NEED HELP: Bought wiring harness or homemade wiring????

There is quite a difference between brands. AAW includes so much more. By the time you add up the cost to purchase the items not included in the other kits, buying AAW is clearly a great deal. Plus it is made in the USA.
I sell AAW and give 15% off. If you are an Alliance member I offer free shipping too

 

IF I were to find the money and courage, I'd buy a Rebel kit and wire everything to a 4x8 sheet of plywood in the back yard. This way I could SEE the wires and were they go. I know electricity is invisable and only God knows were it is and is going. If I set things up with a fresh 12 volt battery and turned everything ON and let it run untill the battery died, it will either start to smoke and start a lawn fire or the battery will be dead and all systems will be reusable..................correct? Bob

 

I wired my first hotrod before Ron Francis was making kits. I always thought that they were too pricey. The biggest thing I have against them is the ugly universal switches. I've always used old switches from old cars. So if it is your first wiring job a kit with instructions probably is the way to go.

If you care about the switches on the dashboard, you may be throwing away parts that you paid for. Most of the kits that I have looked at would take as much work to modify them for my purposes as it would to do the thing from scratch. I don't have a tilt GM column so the plug and play aspect is a waste of money for me.

A lot of guys panic when wiring is mentioned. It is not rocket science. If you want to use old switches to match your car Then you may want to wire it from scratch. There are several books out there to teach you how. If you want to understand how your car works, wire it yourself. It makes fixing your car easier.

There is a learning curve. In this time of instant gratification you may not want to take the time to learn how but you will be much better off if you know why the red wire goes to terminal A than if you just just obey the directions.

I always start with a drawing that shows the location in the car of the electrical parts and their terminals. I did not wire my 34 P/U but the Ford type solenoid is inside the frame near the starter. Not your normal location.

I bet if I tried I could make a drawing of the 34 P/U that I wired in the earl 80s. Once you do it you won't forget. It will be burned in your brain and you won't have to get out the instructions to figure out what's wrong.

I don't use 1 wire alternators on my old cars so tech help is no help. You were afraid to walk once but you learned and got over it.

OK end of sermon.

 

I make my own as a rule, but it is something that I have been doing a long time.

my bitch with a harness kit is that one size does not fit all. When I am making one for a car or bike I taylor it to the car or bike. I never have a wire come up short and can run it in any fashion that I like as opposed to running in from point A to pooint B in a manner that is required for it to fit. Also when I cut a wire it is cut to fit to start with I don't hve to take something apart and shorten it if it is too long.

 

The only reason to not use a harness is if you are a glutton for punishment.they are a deal and every time you troubleshoot an electrical issue you wont be sorry you did it right. two words of wisdom here.....[labeled wires]........

 

Kwikwire is pretty good also. I talked with them at Good-Guys Des Moines last year and was impressed. Its family run and made in the USA. I am in the midst of putting their trunk mount kit in my 40 Ford sedan and its gone pretty well for my 1st time. They have a great tech hotline. Answered all my questions without hesitation or delay.

 

I had a posting on another website forum about wiring and a guy gave some great advice. If you have to splice a wire to get proper length, put your splice in the middle so both ends of your wire are marked.

 

IMO, if there was a pecking order of wiring kits, American Autowire would be rated the best...........but that comes with a price, a pretty steep price. My Son used one in his rpu and I have to say it is a magnificent kit in all respects. I think it was over $400.

That being said, I used a Rebel 9+3 kit in my 27 and found it to be a very good value and it has been serving me well for 3 years with zero issues. It was easy to install, the components were of good quality, and the instructions were easy to read. I will use another Rebel in my rpu when that time comes.

One drawback that doing it from scratch has is that the wires are NOT marked every few inches as to their destination. Yes, I realize you can go out and buy a lot of different colored wire to color code your setup, but first of all, it is hard to find places that carry more than just a few colors, like red, black, and maybe white. Where do you get other shades like purple, yellow, tan, brown, etc ? And buying 12 different rolls of wire ain't cheap.

Finally, even after the wiring is done, if you ever have to go back under the dash to fix a problem or add something, it is sure nice to see all that writing on the wires. You can tell at a glance what wire you are tracing rather than going back into your memory bank to remember if you used pink for the coil or was it yellow ?

Don

 

It would cost more to buy 30 spools of a variety of colored wires..My neighbour made one from scratch but his wire comes free. I used an EZ wiring kit,,If I can wire a truck a stoned monkey can do it

 

What is the going rate for a stoned monkey?

 

Actually, you only need 4 rolls of wire; 10 ga, 12 ga, 14 ga, and 16 ga, and all one color, preferably black.

 

Ok, that is the first time anyone ever mentioned different gauge wires. Sure the battery cables are different but I always thought a Model A Hot Rod would have the same gauge wire running everything. Bob

 

Years ago when I built my 39 Coipe, I made my harness. When I built my Conv, I decided to buy a harness. I looked at all of thr harnesses from the different manufactures, and went with one from Ron Francis, and would not use anything else after using that one. A Francis kit will go into the 42 Chevy I am building now

 

Ever try troubleshooting a wiring problem when all wires are same color? I did all black wires twenty years ago on a black '29 ccpu. Never again! Any problem, cut the wire at both ends and replace the circuit. I redid it a couple years ago and am much happier with GM color coded, labeled wire from Rebel. Kept my original box, but made many small changes to improve reliability, adding relays, distribution block, and fusible links.

 

My first wiring job was when I was about 16. I wired a friends 50 Pontiac and we did it with all red wire because it looked cool loomed under the hood. But it was a bitch to try to trace wires when we were hooking stuff up and when we needed to troubleshoot something. Every wire looked like every other wire.

Color coding or wires with writing on them is the only way to go.

Don

 

i have used a wiring board from enos in a half of a dozen cars are they are great easy instructions

 

I am about to start my fourth wiring job using the Enos' Black Box, always great instructions. They mostly give you one sheet for each circuit, and that keeps it simple and clear.

 

only if you mark the ends with different color tape, or numbered labels.
i worked on a "give-away" car that was won at pigeon forge nationals. it had a bunch of electrical problems and had been wired using only red wires. what a nightmare trying to get everything working.

 

Easy to "code" the excess end of each wire with a pinch mark from your side cutters. Learned that method installing auto-lube systems, close to a hundred 1/8" nylon grease lines, all black.

If you design, construct, and install your harness correctly, you should have no problems with the actual wire harness itself, no matter what color.

Almost all electrical problems are caused by the component at either end of the wire, the connection to the component, or the components ground.

A problem with the actual harness is usually caused by physical damage, easy to inspect
the suspect section of harness for worn, pinched, or cut areas.

I like doing my own wiring, my own way, and feel that most hot rods have simple wiring systems and are easy to do.

There is nothing wrong with using an aftermarket harness and they make it possible for
almost anyone to install a sound electrical system on their own. I had to say "almost" cause I have seen aftermarket harnesses totally messed up by the installer.

 

Two days and still no answer as to why there are different gauge wires and why and were?

 

Hadn,t heard of the Enos one till this was bought up,does look pretty easy to install.
http://www.enoscustom.com/blackbox.html

 

I have always done "from scratch", probably several hundred. I do like the modular ato fuse blocks.
As for the different sizes; you can't/shouldn't use a 16 gauge wire for the power in to the car(I use 10) and I like 14 gauge to the light switch and acc from switch to fuse block. It's all about load on the wire. If you size it appropriately you should never have problems. Many opinions on this, should be another good thread.

 

Bob, the more amps the bigger the wire, same as house wiring.
when these little amp guys are running down a hallway [wire] and there are too many of them they get squeezed to tight and it gets hot and stuffy so depending on how many are moving down the wire depends how big the wire has to be. the starter uses lots of amps=big wire. the wire to the alternator moves lots of amps=not as big a wire. the headlights use more amps than the tail lights so they are a little bigger than the ones to the rear. etc...

 

Some places you need larger wire to keep the white smoke from escaping .

 

OK, I can picture that, by midnite someone will claim that they are not AMPS but something else, but for me right now AMPS running down the tube hallway works. Now, do they start life in the battery or generator/atlernator? A bigger mystery to me is how they get from there to the fuse block. Bob

 

Hey kid,
The amps are stored in the battery , there are only so many in there.
At the big battery factory they fill the battery up ( its more to it but that should work for now)
The alt, gen, refills the battery with new amps.

Once the amps do something, they are no longer amps (law of conservation of energy)
The battery needs and gets more new amps, a constant supply from the alt/ gen.

They get to the fuse box in a hallway, the fuse box is a BIG hallway with lots of doors to other hallways. Each fuse is like a turn style for these doors. If the turn style breaks because too many apms try to get thru the door to that hallway is closed .

Your gonna get this electrizical shit !!!!

 

My dad has been building wiring harnesses for racecars, boats, hotrods and everything under the sun for years. With that said when he saw the rebel wiring he was very impressed. Everything he builds is specific for the vehicle its going in. I would say decide what your going to have and order from rebel and Im not a spokes person for them just know a great product when I see it. Good luck with the build.

 

Rebel kits are very well made. My current project car had an EZ wire kit in it when I purchased the car. It did not seem to be quite the same quality and the installation was very poor. So of course it came out and a Rebel 9+3 kit is going in.

If anyone wants a slightly used 21 circuit EZ wire kit, PM me and I will make you a great deal.

 

I've got a picture in my head of amps trying to get out of a soccer stadium without being trampled, or starting a fire.

 

also these amppy guys will only go do the work if they have a nice easy way home [back to the battery ground] matter of fact they won't even go if there is no way home [its a union thing].
before you ask, think of volts as the amount of tools they carry in their tool boxes. so the less tools they carry in their tool boxes the more of the ampy guys are needed to get the job done. which in turn means a bigger hallway and an easier way home.
i picture them orange with large work boots and hard hats and talk in a snappy type of click.