Plug-and-Play Wiring Harness

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charliec

charliec

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I have neither the expertise nor the time to rewire my '68 Dart 340 after the total rotisserie resto. So, I'll be shopping for the closest thing to a plug-and-play wiring harness to include everything from stem to stern. It will have electronic ignition components, but everything else will be pretty stock. I've looked at a number of different kits online, but I'm interested in your experience. Which supplier do you consider to be the nearest thing to no-brainer plug-and-play?
 
American Auto wire is very good, but our up there in price. But it is quality and very good instructions ,like a book
 
I did my '69 Dart with M&H from Year One. They have a plug and play option for electronic ignition. Requires a 4 pin ballast and square back alternator, but the wiring guys can probably help you around that, but it is plug and play. Some discounts apply when the have 25-30% off. The only wiring that I reused was the dome light and the brown heater wires.
 
Call Evans Wirings. I’ve used them for several cars with added built-in electronic ignition. Looks and plugs in like stock
 
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M&H from Yearone is the best plug snd play wiring harnesses you’re going to find if you are going stock.
 
If you’re doing some wiring upgrades, American auto wire is best.
 
As I understand it you may have to reuse some of your existing harness, as the aftermarket doesn't make some of the add on harnesses.

As CRUZE 418 pointed out.
 
The Assembly drawings will be a worthy investment for correctly routing and supporting the harnesses. its not a great reprint but will answer a ton of questions. Wires that aren't supported properly can cause failures over time. The connections get strained and the insulation gets damaged.

The assembly drawings also show how the connectors go together.
M&H is probably the best source but even they may not make all of the subharnesses.
Your interior'dash' harness may still have its p/n on it. Its by the dimmer switch. same with the body harness going to the dome and rear lights/fuel. Those may help when ordering.
You'll want to be sure the interior and engine harness are set up for the type of neutral safety and reverse light switches the car has. IIRC the switchover was late in the '68 model year.
 
Thanks to all who have responded. Keep it coming. I will take all under advisement and decide on a path forward.
 
You shouldn't need a wiring diagram, but it does help! That stuff pretty much lays right out where it needs to be. My only head scratcher was the 2-speed wiper ballast and reverse sender/light for the 4-speed harness. Someone had a 3-speed motor in it before me, and things were just wrong. I got it back to a 2-speed and with a wiring diagram, got it back like it should have been, all plug and play.
You will be okay.
 
A few years ago I could buy all the harnesses for my 69 Barracuda with AC from Year one. I made a couple my self, like the auto trans harness because it was only 3 wires & seems expensive To buy.
 
I just got the M&H forward/engine harness for my '66. It's very close to original, but, not exact. There were a couple of wires with a different color code, and as mentioned, it doesn't come with accessory harnesses like A/C or tach wires.
 
You can get the a/c harness from the compressor to the dryer. Got one for my '72 Dart anyway.
 
I realize this is an older post and maybe no one following anymore but I'm just now at the point in my restoration of a 67 Barracuda FstBk that I am looking at wiring system. Since I pulled everything out of the inside of the car including carpet as well as everything in the engine bay, I figured a good time to just rewire the whole car while everything is more easily accessed. Ounce of prevention vs pound of cure, right.

Anyway I am looking at the American Autowire kit# 510603. I kinda like the idea of the GM style bulkhead with the bolt connecting the interior fuse block to engine bay instead of just snap fasteners/connectors. I was wondering if anyone had actually installed one of these personally? Any issues they ran into? My car is a 4spd, so wasn't sure if the kit may be for a column shift automatic or 3spd std on column. Mopar may not have ever made a 3 on the tree but just thought I would ask.

Thanks everyone
 
1badfish67 said:
I realize this is an older post and maybe no one following anymore but I'm just now at the point in my restoration of a 67 Barracuda FstBk that I am looking at wiring system. Since I pulled everything out of the inside of the car including carpet as well as everything in the engine bay, I figured a good time to just rewire the whole car while everything is more easily accessed. Ounce of prevention vs pound of cure, right.

Anyway I am looking at the American Autowire kit# 510603. I kinda like the idea of the GM style bulkhead with the bolt connecting the interior fuse block to engine bay instead of just snap fasteners/connectors. I was wondering if anyone had actually installed one of these personally? Any issues they ran into? My car is a 4spd, so wasn't sure if the kit may be for a column shift automatic or 3spd std on column. Mopar may not have ever made a 3 on the tree but just thought I would ask.

Thanks everyone
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I started by reading the first post here and the op has no time to do this he's already in trouble lol...
Even if there was such thing as a complete 100% plug and Play they're still is a lot to plug and get the wires tucked away and secure and all their proper places....
Most cars are deserve are going to have a column ignition and a column turn signal plug as well. I'm more of a fan of taking the old plug out of the original harness and grafting that into the wiring harness so if I ever have to change my ignition switch or my turn signal switch it's a plug and play deal instead of making those Chevy connections. The differences between three speed four-speed automatic is all in the reverse lights and in the neutral safety switch for the ignition... I've done many many American Auto wires in Chevys and forged trucks and cars but not in a mopar. I just did a generic kit for $85 from speedmaster in my power wagon. Using a lot of the old connections for my original wiring harness but all new wires... I probably wouldn't recommend that for somebody without a lot of experience though... Did anybody thinking they're going to get a plug and play kit done in a weekend is going to be in for a rude awakening especially if it's the first time...
 
I like the M&H harnesses because they really are direct copies. If you are not a skilled electrical guy, I think they are the way to go. They are pricey though.

If you have some reasonable electrical skill and a lot of time on your hands, you can improvise and do it pretty cheap. Buy a cheap set of connector removal pins on Amazon. You need some connectors to practice on, maybe some junkyard harness. Once you get the hang of taking the wires & pins out of connectors, it is pretty easy. Just take pictures of everything and label all of it.

Remember, most connectors, like the firewall bulkhead are made for production line assembly. You don’t need them if you are doing point to point wiring.
 
Thanks to all for the information. My main concern(s) are missing wires and/or wires being too short.

I can read/trace electrical schematics pretty good. I'm an EE by trade for about 20+ years, although in the electrical power utility arena. I don't pretend to know everything but not afraid to dive in to new projects.
I hear ya on not expecting to do a wiring job in a weekend and everything being actual plug n play.

Been around and worked on vehicles long enough to know that I usually multiply how long I think it should take by 3 or 4!

I suspect it may take me around 2 months or 8 weekends more or less. Not going to get in a hurry. If it takes longer than that, so be it. If less, great.

I want to make everything as clean/neat of an install as possible. Have a lot of time, sweat, some blood from a slipping wrench or two and money in this project so want to do it all as right as I can.

thanks again everyone. Appreciate the information. I'll also look at the other manufacturer options mentioned.
 
Even though I've done a lot of wiring kits I don't consider myself like a highly skilled wiring person...
To me it just was a lot of common sense. Now the wire that says headlights on it goes to the headlight switch and provides it with power from the fuse box. Then the wire going out to it goes down to the high low beam switch which splits out into the high beam side of both headlights and low beam side of both headlights... Kind of so forth and so on... To me it's almost easier to do a generic kit because I start with all the generic wires and put them to where they go.
1badfish67 said:
Thanks to all for the information. My main concern(s) are missing wires and/or wires being too short.

I can read/trace electrical schematics pretty good. I'm an EE by trade for about 20+ years, although in the electrical power utility arena. I don't pretend to know everything but not afraid to dive in to new projects.
I hear ya on not expecting to do a wiring job in a weekend and everything being actual plug n play.

Been around and worked on vehicles long enough to know that I usually multiply how long I think it should take by 3 or 4!

I suspect it may take me around 2 months or 8 weekends more or less. Not going to get in a hurry. If it takes longer than that, so be it. If less, great.

I want to make everything as clean/neat of an install as possible. Have a lot of time, sweat, some blood from a slipping wrench or two and money in this project so want to do it all as right as I can.

thanks again everyone. Appreciate the information. I'll also look at the other manufacturer options mentioned.
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In your case it's time and patience and knowledge which more so like I was pointing at is kind of common Sense wiring I would highly recommend a very inexpensive 20 circuit generic wiring kit, some solder filled shrink wrap butt connectors, some different sizes of wire loom and an assortment of smaller zip ties... I did the wiring in my power wagon resto like this and it turned out extremely neat and tidy.... I took the time to route all the wires in a hidden fashion and pull them back out cover them in the loom and put them all back in neatly..
 
Took a look at the M&H site and came up with a list of harnesses to wire most of the car. Didn't see anything for dimmer switch or dome light wiring. These may have been included in the dash harness, not sure. Site had a link to Year One, so I went there for prices. If I chose the correct harness numbers it would cost ~ $1,300.00+tax+shipping for the 5 separate harnesses that I picked to wire the whole car. I think if I go the full car re-wire, I will go with the American Autowire route. It says it does as well come with new dimmer and headlight switches as well as dome light wiring, tach leads, A/C plus get the new fuse box.
 
1badfish67 said:
Took a look at the M&H site and came up with a list of harnesses to wire most of the car. Didn't see anything for dimmer switch or dome light wiring. These may have been included in the dash harness, not sure. Site had a link to Year One, so I went there for prices. If I chose the correct harness numbers it would cost ~ $1,300.00+tax+shipping for the 5 separate harnesses that I picked to wire the whole car. I think if I go the full car re-wire, I will go with the American Autowire route. It says it does as well come with new dimmer and headlight switches as well as dome light wiring, tach leads, A/C plus get the new fuse box.
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FYI the dome light is just a power on all the time wire and a ground wire that's grounded to the switches in your doors and the ground wire that goes to your headlight switch that grounds it when you turn it all the way to the right LOL..
 
1badfish67 said:
Took a look at the M&H site and came up with a list of harnesses to wire most of the car. Didn't see anything for dimmer switch or dome light wiring. These may have been included in the dash harness, not sure. Site had a link to Year One, so I went there for prices. If I chose the correct harness numbers it would cost ~ $1,300.00+tax+shipping for the 5 separate harnesses that I picked to wire the whole car. I think if I go the full car re-wire, I will go with the American Autowire route. It says it does as well come with new dimmer and headlight switches as well as dome light wiring, tach leads, A/C plus get the new fuse box.
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If you do decide to go with YearOne, they usually have a 30% off.
 
1badfish67 said:
I realize this is an older post and maybe no one following anymore but I'm just now at the point in my restoration of a 67 Barracuda FstBk that I am looking at wiring system. Since I pulled everything out of the inside of the car including carpet as well as everything in the engine bay, I figured a good time to just rewire the whole car while everything is more easily accessed. Ounce of prevention vs pound of cure, right.

Anyway I am looking at the American Autowire kit# 510603. I kinda like the idea of the GM style bulkhead with the bolt connecting the interior fuse block to engine bay instead of just snap fasteners/connectors. I was wondering if anyone had actually installed one of these personally? Any issues they ran into? My car is a 4spd, so wasn't sure if the kit may be for a column shift automatic or 3spd std on column. Mopar may not have ever made a 3 on the tree but just thought I would ask.

Thanks everyone
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Yes, I have used one of these kits. I went this way because my car didn’t have one single wire, fuse, socket, terminal or connector to start with! While my car is an Australian RHD vehicle and modified in all sorts of ways I thought that the AAW kit might be able to also fill in all of the Mopar OE requirements! Instructions are comprehensive and informative and the kit was complete and not lacking in any way. I managed to rewire the whole car along with a relocated fuse box under the dash and a lot of concealed wiring so I can wholeheartedly recommend their kit without any hesitation. Once finished, everything worked too, including custom instruments, EFI, battery in trunk, electric in tank pump, stereo as well as all of the original Mopar equipment like heater, ignition switch, headlight switch, wipers, brakes, indicators - everything! BTW the AAW kit and instructions is designed to work with all auto and manual A Body vehicles from 67-75 regardless of ignition system too. You can also download all of the instructions for this kit from the AAW website if you need more info before purchasing.

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