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Painless or not? (wiring harness)


Guest TerminalVelocity

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Guest TerminalVelocity

Ok, I have a 240z powered by a RB20det...the old harness is failing more and more, mainly with the lights. Keeps blowing fuses so I have decided time to replace the old segments. (The rb's harness is attached to the stock harness.) My question is should I just do my own wiring or is the painless harness a good way to go? I am hoping to do the harness swap this weekend so please help!!!!!!!

 

Also HI! I am new to this fourm. (I think you can guess that one though.)

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I used a painless harness in my car(bought it off ebay new for $212 shipped, some guy bought it but didn't use it so it was still new!). It was teh 18 circuit one. I personally thought it was very easy to install. Tons of extra wire so you can pretty much route it how you want to and not be worried about running out of wire. The wire lables will probably come in handy down the road if there is a problem. So far so good for me!

 

Guy

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My question is should I just do my own wiring or is the painless harness a good way to go?

 

Both!!

 

Even for making your own harness,a painless i a good way to start,if that makes sense?.The wire quality and the time saved by the individual labeling are worth the money alone,besides have you priced copper wire nowadays??.Even if you run the wires for things other than what the label says you can track things later as long as you document what you've done.....Oh yea - IMO :-)

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I was seriously considering making my own ENTIRE harness from bulk wire bought off FleaBay. At least that way, I can be assured of the proper gauge wire. What has bothered me the most about the majority of ready made harnesses is the use of VERY light AWG wire.

There are also much less expensive [& COMPARABLE] harnesses out there for less than PainFUL[less].

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Guest TerminalVelocity

thanks for all the advice, I ended up buying the EZ harness, it will be here thursday!

 

I know copper costs, I have spool after spool sitting around, I was an electrician for a while lol.

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I was seriously considering making my own ENTIRE harness from bulk wire bought off FleaBay. At least that way, I can be assured of the proper gauge wire. What has bothered me the most about the majority of ready made harnesses is the use of VERY light AWG wire.

There are also much less expensive [& COMPARABLE] harnesses out there for less than PainFUL[less].

 

Have you looked at the wiring on a modern car lately? 20-22 AWG wire is the norm for many things these days--electrical loads aren't what they used to be I guess?

 

The EZWiring harnesses are all either 14 or 16 AWG (can't remember for sure)--probably a lot heavier than it really needs, but what the heck.

 

And while building your own with bulk wire gives you exactly what you want, I'll spend the little extra for the benefit of all the multicolored wire and markings to follow circuits with.

 

I don't see it on their site anymore, but EZWiring used to make an "all black" harness--everything was still labeled, but all wires were black--marketed it to streetrodders who wanted a nice clean look

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Have you looked at the wiring on a modern car lately? 20-22 AWG wire is the norm for many things these days--electrical loads aren't what they used to be I guess?

 

The EZWiring harnesses are all either 14 or 16 AWG (can't remember for sure)--probably a lot heavier than it really needs, but what the heck.

I believe the Painless has all of the circuits running on relays. Not sure about the EZ harness. Maybe that is a difference between them?

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I also have the EZ wiring harness that I am going to use for my 1jz swap. The EZ wiring harness has some circuits on relays, like the (lights ,ect..) but everything else runs through a fusebox, which is all you need for the rest of the wiring. No need for relays on all the other circuits.

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Really glad someone posted this. I am about to re-wire my whole car and I wasn't sure whether or not to go with a Painless harness or something else. I'll check out that EZ Wiring kit, too. How do they work with sensors and things like that? Like, say if I'm going to add a MAP sensor, throttle position sensor, and distributorless ignition (EDIS most likely)? I'm pretty scared to death about the whole wiring thing; electronics are my weak point.

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Really glad someone posted this. I am about to re-wire my whole car and I wasn't sure whether or not to go with a Painless harness or something else. I'll check out that EZ Wiring kit, too. How do they work with sensors and things like that? Like, say if I'm going to add a MAP sensor, throttle position sensor, and distributorless ignition (EDIS most likely)? I'm pretty scared to death about the whole wiring thing; electronics are my weak point.

It's just a chassis harness.

AKA lights, horn, wipers, etc.

 

All the engine and engine management stuff must be run separately (and usually through a keyed circuit in the chassis harness).

Mario

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IIRC the EZ Wiring harness uses predominantly 18AWG, as does the Painless. According to my two automotive electrical wiring books, "Hot Rod Wiring" & "Custom Auto Electronics & Auto Electrical" [Thanks OWEN!] the AWG that they recommend for many circuits is 10-14AWG. For circuits like Alternator, they recommend 8AWG, I believe (it's been a while).

 

On the Painless & EZ kits, there are virtually NO circuits with that heavy a gauge. I believe that the Alt. circuits are 14AWG on them, which is way underrated according to every source that I've checked.

 

If anyone can enlighten me, I'd be most appreciative. I posted a few months back asking for recommendations on how many circuits and got ONE response...from someone telling me that they used the OE harness IIRC. Then again, I have had some isp difficulties, so I may have missed a direct response. TIA

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Ok, I have a 240z powered by a RB20det...the old harness is failing more and more, mainly with the lights. Keeps blowing fuses so I have decided time to replace the old segments. (The rb's harness is attached to the stock harness.) My question is should I just do my own wiring or is the painless harness a good way to go? I am hoping to do the harness swap this weekend so please help!!!!!!!

 

Also HI! I am new to this fourm. (I think you can guess that one though.)

I used the 18 circuit kit. It was very well laid out. I wanted to reuse existing column switches, which took some engineering. Later plan to change out column with aftermarket tilt and relocate switches. Have to do something with the wipers too. Painless has tech support that I utilized a few times. Some more experienced members have wired from scatch, but I'm happy with their product. Good luck.

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Guest Ethereal510

I was planning on going the Painless route also. Looks like I will be checking out the EZ setup. Thx for the link.

 

My buddy has the Painless kit, not sure what he payed, but if its equal or better in quality I might just pick that up since he ahs the exp of using it and installing it all on the same car.

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you guys should check out american autowire. their mainly for gm cars, but im sure you can figure out how to wire it to a z. i paid 400 for a 22 circuit fuse box and wiring and manuals. everything is labeled and color coded. but you screw down tabs on the block to hold the wires to the fuse box. so you can put it almost anywhere in the car. i bought it for my 70 camaro, but sold it before i had a chance to install it. :(

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I had been doing as much as possible on my swap to delay installing my harness and debating having it done versus doing it myself.

(Warren is going to help me !!!!!) But, I bought the Summit Harness because of the discounts and I got a good deal. After researching and asking what others used I found that the type of car, purpose of car and installer experience determined what harness was used. There's Painless, EZwire, Rebel Wire, Summit and Autowire and a few others. Most do not provide the ground wire in there kits,so bring your ground wire but Rebel wire and Autowire sell grounding kits (Autowire has a very nice grounding kit) but, all will work. Whatever, you choose 1. Get the factory manual for your car 2. Do not throw anything away 3. Read the instructions and read them again. I have a learned alot from the guys building Factory Fives and other kit cars, so as soon as I am back on feet I am getting this done.

 

240Z2NV, I am doing LS1 swap as well, If I were to do this again I would buy a Autowire Cobra Kit Harness with a GM switch, it has everything to do the complete wiring job. Like I indicated I got a deal on my Summit Harness, I bought ground wire, weatherpack connectors, relays and circuit breakers. By the time I did all this I could have bought the Autowire Kit and broke even.

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240Z2NV, I am doing LS1 swap as well, If I were to do this again I would buy a Autowire Cobra Kit Harness with a GM switch, it has everything to do the complete wiring job. Like I indicated I got a deal on my Summit Harness, I bought ground wire, weatherpack connectors, relays and circuit breakers. By the time I did all this I could have bought the Autowire Kit and broke even.

Speaking of circuit breakers, anyone know of a pre-built harness that uses circuit breakers instead of fuses?

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