Wiring Harness

Which wiring harness should I get. I have seen a few online, Painless, centech, exactfit, I am sure there are others. I have a 72 and would like to replace the harness while the jeep is still apart.

Any opinions on the one I should order.
Also on where to get the best price.....

Thanks in advance for your help
Frank
(new to this forum)

 

Welcome wireguy. I haven't done a re-wire yet, but it's on the horizen. Still looking at harnesses.

 

Hi Frank - re this topic, I'm the contrarian here - I'd advise you use your original harness unless it's been through a fire. Fixing a harness is easy if you don't let yourself get overwhelmed by all the circuits.

 

I just had a pianles sinstalled in my 74. I tried it myself first, but it was not fun. I ended up trailering it to a guy who works on jeeps. He installed it but told me he had a hell of a time doing it and will never take another jeep for re-wire. It did not have any wiring in it except for the ignition stuff.
I personally think if you have never done it before get someone to help you who has.
Of course, this is just my personal experience.

 

I used an EZ harness for my '57, was very happy with the kit. I also bought some relays and junction kits from here. I think the main reason Painless gets so many props is that their instructions are much more detailed. You can download them from the Painless site. As far as the EZ, other than some mental gymnastics, it wasn't too bad. Just have to do some thinking/planning/sketching ahead of time.

Don't know why a Jeep would be any more difficult than any other vehicle of that era.... :?

 

Just my opinion but, I think you should rebuild the old one. Look for wholsale wiring distributors online and you will be surprised how cheaply you can get the wire and connectors. Also if you know how, I prefer to solder and shrinkwrap my wire to wire connections rather then crimp them. Understand that there is nothing wrong with crimp connectors, you will definitely need to crimp on loop connectors and whatnot at the ends of the line. But try to solder as many wire to wires as possible. Also get your hands on a copy of the wiring diagram from the TSM.

 

I also have an EZ-wire kit. The kits are great and if you have any elelctrical experience you will do fine, I actually bought my kit about 5 years ago, they are cheaper now. I paid $185 for mine, there down to $155, every bit as good as Painless and Centech. They are not jeep specific harness's they are actually a Hotrod kit for kit cars, Custom's and resto's. The wires are long and of heavy gauge and the fuse block is the exact same that the other 2 use. They are marked every 5" do n the length of the wire as to what the wires is for. For example the left rear turn signal will be marked as such every 5" from the fuse block to the rear. The harness does not need to be jeep specific, with the exception of the Sparton turn signal switch pretty much all vehicles are gonna be the same.

 

I bought a harness from Walck's 4WD. It appears to be very good quality, has the cloth covered wires in the correct color codes. Paid $195 for it.

Don't have it installed yet, not even close to that point. I shouldn't have bought it yet, but when I did I wasn't planning on doing a frame-off resto. I started by taking off a fender to see how hard it was, and next thing I knew I was hoisting the tub off. Looking back, I wish I'd just did the electrics, fuel system, brakes and etc., just to get it running and drive it for awhile. That was before I found this site.

 

not to bash your "Jeep guy" , but as mentioned here in other posts, this is a very basic and simple wiring job; maybe electrical is just not his "thing".

Wireguy, any of the above mentioned kits/manufacturers should be fine.
mine came from Morris 4X4 in Florida; they list on ebay I believe.
do research for best pricing

 

I agree, wiring was not his thing, but he got it done and for pretty cheap, too.

 

I installed an EZ wiring harness this spring and had no real problems and the price was better than a Painless harness. I am not an electrical type person and could understand the directions that came with it.

 

I'm going to use a EZ-wire also when the time comes. I saw one first hand the other day at a hotrod shop. The only difference I noticed in the kit between them and painless wiring was the print was different on the wires, the painless wiring print was easier to read. But the ez wire are still very ledgible. Plus they had 8 circuit kits for $135 and 21 circuit kits for $165. At that price you cant afford to not use it.

 

i also installed a painless on my '75, using a '76 and later kit. it wasn't overly difficult. i liked that the majority of the wires are preterminated. made things mostly easier. because i used a later model kit, some of the connectors and plugs had to be changed, but using the wiring diagrams of both the kit and for my '75, i was able to get it right.

no more shorts. no more lights out.

 

I just bought "Its just a snap" EZ wiring harness off of ebay for $134 and i cant wait for it to arrive at my doorstep. It's the ZZ20 21 circuit model (not that any one with a jeep needs that many but...just in case). I had heard from another member months ago that it took him about a weekends worth of time to complete the project. Im sure this accounts for the time necessary to crack a few cold ones and play a few practical jokes on your buddy. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

 

Thanks for all the info.

From what I can gather here, is that they are all pretty similar.....

So I should just try to find the best price. Does anyone know of one I should definitely stay away from?

Thanks again
Frank

 

I haven't installed my harness from Walck's yet, but it's made as a replacement for my original wiring harness. All wires are cloth covered, have the correct color codes with the correct color slash marks on them, and are all cut to length and pre-terminated. Mine doesn't have a fuse block or anything like that, it's supposed to be just like the original wiring.

Sounds like some of the others are generic "fits-all" versions that you have to cut and terminate yourself. Any should work fine, if you're familiar with wiring things up...just depends on what you want.

 

I'm using the EZ kit also. I got the "Mini 20" because I wanted a smaller fuse panel. It was $130 plus shipping. I'll let you know how it goes if I ever get the gauges mounted so I can wire it.
http://www.ezwiring.com/
Keith

 

Heres a stupid ?, If I get any one will it help me be street lgl.? I.e. reverse lights, etc.