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EZ Wiring Harness Rewire

S

southern_boy

Member
Has anybody used EZ Wiring to rewire their entire car? And If So where do you start and how do you wire up the ignition and such? Would it be wise to put the new wires into the stock plugs the way they are with the original wires or would it be ok just to cut them off and put the new wires to the old wires going to the plugs (ex: Headlights, taillights etc.). If the first option is the best, how do you get the old wires out and what would you need to put the new wires into the plugs. Please any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

This is in the 1973 Mustang Mach 1.
 
Midlife can restore your old harnesses if you have them to start with....might check with him.

You normally would splice the new wires onto the old plugs...
 
i'll second pete's comments. one thing you might not realize is all of the $150 universal wiring harnesses on the market are geared towards street rods & are GM based & color coded to GM specs, reason being, a much higher percentage run chevy motors, steering columns etc. i've installed a bunch of these over the years (including a painless universal harness in a 68 fastback 20 yrs ago) & converting things to ford use such as steering column, ignition, voltage regulator/alt will give you fits. you will need to make numerous calls to the manufacturer for instructions as the included instruction sheets are, you guessed it.. GM based. i'm not sure what your knowledge base is as far as electrical systems or wiring goes, but this isn't an easy plug & play job for a beginner. i would check with mid first on getting your harness refurbished, my second choice would be a harness from american autowire if you go universal. they have a great tech support team & can modify the harness you buy slightly to better meet your needs.
 
Well I already have the wiring harness, I got it for about 80 bucks cheaper then I woulda gotten it off the site. I figured it was a good buy so I got it. Now I am just trying to get it done before I go off to college.
 
i'll look upstairs in the attic & see if i still have any of my notes from the mustang install yrs ago. if i do, i'll get them to you as they might help. not sure what your budget is, but converting to a later model alt with internal regulator or one wire setup may save alot of time & headache in figuring out how to properly rewire the original regulator. i'm sure midlife can chime in on this. as far as the column & ign, headlights etc. you will just have to set down with the new instructions & an original schematic for the car & draw up a new diagram by cross referencing the two.
 
"SELLERSRODSHOP" said:
i'll look upstairs in the attic & see if i still have any of my notes from the mustang install yrs ago. if i do, i'll get them to you as they might help. not sure what your budget is, but converting to a later model alt with internal regulator or one wire setup may save alot of time & headache in figuring out how to properly rewire the original regulator. i'm sure midlife can chime in on this. as far as the column & ign, headlights etc. you will just have to set down with the new instructions & an original schematic for the car & draw up a new diagram by cross referencing the two.
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I appreciate it, and like I said, any help will be appreciated. :)
 
I have completely rewired both Mustangs with Painless and never regretted it. Pretty easy following their instructions. Yes, I had to extract and reuse some connectors such as ignition swith and headlight switch. Removing the connectors from the original harness is very easy. If you look very carefully where each old wire goes into the connector, you will see a very small flat opening, big enough for a jewelers flathead screw driver.

Most the wire terminals have a barb hook which prevents the wire from accidently coming out. The only way to remove each connector is to depress the barb hook with your screwdriver, then carefully pull the wire out.

1. push each wire into the connector until it stops.
2. insert the small screw driver with hope that you can depress the hook towards the wire itself.
3.While you hold the screwdriver into place, wiggle and slightly tug on the wire. Hopefully the wire will come out with the
terminal still attached.
4. If you new wire harness has identical terminals on the end, you simply insert each wire listening and feeling for the hook to snap into place.
5. Once you think you have it in place give the wire a slight tug to make sure it doesn't come out.

If you need to buy the typical barbed terminal, here's a pic of it:


 
I also believe most of the original style connectors ("plugs", etc.) are available as new items. I would strongly suggest against just cutting wires and splicing them onto the ends of the new harness wires. Most of the problems in wiring originate at the termination points...the parts of the old harness you would be retaining.
 
"Horseplay" said:
I also believe most of the original style connectors ("plugs", etc.) are available as new items. I would strongly suggest against just cutting wires and splicing them onto the ends of the new harness wires. Most of the problems in wiring originate at the termination points...the parts of the old harness you would be retaining.
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I beg to differ. Headlight, ignition, brake switch, dimmer switch, wiper switch, heater switch, 67-73 turn signal switch, and 69-70 main firewall block/fuse block connectors to name just a few, are not commercially available as connectors. Then you have the specialty connectors for door ajar relay, 69/70 clocks, etc. that are unique to Ford and not commercially available. Then, you have issues with grommets of the right size to pass connectors through the firewall.
 
"cmayna" said:
I have completely rewired both Mustangs with Painless and never regretted it.
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craig,
did you use the mustang specific harness or the universal? i used one of their harnesses made for the 67-72 chev pickup when i built the shop truck & never have i had such an easy time wiring a vehicle! i think i had the whole thing finished in about 3 hrs. truly a "plug & play" operation.
 
"Midlife" said:
I beg to differ. Headlight, ignition, brake switch, dimmer switch, wiper switch, heater switch, 67-73 turn signal switch, and 69-70 main firewall block/fuse block connectors to name just a few, are not commercially available as connectors. Then you have the specialty connectors for door ajar relay, 69/70 clocks, etc. that are unique to Ford and not commercially available. Then, you have issues with grommets of the right size to pass connectors through the firewall.
Click to expand...
Well you would know better than most. What do you do then when refurbishing a harness if a specific connector is beyond repair? Cannibalize one off another harness, I presume? You don't prescribe cutting and splicing wires? Or do you? That was really the main point of my response to his question of to cut or not to cut.
 
"Horseplay" said:
Well you would know better than most. What do you do then when refurbishing a harness if a specific connector is beyond repair? Cannibalize one off another harness, I presume? You don't prescribe cutting and splicing wires? Or do you? That was really the main point of my response to his question of to cut or not to cut.
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Cannibalization is the way I go for damaged connectors, but I have well over 250 used harnesses as source materials. I've found that about 20% of the molded bullet connectors are bad, particularly in the 67-68 years. If the connectors are good or missing, I recommend cutting the wires and splicing the wires into the connector pigtails. Make the pigtails as long as you can, though. A pigtail of 1" or less gives you no room for screwups.
 
Well if splicing is really the only way to go, your best method would be to strip the insulation back about 3/4" or so on both wire ends, slip a length of heat shrink tubing over one wire (1 1/2" or so), lightly loosen the wire strands and push them into one another(end to end) form them by hand back into shape and then solder them together. Pull the heat shrink up over the joint and seal it tightly. This will yield the best and longest lasting connection.

I'd highly recommend not using crimp-on butt connectors. It has been my experience that crimp-on butt connectors only lead to problems for a myriad of reasons...beginning with bad crimps. My 2 cents FWIW.
 
"Horseplay" said:
I'd highly recommend not using crimp-on butt connectors. It has been my experience that crimp-on butt connectors only lead to problems for a myriad of reasons...beginning with bad crimps. My 2 cents FWIW.
Click to expand...

If you're talking about the plastic coated crimp connectors, I would heartily agree with you: they are crap!

On the other hand, there are good quality uninsulated butt crimp connectors out there, but they are a bit more expensive and require a specific tool, not your general crimper that you typically find. I use professional grade butt crimps (panduit brand) and tools in all my work. Solder has its place as well, but it takes longer to perform the splice and you have to clean the result with alcohol to remove the flux. If you don't clean the flux, it will rapidly corrode.

There's a big debate as to whether crimping or soldering is better. In the aviation community, crimping is required and soldering is generally avoided. Since I work in the aviation field as well, I'm sticking with that!
 
"Midlife" said:
If you're talking about the plastic coated crimp connectors, I would heartily agree with you: they are crap!

On the other hand, there are good quality uninsulated butt crimp connectors out there, but they are a bit more expensive and require a specific tool, not your general crimper that you typically find. I use professional grade butt crimps (panduit brand) and tools in all my work. Solder has its place as well, but it takes longer to perform the splice and you have to clean the result with alcohol to remove the flux. If you don't clean the flux, it will rapidly corrode.

There's a big debate as to whether crimping or soldering is better. In the aviation community, crimping is required and soldering is generally avoided. Since I work in the aviation field as well, I'm sticking with that!
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At least something is professional in that garage....
 
I used an "Its A Snap" wiring harness on my '68. Like everyone has basically said, trim each connecter off of your current harness with several inches of wire and mate the pigtails to the GM harness. In my case the universal didn't bother me since I was using 68 ignition and headlight switch, but essentially an '85-86 steering column and turn signal switch with integrated high beam switch and flasher switch plus electronic fuel injection, autometer electric gauges, electric windows and fuel pump, and 1 wire alternator etc... It took a considerable amount of time to get it all put together... figuring out wire lengths and positioning joints so that they are not all overlapping takes quite a bit of time.

Right now I am using an EZ wiring harness on my '65 El Camino... and even that is taking time to get everything spliced evenly, soldered, heat shrink tubed, wrapped, routed etc. One thing I found helpful is to wire up the dash with a multi-pin connector (12 or 14 pins I think) so that you can easily remove the dash with one or two quick disconnects.. Getting that harness built can take several hours or more... Personally, I enjoy doing it, so the $150 harness is worth it to me, but if you are not good at understanding electrical circuits and debugging, then don't waste your time.

The EZ wiring harness instructions are lacking in a few spots... I know some wires are labeled somewhat differently than what their wiring map shows, not a huge issue, but there is no reason why they couldn't use the exact same "text" in both places... I think one case is something like "FR PARK" is on the wire... is that Front Park, or Front Right Park. Like I said, not a big deal, but there are a few cases where you end up pausing for a bit to confirm you have the right wire compared to the documentation. I see no reason why the abbreviate in some cases, and spell it out completely in others.

If you do decide to move forward, do yourself a big favor and go to painless' website and download their Mustang wiring harness manual... There is helpful info in there even though it doesn't apply to directly to your harness. You might also download their GM harness manual to get a little more familiar with GM concepts as well.
Keep good notes too... you'll be glad you did should anything go wrong.
 
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