by 68vanman Mon Jul 29, 2019 1:32 pmHi,
I'm starting a new thread, bringing it over from my other thread titled "1969 A108 clean up and mods" This will be dedicated to the installation of a new Painless wiring harness for our vans. As always, I welcome any questions, support and keeping the thread on topic. This will be my first time installing a new harness. I would rate my electrical aptitude about 6-7 on a scale of 1-10. For my time and budget it was worth it to purchase a complete harness as opposed to replacing a few wires and connections. There were just too many splices, bad connections, etc. to deal with. On top of that, ordering all the correct colored/gauge wires and connections brings me close to the same price. I want a reliable van, and part of that means the wiring needs to be on point. I don't want to chase down electrical issues at night on the side of the road due to a 50 year old harness.
Where I began: I've went thru the original wiring harness, which is really dried, cracked and has many splices with different colored wires. The wiring that goes up and along the front A pillar to the dome and tail lamps still looks to be in great shape so I will leave it in place for now. I followed the factory wiring diagram to help me label every wire and connection on the original harness. I used colored pencils to highlight the diagram and to follow the pathways to each connection. Secondly I printed out the Painless manual for this Mopar specific harness and compared it to the factory wiring BEFORE PURCHASING.
I wanted a harness that followed/copied the Mopar color codes as much as possible. Painless lists this harness for 1966-1976 Mopars. but remember this is for meant mostly for cars. When comparing my harness to the Painless harness I noticed the following:
For example, wire colors like purple and gray are not shown or used on the original harness. Some later model Mopar wiring harnesses do, so I would assume that's what Painless has done. The key thing to remember is that their wiring has every wire labeled so you know where it's supposed to connect.
Stock or aftermarket gauges?: I decided bypass the ammeter connection. I'm going to use a gauge pod for Oil, Temp, Volts, and fuel, so I won't be connecting to the back of the dash other than the speedometer. I'm also using and oil pressure sending unit unlike the original hard line/tubing from the block to the dash.
So after studying my original harness, labeling every connection, reading and re-reading the Painless Manual (you can download it from their website) I ordered from Summit the Painless Mopar customizable wiring harness #10127 and ProBraid chassis harness kit PRF-70920 and battery cable kit 40107.
I'm starting a new thread, bringing it over from my other thread titled "1969 A108 clean up and mods" This will be dedicated to the installation of a new Painless wiring harness for our vans. As always, I welcome any questions, support and keeping the thread on topic. This will be my first time installing a new harness. I would rate my electrical aptitude about 6-7 on a scale of 1-10. For my time and budget it was worth it to purchase a complete harness as opposed to replacing a few wires and connections. There were just too many splices, bad connections, etc. to deal with. On top of that, ordering all the correct colored/gauge wires and connections brings me close to the same price. I want a reliable van, and part of that means the wiring needs to be on point. I don't want to chase down electrical issues at night on the side of the road due to a 50 year old harness.
Where I began: I've went thru the original wiring harness, which is really dried, cracked and has many splices with different colored wires. The wiring that goes up and along the front A pillar to the dome and tail lamps still looks to be in great shape so I will leave it in place for now. I followed the factory wiring diagram to help me label every wire and connection on the original harness. I used colored pencils to highlight the diagram and to follow the pathways to each connection. Secondly I printed out the Painless manual for this Mopar specific harness and compared it to the factory wiring BEFORE PURCHASING.
I wanted a harness that followed/copied the Mopar color codes as much as possible. Painless lists this harness for 1966-1976 Mopars. but remember this is for meant mostly for cars. When comparing my harness to the Painless harness I noticed the following:
For example, wire colors like purple and gray are not shown or used on the original harness. Some later model Mopar wiring harnesses do, so I would assume that's what Painless has done. The key thing to remember is that their wiring has every wire labeled so you know where it's supposed to connect.
Stock or aftermarket gauges?: I decided bypass the ammeter connection. I'm going to use a gauge pod for Oil, Temp, Volts, and fuel, so I won't be connecting to the back of the dash other than the speedometer. I'm also using and oil pressure sending unit unlike the original hard line/tubing from the block to the dash.
So after studying my original harness, labeling every connection, reading and re-reading the Painless Manual (you can download it from their website) I ordered from Summit the Painless Mopar customizable wiring harness #10127 and ProBraid chassis harness kit PRF-70920 and battery cable kit 40107.
Yes, I'm in the A van crowd. So back to the topic at hand:
