Hi I am getting ready to install a new wiring harness on my 53 vicky ( has a 351 Windsor) . I purchased it from rebel wiring. I have never installed anything electrical and I wanted to know if anyone had any advise on how to go about it??? Do I start by ripping out all the old electrical stuff?
That's what I did. I took the advice I got from a couple people on here that said it would be less confusing if you just had the new wires to deal with. I stripped my car bare and started by mounting the fuse box, then went from there.
You could do it that way but I found it was easier to have the dash out to do that part. It's not uncommon on 52-54 Fords to find rust around the heater core area and it will be easier to deal with that too with it out,I found that before you pull out the old wires if you tag them with masking tape and label what they are on the shortened old wire you are less likely to get mixed up when you re-connect. Universal wiring harnesses tend to be "GM friendly" so you may want to call Rebel before you wire up the Ford headlight switch,this is also a good time to add relays. Read the section "A current topic" http://www.watsons-streetworks.com/tips
I went with Kwik Wire for my harness (2nd Gen GM), bought their HL switch, so it would play well with the harness. Used their dimmer and a NAPA ignition switch (with Ford key). Kwik Wire included the plugs for a Ford steering column. I suggest finding a schematic for your car, they should be available on line somewhere. As others suggest, label everything and make sketches as you take things apart. If you don't plan on using new plugs, you'll have to splice the old and new wires together.
I second Jeff's suggestion about removing the dash... will make it a lot easier to wire the dash, mount the fuse panel, etc. I would also suggest getting a big multi-wire connector, with enough pins for the number of wires going to your dash. I used a Weatherpack connector and ran all of my dash wires through this. This allows you to unplug this connector and remove your whole dash in the future should you ever need to, without having to cut and re-splice the wires. If fact, if it's in your budget you may want to pick up a little weatherpack connector kit, and use some two and three wire plugs on some of the things you may want to remove in the future, like taillights, etc. And pay extra special attention to your grounds. Use nice clean ground points and nice beefy wires. I even went so far as to run an extra cable from the cab to the engine block, and another from the dashboard to the cab, and then another wire from that pint back to the trunk, just to make sure there was a good ground path for everything. The better your grounds are, the fewer gremlins you'll be chasing when you're done. Don't cut and remove any circuits you aren't using, just roll them up and tuck them away somewhere safe. I have a spool of unused interior circuits hiding behind the left side kick panel, and then the extra engine circuits I ran into the engine compartment and I just ran them to approximately where they may be needed in the future. This has already saved my bacon a couple times when I needed new circuits with my engine swap... I didn't have an electric fan or choke when I had the old 223 and did my wiring, but I was sure glad they were there when I added those later. If you need any of the little bulb contacts (I had a hell of a time finding these when I did mine), washers, bulb sockets, etc, you can get them from Rhode Island Wiring Supply, under "supplies", and then "Washers, ****ons, and Springs". I really wanted nice clean wiring and this was a lot better than splicing in the cheap replacement sockets you can get at the parts store. The after pic... Lastly, make sure everything is covered in loom or tape... even of the manufacturer says the wires are abrasion resistant they aren't... I used TESA fabric wiring tape, which in my opinion looks nicer than the plastic type of loom.
Ok thanks guys. Looks like I still have some shopping to do. I wanted to buy the dolphin gauges set for my car so if i am going to take the dash off I rather wait so I can do it all at once and that way I don't have to take the dash off again. And those wire plugs are a great idea. I bought a pair of the rocket 88 tail lights so I would like to get the LED set up echoofgecko pictured. Thanks guys
I should also mention that the person before installed a wiring harness that I think came out of the car he got the motor from. It is a spaghetti nightmare hahaha so the old harness and that harness are all stuffed under there. It's my first build so when I bought it i had no idea what I was getting into hahaha
For your dash bulbs, just cut the wire flush with the ****on and drill out the wire. You can thread a new wire thru the housing, spring, insulater and then solder it to the ****on. You'll wind up with a clean install instead of a wad of splices. Actually I did this on every bulb housing in my car and it turned out as good as factory
Removing the dash is a must and like echoofgecho said, get the multi-wire connector for the dash wires. I did that as well and wired mine on the bench. Makes life a little easier. You can also take a look at Delcity for wiring supplies.
ditto on all that. pull dash, wire separate with a plug, 86 the old wires and install the new one cup of cake, dude!!
TAKE OUT THE DASH. I wired my 55 with the dash in. Weeks later I pulled out the dash to paint it and there was a wide open area that makes wiring so easy. The dash is fairly easy to remove so do yourself a favor and pull it.
It hasn't been mentioned yet, but when you pull the dash out make sure you paint the backside white. It will make your life much easier later on should you ever need to crawl in the floor and look behind the dash.
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