Wire Harness or Spaghetti?

:? Well, I have insurance and plates on my new toy. No brake lights or turn signals? I looked under the dash to check my wires and I found spaghetti everywhere. It's colored just like wires but it can't be. Who in their right mind would make that mess? Now, my question, do I dare try making a wire harness? Am I biting off more than I really want to chew?:?

 

Tell us more. Has the wiring harness been modified?

The original harness of a '62 CJ-5 is very simple as wiring harnesses go. If somebody has messed with it, the right approach is to take it one circuit at a time. If you can think of it one wire at a time, it becomes less of a mess and more manageable.

 

I had the same problem with mine when I first bought it and found lamp cord wire running to the rear lights. Decided then to just buy a new wiring harness and replace everything.

 

I wired my jeep my self and its not too hard if you take it one circuit at a time and have a basic understanding of eletrical.
think of the wires like pipes and the electricty like water for the most part. with the only excipten is thet you have to connect the pos with a fuse then the load(light fan ect.) and then to the ground.example pos water comming in to your house the dish washer the load and the drain the ground.like the pipe the bigger the load the bigger the wire needs to be.
if you dont feel like you can do this check out a book in the libary to help or you can buy a premade harnes. their are menny out their painless is the most know but a lot of the guys on this website could give you a lot better suggestion on wich one to get if you decid to go that way.

 

Definitly rewire. Just take it one step at a time. What you don't know you'll learn, quick. I did a 12cir EZ wire harness once and now I am making my own harness for the second Jeep. Its not very difficult. I'd reccomend buy the harness the first time. The second time its simple and you can make your own.

 

I rewired my jeep from scratch, and have made some easy to read circuit diagrams, and a wiring diagram to show basically how the wires run on the vehicle, there is a fuse for every circuit, and the wires colours on the vehicle match those on both the wiring diagram and the circuit diagrams.
pm me with your email and I'll send you a zip full of pdfs

the attached files are the wiring diagram only

 

Wow, very nice wire diagrams. I didn't look at them close but downloaded and saved them. I drew mine out on paper when I did mine. But I had to make mine to wire into a chevy column and a later model CJ fuse box. I used wire from a car I scrapped many years ago to wire mine. I pretty much made a new harness reusing the pieces that were still good. I would like to go back and solder/heatshrink all my connections instead of the current crimp connectors.

 

Well, so far I have built the back half of the harness all the way to the dash. I still have to come up with a fuse box. Meanwhile I am starting on the front. Just have to order a good relay for the lights and buy a couple of switches and i'm all set.

 

keep up the good work let us know how it turns out or if you have any qustions.

 

Well, after excessive use of some very colorful explatives, my harness is built. I found it easier to build the rear and the front seprately. The relay is wired in for my headlights and I found a fuse box I think will work pretty good for what I want. It came out of a 98 Ford F-150. Plenty of room for fuses, breakers and several relays for other things. So, the next thing that comes to mind is---the wires out of the back of the box are only about 2 inches long. Should I solder all my connections or can the connections inside the box be purchased somewhere? What would happen if a 12AWG wire tied into a 14 AWG wire about 1 inch before the back of the fuse box. Finally, when I choose the fuses for each circuit the correct formula for amps is watts divided by volts equals amps---- correct?
Thanks for all the help with all the questions since I got my jeep.

 

volume = flow x pressure so yes watts = amps x volts
your wires size should be based on the amp draw so I would not go to a smaller wire unless the smaller wire can handel the amps.

for fuse pannel and realy hook ups you can get some repacement end from places like napa but I dont know how meny you will find to match. if I couldnt locate new ends I would soder and heat shrink the connections.
www.aeroelectric.com/articles/wiresize.pdf