New wiring harness install

[Texas 1972 Velle]

Hi, I am going to install a new wiring harness in my chevelle. Is it as painless as they claim? Any info would be greatly appreciated!

[paul67]

yep,I would open it out first and find out were there to go before putting it in the car,have done 2 using EZ wiring.

[Texas 1972 Velle]

Great! Good to know!

[matty b]

havent met a person yet that enjoyed installing one, I hate them and Im very well versed in any and all wiring kits so good luck and if I can give you any advise is this...

1. If you arent using a certain circuit depin it at the panel and remove it out of the harness (alot of guys just coil the extra wire up and looks horrible)

2. dont just use zip ties to contain your harness like they show in their pics. leaving your wiring exposed is just asking for trouble unless you know damn sure that absolutley nothing is going to touch it. Since I can garuntee that this wont happen either tape the harness like stock or get multiple sizes of split loom and wrap the harness. Just remeber this, if OEMs do something on a new car, try to copy that on your install, they do things for a reason and even if you dont know why do it anyways.

3. Lose the insulated butt splices. These things can really seperate a good intall from a tacky one. Common spot I always see these is at the turnsignal switch and it just annoys me at how bad it looks not to mention they add bulk to the size of a harness and tend to look like a snake that just ate.

4. Resist the urge to use female spade connectors for all of your switches. If the connectors arent damaged, depin the connectors and figure out what all the pin locations are then go to napa and get a few boxes of correct terminals for the car. earlier GMs for example all use the same spade terminals for all their connectors and they are 56 series. You need w crimpers for them but the terminals are made for the job. then just crimp em and snap them into the housing.

5. Solder your connections!!! practice soldering and get a few different sized (diameter) lengths of shrink tube. HINT go to electronics stores to get it cheaply, im talking about the small computer geek places where they sell resistors and capacitors in bulk. I get all my shrink from a place like that and get (20) 5 foot sticks of the stuff for 19 dollars, try getting it for that price at a parts store or radio shack. They charge 5 bucks for a foot of the stuff and they cut it up short.

6. TAKE YOUR TIME, I cant stress this enough. Take time to plan out the project and take time laying it in. If you can route it like stock youll find that life is alot easier. Just like body work though, quality shows in the details so expect to spend alot of time uder the dash and being stuffed into uncomfortable places for a few days. After your done though and everything looks clean and professional youll be glad you spent the extra time on it.

[Texas 1972 Velle]

Thanks for the advice! I am at the point where I want every detail perfect. I am going into my shop to get started. I will post if I run into any trouble. I think the fun part will be getting every thing hooked up to the digital guages. Every thing looks like it is labeled. Now if i could read!(joking)!!!!!!

[HzEmall]

We do lots of vehicle rewires and we just started using American Autowire, it's by far the best out there hands down !

Painless would be a second to them.

Keep it Clean would be third

EZ Wiring would be a distant 4th......I find them brutal...........I know what I am doing and their kit was confusing as to how it lays out.........no wonder it's cheap............

If your going to do a total rewire, buy an electrical manual for the car your working on and learn it well so you know how certain things need to work on your car...........

Like someone else said......SOLDER.............it's the only way to make it last for as long as you own your car........

[MonzaRacer]

As for me I have no issues with machine crimps (machine crimps are better as the dies allow the terminals and wire form to each other betterthan by hand crimping, but if you hand crimp I do agree with soldering and shrink tubing especially if you hand crimp.
I have developed my own technique for wiring repair. I use uninsulated crimp terminals and crimpand solder them. I also dont flat crimp them I use the non insulated spot on the crimpers and position the pin side oposite thesplite in the terminal (as the terminal is formed from flat material) this makes a ushaped crimp, it also locks the iwre into the terminal then I crimp.
I had several racersnot believe my reasons for this but after installing several thousand dollars of electronics in a race car for a friendI found heat and vibration made some bad relations with hand crimps and one guy even lost a $10k final.
Now I solder all connections so that if they break it easy to see to fix.
The guy who broke in the big money fianl now has small box with strippers, screwdriver and terminals in car. The last time something broke(more from having to move it to remove the POS Hughes trans 6 times than from the soldering) he leans over puls on wiring to box not working, finds bad connection pulls out tools and fixes it on the line. took runnerup and was very happy after all was said and done.

[Texas 1972 Velle]

Great info Thanks!

[DCx]

i used on on my 69 camaro. it was easy. but then again i switched to a one wire alt, bought a new headlight, dome light, and tail light harness. I also used a painless mechanical speedo dash gauge harness. it cost me a bunch in the end but since they dont provide new sockets for everything i had to buy new harnesses, the old one was trashed.