Thoughts on aftermarket wiring harness's

Been contemplating one of these full wiring harness's for a while now I'm curious if any one has any first hand knowledge on any of the kits like painless, EZ, or any of the eBay kits out there I really like the looks of the painless kit but I'm open to others out there
My rig is a 1950 cj3a and a f head and a gm column
I currently do not have any existing wiring to gauges or any lights like headlights or tail stop or turn signals. This thing has been a wiring mess I just recently got the ignition system rewired to the point it's drivable again and nothing seams to be melting anymore lol this kit will be my early Christmas gift so looking forward to any comments and my future project of getting this old beast street legal


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Save the money and make one yourself. If you can wire the engine to make it run, then you should be able to do the rest. There are many folks on here that can help if you have questions.

 

I have to disagree about making one over buying one. The EZ harness is relatively inexpensive for what you get ie: fuse block with wiring attached, correct size wiring for each item, marked along entire length of each wire as to what it goes to, etc. This is what I did and was a simple one day easy project for me.

 

I wish I could make my own but I hate wiring and wiring the engine was a pain in its self and I feel that wiring the ignition system would be way easier than everything else on the jeep so the EZ kit is pretty good then


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While Painless is very good but lots of money, as said E Z wire is about half or more of what a Painless costs and just about as easy to install . After installing one of each, I like the Painless. You get a little more with the Painless like connectors and such . To me, Painless just seemed to go in better. But, if I do another, it would probably be the E Z because of the cost.

 

Another vote for EZ. I did my 74 with one about two years ago and would easily recommend it.


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Norm

 

I've installed the painless and have an EZ harness waiting to be instslled. EZ looks similar, but I can give more details in a few weeks. It took me a long time to install a painless looking clean under the dash.

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Well I look forward to your review on the EZ kit
As I have a bit of time before I buy one
Should be buying one on the 15th of nov.
Love buying my own Christmas gifts lol


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2x

An old Jeep is about as simple as it gets and it is really easy to wire it yourself. Not only that, but if you do go this route, you have the opportunity to do a lot of stuff that isn't going to be in the replacement wiring harness-like running dedicated grounds, using Bussmann's super compact 280 series fuse/relay blocks, and Metri Pack or Weather Pack terminals.

All that stuff is now available through Waytek Wire at prices far, far, far cheaper than either EZ or Painful.

 

I will give it some thought about making my own


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The EZ kit can be found on ebay for less than the ez wire site itself. X whatever its up to for EZ Wire

 

The main problem with making your own is the wire colors. Wire will be expensive to purchase in small quantities, and you either have to label all the wires and use a single color, or you must buy lots of different colors and sizes of wire at significant cost.

If I were considering making my own harness, I'd try to buy a complete harness from a relatively new car, and use the wire and loom from that. A modern car should contain way more wire than you would need to wire a Jeep. I'd also minimize the number of connectors in the harness. The connectors used in cars are mostly about being able to assemble the car quickly on the assembly line. Mechanical connections, as a class, are the absolute most likely failure in any electrical circuit. And you'll spend a lot of time fiddling with connectors and crimping, if you try to duplicate all the connections that the factory uses. If you need an inline connector, I'd suggest a simple bullet connector, soldered and covered with adhesive heat-shrink. Again, you don't need to be able to plug in the headlights in 3.6 seconds or some other short interval, like the factory does.

So you could do it. And it would be cheap, if you can get the materials cheap. Parts Express is the cheapest source I've found for crimp connectors, at about 5c-10c each. It may not be worth the extra time needed though.

 

Del City has all the connectors and wire also. I make all my own harnesses now from scratch. About $100 if you use good terminals ie:shrink tube crimp terminals. Try to avoid the cheap crimp connectors that you see at your local FLAPS. If you plan to do a lot of wiring then it pays to buy wire on bigger rolls. If you only plan on doing 1, then you might just want to go EZ.

 

honestly i think it will be easier and less time consuming with just buying the ez kit
i think ill just spend the extra money and not dill with all the hassle
even with the kit it will probalystill be a hassle and take me a while lol

 

X2 here. I do not know what I spent doing my own but really increased my knowledge of how it all works. Doing one circuit at a time makes it a little easier.

 

Hi Fiddy5

I am dumb as dirt...my sole supplier for my last rebuild of a 1947 Willys Jeep (the PILE) was Walcks....so I went with Walcks4WD for my harness too...It took me a long while to figure it out and I had to call Carl and or Dan at least once to help me out but I did it....you might wanna get some extra connectors as well....when in doubt add a ground...
If I can figure it out you can do it...trust me..you can do it too...

MikeC