nkopp Posted November 24, 2023 Share Posted November 24, 2023 (edited) Where have others who have done a Painless harness located their fuse boxes? A few locations I'm considering (generally in order of preference): On the bulkhead generally behind the cigarette lighter. On the outer wall of the drivers side. In the location of the old fuse box (I don't have a center console, so am a little concerned about placing this in a way that it won't have to be redone). On the bulkhead behind the glovebox On the outer wall of the passengers side (though, I think this may be too far from the steering column to work). Any recommendations? Any other threads with this (I've searched and couldn't find any). Photos would be awesome if you have them. Thanks! Edited November 24, 2023 by nkopp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicksoccer22 Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 I'm not using a painless kit, and I am not planning on using the stock heater components/panel, so this might not be the most applicable, but the images below are what I am doing to mount a Eaton Bussman 31M series PDM and some other components for wiring. Front view, Drilled a couple holes into the inner/lower dash support bar and added rivnuts. I also have a connector piece not pictured that connects the top of the plate I am mounting everything to with the underside/top of the dash for more stability. View of the back, no rivnuts yet in this pic, and an earlier version of the mounting plate but you get the idea. I have been doing all the wiring with a spare dash outside of the car, along with my good dash in the car, it is really nice to reference points on the dashes to determine the length of wire I need to get to places, and not have to worry about pulling it all apart to wrap it later. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhm Posted November 30, 2023 Share Posted November 30, 2023 @nkopp, I would strongly suggest avoiding the driver foorwell area. It's already cramped in there...with the pedal box, steering shaft, etc. I think it would be a real pain to have your electricals in there, and trying to do any periodic mx on them. I have my relays and fusebox on the firewall in the passenger footwell, and it's very easy to get to them for mx, repairs, upgrades, etc. I made a simple sheetmetal shield to cover/protect them. @nicksoccer22, that's a good place to put them for accessibility; but are you planning to put any kind of aftermarket heater/defroster in there? If so, what unit are you planning to use? Just curious... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicksoccer22 Posted December 4, 2023 Share Posted December 4, 2023 On 11/30/2023 at 12:03 PM, jhm said: @nicksoccer22, that's a good place to put them for accessibility; but are you planning to put any kind of aftermarket heater/defroster in there? If so, what unit are you planning to use? Just curious... I do plan doing a heater/defroster, but figuring that out is a problem for future me haha. From what I have seen a lot of aftermarket kits are pretty narrow, and I don't think it will be a problem. As it stands I can move the assembly away from the firewall ~3" without the door of the PDM hitting where the heater controls would go, I can also change up the angle so it sits more vertically, If I do that I could probably run the stock unit, but I really haven't done a lot of digging on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkerbk Posted December 10, 2023 Share Posted December 10, 2023 I installed mine on the driver side kick panel and then installed my ls ecu on the passenger kick panel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demo243 Posted December 15, 2023 Share Posted December 15, 2023 American Autowire - not the painless- but similar idea. I did the passenger kick panel- makes for easy access in both the wiring process and any issues later on. Only down fall is it is a bit noticeable. I did it on passenger firewall on my 510 and it’s a bit more tucked in there. Note- it am not running a heater core or blower in either car which helps a little bit. Only real downfall of the passenger kickpanel is that the Z has a lot of wires in and out of the steering column and a few of the included wires from American Autowire were not long enough. Z 510- don’t mind the mess… it was my first real wiring project… I want to go back in and clean it up one of these day… Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nkopp Posted January 14 Author Share Posted January 14 Super helpful everyone. Thank you! Here's where I ended up putting mine. For the Painless kit, the included wires from the fuse box to the ignition, dashboard, and steering column controls were short enough that I would have had to extend most of them if I installed on the passenger side. This will let me to trim everything down and not need to extend any. Had to pull the transmission, which got all my temporary wiring out of whack, but hoping to have it all dialed back in soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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