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Painless Wiring Harness


Two40MuscleZ

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Guest bang847

yeah... I didnt like the painless... I got the 18 circut... it was sooo expensive... plus you cant mount your fuse box in the center anymore.... probably a great harness for a domestic car but not for the Z.... if you need wire let me know.. im not too far and i got a lot of it...

 

I'm with Tim.. do it from scratch..

I really hate looking at the pre-bundleded speaker wire that they tie into the painless..

might be ok to start with their fuse block though...

 

when installing mines i spent soo much time figuring out how the harness worked I should have made my own :confused: .... oh.. by the way i also have a good automotive wiring book that covers things much better than the painless manual...

 

oh by the way... the painless is about 85% crimp-connectors... frown.gif

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Automotive wiring is really very simple. Even the FI swap I did ('91 tpi, used the stock harness) was a lot easier than I first anticipated.

 

I think you lose out two ways when you buy one of those pre-made harnesses:

 

1. $$$ Remember, it's only painless after you pay for it.

2. You don't learn anything.

 

Before I cut my first wire I wouldn't know what to do if the motor didn't run right. I didn't have a clue about FI. When I was done I was confident that I could troubleshoot any problem I might have. And, I gained a new appreciation for my motor.

 

IMHO, do it yourself. It will cost you less than $40 and you will richer in knowledge.

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Yeah "Painless" is a misnomer and I can't argue with the $$$. However, having a new fuse block with all the wires connected is a plus and you get a pretty good manual too.

 

You learn just as much using the Painless Wiring Kit because you have to figure out all the wiring anyway. The kit just gives you a neat clean way to do it and a record of what you have done. 2thumbs.gif

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Has anyone had experience with Centech kits? I talked to a guy at Zigs Street Rods here in Portland. He had nothing nice to say about Painless and said he quit carrying Painless in favor of Centech. His opinion is that Centech is a much better product.

 

What Dan says makes sense. It's good to know your car inside and out. Understanding your wiring by doing it yourself is a good idea. My only problem is not having all that good of understanding of automotive wiring. Thats why I was looking for a leg up by using a kit. Maybe I'll just by a book, a fuse block and a few spools of wire...

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Hey, that 'kit' looks pretty good, and everything is already there. I can see the value of wiring a car all by yourself, BUT I also see the value in having a ton of the work done in a harness such as this one too! If it actually costs $40 or less (in parts & materials) as was stated earlier, to wire your own, then tthat is the thing to do. However, if it gets close to $100, then this may be a better option. Just my $.02.

 

Davy

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Guest Anonymous

I agree building your own is the best, you know what kind of wire it is, the guage, the insulationt type, you can put on good connectors like Weather-paks etc. Probably would cost about the same as a painless kit at most and that would be matching factory colors for striped wire. I keep meaning to call waytek about pricing on custom striped wire. Working nights has a few drawbacks like that. On a 240 there's roughly 20 total colors of wire but I can't remember the exact figure offhand. Also on a 240 the biggest connector is only a six conductor one so regardless of the type of connector you decide to use, they're pretty inexpensive.

 

The biggest single expense in doing the job right would be buying a proper crimping tool (ratcheting with the correct dies not the 3 dollar junk one at the auto parts store. It's a must doing Weatherpak connectors properly.

 

Anyway here's a little trick to reverse engineer any wire harness. It's relatively cheap and you can always make another one down the road this way or if you decide to add wires and just build a new section it's also easier.

 

Using an intact original harness, separate and mark the sections. Lay a section flat and match a piece of plywood to the size of that piece. (3/8 or so is plenty thick) Do this for all sections of the harness. Give all the plywood a coat of paint in white or light gray. Nothing fancy, just makes labelling it alot easier later on, not even a necessary step if you don't want.

 

After laying out the harness piece as close to its original shape as possible on the plywood, using small finishing nails, create guides to keep the wires in the shape they're in. At the ends of the harness, document the connector's shape, the location of wires within that connector, and the colors of those wires (do this at every end piece). If you're going to put in new connectors, document both old and what you've got planned and make sure everything's complimentary in connector types between all the harnesses i.e. keep the males, male and the females female. Also any wierd looking connections that are wrapped up, get rid of that so you know what's going where. That's pretty much it, it's cheap, effective, and if you ever need to make a new section for your car you're only a few minute's work from making it.

 

Other tips, trace the thickness of the harness at given points on the board. When pulling new wire on the boards, pull extra and secure it on extra nails via twisting around them to hold things in place. Rough bundle it with Zip-Ties before removing the wire from the nails you twisted it around to secure it in the fixture. Wait until it's rough bundled before soldering/crimping terminal pins on any wires. Check for the right colors in any given branch before cutting or soldering ends on it. Solder wire ends to terminal pins as well as crimping. If you're using molex style connectors, consider using shrink wrap over the wire/pin solder joint (slide the shrink wrap on before soldering though and slide it up the wire a ways, WD-40 makes the job easier). Heatguns work alot better on shrink tubing than matches and liters (Honest!). Think ahead in your plans for things such as an extra circuit or two of +12v wires that are tied to the on/accessory circuit. Worst case if you decide you want to add this later you could always remake that entire section for a neat installation. Anyway this is all the basic stuff I can think of.

 

Other options might include using Tefzel insulated aircraft wire if you like a really neat appearance since it's all white insulation. You'll need to consider some sort of wire marking scheme for this such as shrink on labels but it looks really sharp plus it's fire resistant, self extinguishing, and doesn't give off toxic smoke when it is subjected to flames.

 

If money was no object Metal cylindrical mil-spec connectors are extremely nice, they're waterproof, damn near bullet proof too. Unfortunately at 20-40 bucks a pop I'd have to win a nice lottery jackpot to seriously consider them. Plastic knockoffs are available at a reasonable price however. www.digikey.com has them but the catalog's a bit on the large size at a ~35 meg download.

 

These would be a nice thought for a quick removal of the engine if you had the whole engine wire bundle terminate at one point and that's possible with the high density connections these provide 28 and more wires in one big round plug or small configurations with 4-10 are available as well.

 

Anyway these are just some options you can persue with custom harnesses that you're not going to get with a painless kit by any means. Sticking to molex connectors you can skimp and use cheezy crimpers but definitely solder them too if you go that route. Sorry for the novel, I'm bored, it's 5am, and I'm at work. Let me know if you have any questions on laying out a wire harness board though.

 

Edit: Yeah I'm a wordy bastard sometimes :D

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Hey tim so for your full of inspirational ideas for my project. I might as well keep on following as long as Im able. I have the waytek wire catalog but I have no idea where to start or what I need. I know i want enough flexibility to have air conditioning, power everything, possibly digital gauges. Budget is an issue but so Is my lack of electrical knowledge Ive got alot of mechanical stuff down but in the electronics field I dont get to do alot of tinkering. Thanks for any info.

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Jared,

Let me know and I will post all the part numbers that I used from Waytek. Their prices are excellent and service/speed fantastic, as is the quality.

Automotive wiring is very simple, especially when you start from scratch and break the project down to the individual cicuits.

I plan to make up a circuit diagram for my car, to remind me how I've done it for any upgrades and repairs down the road, and to assist the next owner (oops, did I say that out load?), with troubleshooting. I can post when it's done.

Tim

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