Guest ash00 Posted August 24, 2005 Share Posted August 24, 2005 Anybody running a painless wiring harness? This system looks really good and am hearing a lot of good things about it- but implementing it into a71 240 with a L28T is my problem- how do you interface with the existing connectors and what not? Or, do you replace EVERYTHING with this? TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparks280zt Posted August 24, 2005 Share Posted August 24, 2005 240Hoke just installed one of his 71 with l28et. He is running standalone though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240hoke Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 hehe *in the process of* I will have a write up in a couple weeks i hope. Project has been halted for school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-Gad Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 Working on one myself for the 2JZGTE car. Hopefully I will have some results by the end of the week.. running out of time before SEZS6!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ash00 Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 The one thing that confuses me about the kit is the compatibility with the stock electrical components. Say the rear tailights for instance. There is already a harness attached to the light fixtures them selves with its own color scheme and connector. Does the Painless kit come with just wires, and no connectors- so Id have to rewire the rear tail lights to match the painless kit (by getting extra wire of the same color, and resoldering it to the existing terminals), or do I have to find the stock connector again (which I can't seem to find anywhere), or go with a custom connector (say, a Deutsch connector) and match up the painless with the stock harness color scheme? Otherwise, the painless 18 circuit kit looks like a decent kit thats straight forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-Gad Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 Well, Ash, what I did w/ the taillights was save the plug (with a short pigtail) that attaches to the taillight harness and connect the painless harness to it. It is pretty straight forward when you have the painless directions and the wiring schematic in front of you. I am the worst ever at soldering, so I have used crimp connectors throughout. Hopefully, I will be able to go through and solder all the connectors at some point, but due to time constraints at this time, crimping is the best I can do. I also want to make sure I have all the connections wired correctly before I make them permanent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z-ya Posted August 26, 2005 Share Posted August 26, 2005 Learn how to solder, it's really easy. Get some flux core electronic solder (Radio Shack), and a pistol style iron (heats up fast). Also pick up some heat shrink tubing or liquid electrical tape. I use the crimp connectors without the insulation, then I solder them. This way to get the mechanical connection from the crimp, and a solid electrical connection through the solder. Heat shrink it and your done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonfly Posted August 26, 2005 Share Posted August 26, 2005 I have a book about automotive electronics that talks about installing aftermaket wiring kits, making your own harness etc. one of the important things that he mentioned in the book that stuck in my mind was that you should not use solder to join wire to wire (such as connecting a wiring harness to a pigtail), the book says you should use a high quality crimp connector. The book also pointed out that if you look at the factory harness you will see that any time you have a wire to wire connection it will be crimped not soldered. I found this to be true in my factory wiring harness in my 72' 240. The reason for using a crimp rather than solder is because the crimp allows the wire to retain its flexibility while a solder joint becomes very rigid and can easily break strands of the wire at the end of the solder joint which has now become a stress point in the wiring. If you stick with high quality crimp connectors and use heat shrink over the ends (or the whole thing if it is a butt connector) as insulation and a strain relief you should have many years of trouble free wiring in your car. Dragonfly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonfly Posted August 26, 2005 Share Posted August 26, 2005 I use the crimp connectors without the insulation, then I solder them. This way to get the mechanical connection from the crimp, and a solid electrical connection through the solder. Heat shrink it and your done. I just re-read z-ya's post and I think that is a very good idea as long as you put the solder on the blade side of the crimp and not on the side were the wire comes into the crimp otherwise you have the problem of creating a stress point in the wire. Dragonfly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z-ya Posted August 26, 2005 Share Posted August 26, 2005 When I solder a crimp connector, I only solde where the actual crimp is done. Again, solder alone does not give you mechanical strength, but the crimp connector will. They also sell crimp butt connectors that have solder and flux in them. Crimp, then heat it with a heat gun. They come with heat shrink on them so it is real simple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted August 26, 2005 Share Posted August 26, 2005 They also sell crimp butt connectors that have solder and flux in them. Crimp, then heat it with a heat gun. They come with heat shrink on them so it is real simple. Those are the ****. A friend of mine had a huge box of em and he helped me out on wiring my headlights with relays. They are so much easier... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ash00 Posted August 26, 2005 Share Posted August 26, 2005 you guys are right about the solder and the crimping- sol,dering would introduce some problems when the wire is bent or moved. I'm actually thinking of using Deutsch connectors from LADD industries, and resoldering the new wiring scheme from the stock housings directly, or cutting off the stock plug and adding a Deutsch. Im not sure if anybody has used a Deustch connector- but they are slightly on the expensive side, and require special tooling- but are completely isolated, auto grade with fairly robust seals/grommets. They are easily removable too unlike weatherpaks, and come in a whorde of pin counts per plug. I'm going to get a catalog from them soon, and will hopefully get a comprehensive list of things I need to share with you all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240hoke Posted August 30, 2005 Share Posted August 30, 2005 Hey, Ive been workng on wiring my 240z the past weekend, got a good bit done.. but still a good bit to go. Ive been cutting connectors off my old harness and splicing them in like mentioned. Ill have some pictures next weekend when i finish it hopefully. Getting new connectors would be awesome, but i didnt see it as worth the extra hassle and $$. I think all total you reuse like 4 stock connectors. (two for the rear lights, and two for the combo/igntion switch) Everything else is a spade connector or one of the male female type things. On the soldering I have been using a soldering torch, frekkin awesome little thing. Would never use a soldering iron again. Uses butane and heats the wire up in just a couple secs then i slide some heat shrink tubing over it and heat. seems to be plenty strong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ash00 Posted August 30, 2005 Share Posted August 30, 2005 I'm still waiting for my painless, LADD industries, and Wytek wire to see what options I have- but I can't wait to see how yours turns out man- I was checking out your website! Pretty wicked work you've done to your car man! I'm under a space constraint in my folk's garage- otherwise I wanted to go ground up on mine as well- all in good time though. Let me know how it progresses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted August 30, 2005 Share Posted August 30, 2005 The most difficult part of installing an aftermarket harness is hooking up the multi-function switched on the steering column. Remember, on the Datsun harness, the switches are all on the ground side of the circuit (the switch, when turned on, completes the ground). The Painless and Ron Francis kits all assume the switches are on the power side of the circuit (when the switch is turned on power flows to the item being switched and then out to ground). I roughed it out at one time on my early 1970 switches: Yellow 5 Wire Plug Green/Red Wire - left turn signal Green/Yellow Wire - stop light (switch) Green/Black Wire - right turn signal White/Black Wire - stop light (rear tailight assembly) White/Red Wire - stop light (rear tailight assembly) White 3 Wire Plug Red/Yellow Wire - ? Red/Black Wire - headlights (low beam) Red/White Wire - headlights (high beam) White 6 Wire Plug Yellow/Green Wire - wipers Yellow/Black Wire - wipers Blue/Red Wire - windshield washer Green/White Wire - tail and parking lights Green/Blue Wire - tail and parking lights Red/Blue Wire - wipers (high speed) Separate Wires Blue/White Wire - windshield washer Black - common ground Green - power to the turn signal switch That's all I have from my notes. I ended up experimenting with my Ron Francis kit until I got all the stuff working properly but it looks like I didn't write the final results down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ash00 Posted August 30, 2005 Share Posted August 30, 2005 Thanks for the info- where can I get info on the Ron Francis kit? I wasn't aware of the differences between the circuit power paths yet, as I have still not looked into it hard enough I just took my dash out over the weekend and looked at the mess: check it out at http://photos.yahoo.com/nigetufnel under Another 240? Then you'll see why I need to rewire!! I'm still "absorbing" all I can right now and prepping for a lot of work ahead of me.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted August 30, 2005 Share Posted August 30, 2005 where can I get info on the Ron Francis kit? There's this pretty handy thing called Google... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillZ260 Posted August 31, 2005 Share Posted August 31, 2005 There's also a STICKY at the top of this forum... Just for ref.. Z to painless... Left Signal post White/Black ------------> Lt Blue 949 Left Rear Turn Left Signal post White/Black ------------> Yellow 926 Left Front Turn Right Signal post White/Red ------------> Blue 948 Right Rear Turn Right Signal post White/Red ------------> Green 926 Right Front Turn Signal Center Post Green ------------> Black 953 Flasher Head Light Power Red (heavy guage) ------------> Red/Black 925 HL 12v Head Light Power 2 Green ------------> Orange 959 HL 12v High Beam post Red/Yellow ------------> Light Green 908 High Beam Low Beam post Red/White ------------> Tan 909 Low Beam Dimmer center post White/Red ------------> Blue/Yellow 907 High Low switch Running Lights switch Green/White ------------> Brown 929 Tail Lights Running Lights switch Green/White ------------> Brown 927 Front Park Lights Running Lights switch Green/White ------------> Brown 930 Instrument Lights Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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