This is something I need to do sooner than later too. I am hoping I can get by until the end of the year but we will see once I get time to do more testing/inspection of the current harness.
My plan is to rewire this summer (once august rolls around it is too hot to enjoy here in Houston). Hopefull I'll be in a new house with a bigger/better garage/shop by then too.
Over the years in this Group the Rebel 9+3 has been at the top of choices some guys also like EZ wire. Painless makes a good unit but you can't call it wallet friendly,if you have joined the H.A.M.B. Alliance Rebel gives a 10% discount.
I have a good friend who builds cars in his home shop on a full time basis. One of his true skills is wiring. He uses EZ wire exclusively. Thinks they are the best quality for the money.
I used the rebel 9+3 in my car and like everyone says it's easy to use. The wire used in the harness seem to be of good quality, but the fuses, turn signal setup is very basic. I really wished I had searched further and bought a wiring harness with a more auto specific fuse holder. Everytime my turn signals quit working the turn signal flasher has fell out. This has happened enough now that it is irritating. Just my 2 cents about it.
I've installed a few Rebel kits, as well as EZ, Painless, and Ron Francis. I prefer Rebel and EZ over the others, not just for cost, but also for quality.
I went Kwik Wire because I could download their catalog before I bought the product. This wasn't the deal with Rebel. I really found the KW instructions to be quite good. I made notes along the way and had to figure a bunch of things out at the car end of things.
Rebel and EZ better quality than Ron Francis??????????????? I hadn't joined in on this conversation because the op was specifically just asking if anybody had used a Rebel kit, but I gotta jump in here. I have never used Rebel or EZ, but I seriously doubt with the price of the kits either is using GXL crosslinked double jacket wiring like Ron Francis does on everything. That's aside from the quality of the hardware like panels, switches,relays,etc. I've read too many threads on wiring to believe anything other than Ron Francis and American Autowire to be the top two manufacturers, with Painless a distant third. Is Ron Francis alot more money?...you bet they are, but I believe they're in a different class.As far as instructions...you won't (quote):"had to figure a bunch of things out at the car end of things." JMHO
The only bug with the universal wiring kits is they tend to be "GM Friendly" regarding the headlight switch call Rebel's Tech and they can explain that and what the fix is.I give this two thumbs up http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Book-How-To-Wire-Your-Street-Rod,2824.html it's money well spent and so simple to understand.
Good point on the Universal kits, Jeff. Ron Francis is not a universal kit, at least their Express kits. You won't find them on a shelf anywhere..each one is made to order for a specific vehicle...yours! Ah shoot, now I'm turning this into something that was the reason I didn't comment in the first place.
I have installed Ron Francis , Painless, EZ wire American Autowire an some no name brand's just thought i would get some info on Rebel wire thank's for all the feed back
Actually if you are dealing with carb and distributor and on a budget, Rebel wiring harness serve quite well. I actually spent more money adding to the harness then I spent in the beginning. I went EFI and the 9+3 harness doesn't even come close to whats needed. I added 8 relays and fused circuits under the hood for efi and headlights, live and learn.
I've used both, Rebel and Francis. Like k5 above says, for a simple budget build without a lot of accessories, Rebel is pretty decent for the money. But if your using EFI,;A/C, ; power this or power that, your going to need something more capable.
About that, the harness forces you to do things a certain way. Dome light in car has one wire, harness circuit has two wires. Dash cluster was done a certain way by Ford.. their way. I had to get that to all agree with the harness. Best parts of the job were where all the OG wiring was completely removed.
I never said "better". I just feel that the cost difference isn't justified when the cheaper kits offer great quality for a reasonable price. The RF systems are outstanding, just not wallet friendly for a broke**** like myself.
Can't argue that. I've got well over 2K in wiring for my car, but when I was figuring the overall costs of a moderate drivetrain including getting it up and running, I figured the low $ outlay for the 4.6 efi /*******. etc. would balance out the higher costs of the wiring required for someone like me who didn't have the knowledge to modify a stock harness. The wiring on my car actually cost me more than the low miles drivetrain. Once I figured the only way to go for the efi harness was RF, it was a no brainer to use them as well for the chassis harness, and they did have the Ford steering colum connectors as well.
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