Wiring Harness

[Robert Smith]

Yep, recall the posts about my light switch burning out fuses? Well, here's the long and short of it.

Took the car into my auto electric shop this week, he took a look and saw a mess of wiring that he is very scared of. The wiring harness is original but, my friend that I bought the car off of spliced new wiring to the old harness... so, most of the wiring under the dash is "newer" and so is the wiring under the hood. But, the original harness needs to be replaced. He said there's a lot of resistance coming from the tail lights and head lights... things aren't up to code on them so, that's what's causing the switch to get hot and blow fuses.

Now, for those who have replaced a wire harness, who to buy from and how much did it cost for the harness and how much generally will it cost for installation?

Any help will be most appreciated.

-=R

P-15

[Captain Neon]

This may be the time to start looking for a Dodge Pickup of similar vintage to drive around while this project is getting completed. It's not exactly a project one can do quickly by oneself or cheaply by some one else. I've read some comments that changing a wiring harness takes 80 hours labour.

[dezeldoc]

What are you looking for a stock reproduction harness or an aftermarket type one? the cloth wound harness will cost about 3-4 times what the aftermarket type will cost.

[DutchEdwin]

Or you can do the rewiring yourself by changing it to a modern wiring standard.

Look into the amps that run through the wires and compare the on what is allowed in a normal house!

I did change the complete wiring and almost doubled the wire thickness. In my main wire the amps can go over 50A!!! when all the electrics are on.

Radio, 9 amps. Wiper motor, 15 amps. fan motor 8 and 9 amps. add headlights, high beam, tail lights, indicator and interior and you know what I'm speaking off.

Consider this if you want the vintage looks or safety.

[Reg Evans]

A wiring harness from YnZ's or Rhode Island is going to cost in the neighborhood of $600 and probably that much more to have it installed. Don't shoot the messenger. I'm allergic to hot lead.

[Frank Elder]

Check Rob's thread"Boxer inverted" on how to wire your auto. Good stuff.

[boxer_inv]

Hi Robert

Like you, when I first got Dorothy I was fairly scared of the wiring....it was operating, but very old, decaying and just asking for a short to happen sometime.

Bearing in mind that I'm in Australia, I was looking at around $700.00 or so for a reproduction harness, and then install on the top of that. I decided to take the plunge and re-wire it myself.

Now I won't say I did it for a bargain, because I did get good quality wire, and also splashed out on some decent tools to make the job easier, but I figure the tools are more a capital investment in my workshop, than just Dorothy.

The most important outcome for me? The fact that I now know the wiring of Dorothy very, very intimately - and this is already being useful to me when having to work on other parts of the car. It was a good learning curve. Yep, there were problems, but none insurmountable and I now use Dorothy in the knowledge that her wiring is now safe.

There are some fairly lengthy threads on my re-wire - here's the links:

http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=17534

http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=17801

http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=17931

http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=18000

http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=18025

I see you've got a P-15. My D24 wiring is basically the same - in fact I used a combination of P-15 diagram crossed over in a couple of minor places with the D24 diagram. I also ended up creating my own diagram (colour) - and would be happy to email this to you if you think it might help you in some way.

Cheers

Rob

Edited August 25, 2010 by boxer_inv

[martybose]

I bought a Rhode Island Wiring replacement harness set, and replaced every single wire in the car. It really isn't that difficult as long as you have a Factory Service Manual (FSM) to give you all of the color codes so you get everything in the right place under the dash. You'll find that the harness to the back of the car goes over the driver's door, so you have to take the headliner loose to get it in. I did the whole job in my garage, found that taking out the front seat gave me enough room to get to the wiring under the dash.

Marty

[48ply1stcar]

I rewired my 48 PLY 4-door from the dash forward in a few days. You can do it one wire at a time and make wiring harness for your lights from multi-wire exterior wire from the hardware store. I mounted a connection block on the inner fender near the horns and changed my front single element parking lights to dual element lights for parking and turn signals.

It's a project that is well worth the time and effort.

[1949P17BC]

I just did my 47 with a Rhode Island Harness, Perfect fit, any and all extras you might need, and very good direction and easy to do it. For the money its the way to go. No mess just unplug and re plug it in.

[Joe Flanagan]

I followed boxer's example and started wiring mine a piece at a time. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Like others have said, if you have a factory service manual with the wiring schematic, it can be done. I got darn good and confused from time to time but studying and talking to other guys helped me figure it out. By the way, I used cloth covered wire from the Brillman Co. Very nice stuff. So far, I've got all my under hood wiring done.

[Barabbas]

Joe,

I'm planning on doing my Cranbrook one piece at a time, using RI wire where it shows--but I do want to use a fuse block instead of the original in-line fuses. What did you use for fusing? I thought I would use a

Centech PDP-1B fuse panel ----any experience with this panel?

[Joe Flanagan]

The only fuse I've run into in the wiring I've completed so far is the 30 amp fuse attached to the back of the ammeter and that is original. I was incorrect by saying I have all my under hood wiring done. I have all the wiring that relates to running the engine done. I haven't wired the lights or the horns yet.

I too am using the cloth wire only where it shows. I crimped and soldered all my wire terminals. I also followed the advice from this forum and used star washers on all connections.