wiring harness

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theothergarth

theothergarth

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After a 3 year hiatus (both from the car, and to some extent, this site), I think I might have both the time and money to resume work on the project 73 Duster. Last I tinkered with it I was getting frustrated with the wiring. From gauges working one day and not the next, to all lights working correctly one day and the next day, nothing will come on except one parking light and that one light won't shut off short of disconnecting the battery.

I think I am going to jump back into the project with a whole new harness. This is where you guys come in......what to buy. I notice Summit has 2 listed. One from Painless (which I have always heard fairly good things about), and one from American Auto wire (which I know nothing about, but looks more "complete" than the Painless).

I am looking for inputs from members who have used either of these...or any others available...recommendations, pros, cons, etc. I all ready have a relocation kit to move the battery to the trunk
 
If you want true plug and play, almost, go with actual reproduction factory harnesses. The Painless and other "universal" harnesses are kind of general wiring harnesses that give you basic functions that you have to adapt to your car. They have been shown to not be all that Mopar friendly and some use GM connector types that don't really match up in a Mopar.

If you are good at electrical wiring, can trace out basic circuits as well as change connector types if required the universal harnesses may work for you and save you some money. I don't think they will save you much installation time or effort.
 
I am a fair hand at electrical wiring work, splicing, soldering etc. The car also has all aftermarket gauges, stereo and A/c.

Let's throw the reproduction factory harness (can get it at Year One I presume?) into the equation as well......praises or horror stories with what anyone used.
 
Several years ago, I bought a Year One replacement harness for my 1967 Barracuda to replace the under hood portion and it plugged right in. I cleaned the female connectors on the firewall with an emery board, extra fine sandpaper and metal nail file. I slathered on the dielectric grease before I plugged it in. So far it has worked perfectly and the only downside was the cost.
 
Personally I think Painless is very over priced. I scored a "new open box" EZ wire on CL. They are about 1/2 the price. Their documentation sucks, and in fact, in my opinion, all of them do. These companies attitudes seems to be 'call us.' That is great, but if they would spend 10 more minutes writing up better documentation, we would not HAVE to "call them"

ABodyJoe has spoke highly of American Auto wire. I'm not familiar.

The Painless and EZ fuse panels are identical except for the markings on two fuses. One other thing I dislike is the alpha markings on the wires. having the wires colored and NUMBERED is great, but they are also marked EG "power windows" "door locks" etc. This means if you use the door locks circuit for "something else" then you have mismarked wiring.

NONE of these are bent towards us Mopar owners. The necessary wiring for the Mopar VR and the coil bypass (IGN2) is largely ignored.

If you have a "highly optioned" car (Maybe not so much A, but B or C body) there will be lots of extra wiring you'll have to add in yourself.
 
I just finished putting a Ron Francis Bare Bones in my son's 70 Swinger. They are VERY generic and gm oriented. American Auto Wire is good for Chevy. Not sure about their Mopar stuff. I see Painless has a new harness that is Mopar color coded. AbodyJoe did a very good write up on putting an EZ into an abody. The pics were very helpful.
 
I am currently in the process of the painless wiring. I don't mind cutting, splicing and changing connectors but I agree with the fact that if they just put ALL their wiring diagrams online it would save me a phone call.
 
I did the EZ wiring, i thought it was straight forward for the most part, just had to research a bit for the steering column wires to match, but besides that easy. Just used the stock connectors for the ignition, headlight with new female connectors and just used the sockets from stock for the tail light and reverse lights and soldered them together
 
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