my experience (I'm now an "expert" you know, having done it once!).

Here is a pic from an '86 Cutlas. Can't believe they have wires sticking out of the face of the block. That takes care of part of my head scratching.

http://www.gbodyforum.com/download/file.php?id=5053&mode=view

If I was going to a full kit I would with a a doubt go with a "Keep it Clean" system. These kits are very well put together, every wire is printed on to know where it goes and each bundle of wire has a connector to undo it near the fuse box, very nice systems. That said, for the econolines do we need a full kit or just a fuse box on kit, there is not much to our wiring? I would eliminate the god awful headlight switch / fuse box and switch to a normal headlight switch and use the fuse box and wiring kit only, that is what I will be doing shortly.

http://www.keepitcleanwiring.com/products/wire-harness-kits/

kgdb

Just looked at that link kgdb. For what I wanted it was $199. Not a bad price for the fuse box and wiring.