'73 Wiring harness

I'm looking for a new plug n play wiring harness for a '73 CJ-5. Painless has "universals" and stock are in magazines for up to '65. Anyone know of a resource for a wiring harness with all connectors on? What i don't want is a whole bunch of splices 9which ix-nays Painless).

 

Hi Dana - unfortunately, the Intermediates (72-75) are probably the least well supported of all the CJ-5s in terms of aftermarket parts. If you want the stock wiring, I'd suggest you repair your harness - it's not that hard to do. Mostly you need the right attitude - just fix one wire at a time. The right colored wire can be scrounged at your local pick-your-part. You may be able to find a take-out harness from another Jeep, but I'd suspect it would take a while, and you'll probably have to repair that one too.

Splices aren't so bad if you do them right. To solder (in addition to the connector) or not is debatable, but you can get the bits you need from electronics supplies. Use a good crimping plier, butt connectors without insulation from Mouser Electronics, dual-wall heat shrink tubing http://www.action-electronics.com/heatshrink.htm#Dual and a heat gun. Neat, strong, and waterproof.

Lots of folks get overwhelmed by the spaghetti of the stock harness, and want to rip it all out and start new. To do this, you can buy one of the aftermarket harnesses (ie Painless), but IMO you shouldn't need to unless you have had a fire or are building from the ground up (like a hot rod).

 

Well, (lol), the previous owner ripped most of the stock harness out. He bought a painless kit, and I downloaded the manual, but the problem is still connectors. The ones still here are ratty as hell, some are long gone to electrical heaven (or hell). It would be easier if I could find a reproduction harness, but all I'm finding are '65 and earlier and '81 and up. Everything else is universal. I've got a starting circuit going with a toggle switch, but needless to say that's temporary.