Very basic wiring setup (recomendations)

[thezguy]

Background: 77' 280Z with an LS motor and the holley dominator EMS as well as Holley LS full engine wiring harness. This car once had a GM factory ECU and LS engine harness. The previous owner did a total hack job and i want nothing more than to start over and get rid of this rats nest under my dash. the problem is i am a virgin to wiring.. Im more than willing to learn though.

 

The good thing is that i have aftermarket guages/no AC/no PS/ no heater/no radio/no nothing.. The only thing i need to is control the basics such as turn signals/brake lights/headlights/wipers etc. Also i would like to add that i want to retain the factory switches on the column in doing so. 

 

What is an affordable EASY way to achieve this for a rookie such as myself? I see some companies sell universal kits but i would like some feed back from guys who have gone this stripped down route. Id really like to get rid of the the old school fuse panel and start fresh with something more neat and organized. I'll need all the room i can get trying to squeeze the dominator ECU under the dash.

 

Thanks again for the help!

[thomas461]

I am a huge fan of isispower's systems. They let you use factory, aftermarket or any switch to operate the systems in your car (lights, wipers,etc) It completely eliminates about 70% of the wiring in a car. I used this system after wiring multiple cars the traditional way. It is far easier to work with and in my opinion creates a much safer car. With this system you are wiring to ground so there is very little current that runs through the actual switches.

 

This is similar to the way the OEM's wire today's cars. Isispower has great customer support and a considerable you tube presence describing the products and how they work.

 

As for affordability; that is a relative term. To me, time and ease of use with good customer support is worth paying for. Doesn't cost anything to check them out.

 

Http://isispower.com.

 

Great place to learn how to do automotive wiring http://www.learntotune.com. Take the Wiring fundamentals course. It's $199 for the online course and provides for a great deal of information. It's taught by Ryan from http://rywire.com (he makes some unbelievable harnesses)

 

Good place to buy quality wire and quality wiring heads. http://www.prowireusa.com

 

I hope this helps get you started.

Pete

Edited August 15, 2014 by thomas461

[lazlo]

There are as many different ways to tackle wiring problems as there are people who do it.  Being a noob to electrical and wiring, I would invest $50 in a couple of auto wiring manuals and read them before you start.

 

Next I would invest in some good tools.  I used to do a lot of industrial controls wiring and I can say without a doubt that the quality of tools is directly related to the quality of the work.  The worst outcome would be to spend the time and money to do the job, and then get a fire because you had a bad connection or wired something wrong.  A good electrical tool kit includes a decent multi meter.  Once you understand the principles, you can do a lot with one.  It is way easier to to have a good record of what you did and perform a 10 second test at a termination than to go back and start tracing wires one by one.

 

There are some decent kits out there, and there are different opinions to whether or not they are a good value. There is nothing EZ or Painless about them if you don't have the fundamentals figured out.

[NewZed]

The only thing i need to is control the basics such as turn signals/brake lights/headlights/wipers etc. Also i would like to add that i want to retain the factory switches on the column in doing so. 

These things are all separate from the engine control harness.  You'll probably find that they work fine.  The factory switches are a little bit different from many switches, for example the headlights are controlled by grounding through the dimmer switch.  You'll run in to a mental rat's nest trying to redesign a new system.  As noted, you'll need to understand before you replace anyway.  Make what you have work before you start tearing things apart.

[thezguy]

Guys thanks for the replies. I'm aware that the harnesses are seperate. I also probably overstated my greenness. I do infact have good knowledge of wiring basics although I've never tried to tackle this much at one time. I know everything works on the car as far as wiring but these componets are getting old and the previous owner did things very half assed. I'm afraid of a fire hazard at this point. It will be suite me to start over. Now I know the dominator/engine harness is seperate/plug and play so that is taken care of. What I'm looking for is reccomendations on a small kit to take care of the functions I mentioned.