Wiring Harness -

[old stovebolt]

Hello,

Anyone have a recommendation on where to buy a new replacement wiring harness for my 1947 Plymouth business coupe. I am not that concerned

with an OEM appearance, just a good functioning harness. I would really like to hear from someone who has actually purchased and installed one.

Thank you.

[suntennis]

I used Rhode Island Wiring Service,Inc. for my wiring and was happy with the product. My wiring was a copy of the original and was correct but very, very expensive. To do my car complete, that means everything, the wires were around $800.00. There is another discussion on wiring with some comments about doing it yourself. If you do not care about original wire, maybe one of the wire outfits would make you looms with present day wires and charge a lot less.

[old stovebolt]

Thank you for your comments.

[old stovebolt]

Anyone else have any suggestions???

[1950 Special Deluxe]

I scanned the wiring diagram from my service manual and am making my own.

I plan to upgrade a bit but for the most part will replace what is there.

It will not be authentic but will be functional and safe.

[old stovebolt]

Thank you.

[slicknapier]

I am in the process of re-wiring mine as we speak. I am using an ez-wiring one and I am converting to 12 volt. I removed a bunch of wires due to the simplicity of our cars. I think if I were to do it again I would just make my own. My car is a 51 plymouth..

[old stovebolt]

Thank you.

Unless I get other suggestions, it looks like I will do the wiring myself.

It doesn't look that hard to do.

[old stovebolt]

Hello all,

I just stumbled upon the "electrical" reference section of this website.

It contains lots of very interesting information and vendors.

I think I will find what I need there!

[old stovebolt]

Anyone else have input?

[Young Ed]

I made my own for about $75 bucks. If you know how to solder its not hard.

[old stovebolt]

Hello,

With regard to making your own wiring harness, did you just match the existing wire gauge or what? How did you determine the type and gauge of wire to use?

Thank you.

[suntennis]

The best thing you can do is buy a service manual for your car for around $30 which has the wiring diagram in it. On the diagram, there are letters that refer to wire color and a number for each wire. The number is the wire gage for that wire. If you go on internet and sometimes on Ebay, you can buy just a wire diagram in full color. For most things, 14 gage wire is used.

[old stovebolt]

Thank you.

[JBNeal]

I made my own wiring harness, using the existing harness & the wiring diagram in the shop manual, cost less than a C-note. I have since had a varmint crawl up in the old Dodge during the winter & gnaw on some wires, so that had to be fixed. I was glad I didn't go in for the high dollar stuff as I would have cussed up a blue streak.

Don't get me wrong, I like the original cotton-braid look, but I live out in the country, surrounded by corn fields & hay pastures, and the snakes take a long winter vacation, allowing the mice, rats, squirrels, etc. to run amok at night. I've seen varmints chew up coax cable in half, holes in plastic radiator overflow reservoirs, holes in covered plastic garbage cans full of pecans, holes in vinyl bench seats to make a nest, shredded paper air filters to make a nest...good times

[old stovebolt]

Thank you for your response.

You make a good point about rodent damage. I know of more than one late

model vehicle that has been declared a total loss due to rodents chewing

on a wiring harness. The seem to like the plastic and the warm environment.

[49 Dodge Dude]

I scanned the wiring diagram from my service manual and am making my own.

I plan to upgrade a bit but for the most part will replace what is there.

It will not be authentic but will be functional and safe.

My '49 has questionable wiring too - brittle in spots and with insulation flaking off. I looked into just buying a new harness, but they wanted almost $700 for it! I have a background in electronics, so I think I'll just do my own as well. If you have any tips on making the job easier, please share them. I could use all the help I can get! Thanks!

[JBNeal]

1) replace one wire at a time

2) make it look purty later; use nylon zip ties for temporary holders, then tape & loom when every wire is replaced

3) remove the wires from the dash & poke them through the firewall before replacing. There are enough wires that go through the firewall that it's helpful to get them out in the open to get a look at them. It is also easier to run the wires back through the firewall in clusters rather than all at the same time.

4) take pictures of detail areas so you can put everything back in a neat & efficient manner

[richards47deluxe]

Started to do what you are thinking about replacing the wiring on my sedan. then took a close look at what I have and actually got all the lights working. Basically I have a few cracked wires that are grounding or touching each other. I bought some wire, connectors and shrink tubing and gong to tackle it. I also change the tail lights to be both running and brake lights. The middle light will be a running light only. Very easy to convert. I went to the junk yard, bought dual wire light housings, remove the dual connectors and inserted them into the tail light housing. They work fine. Just takes time.

[daddyo23]

I was lazier than most and bought one from Rebel Wire. I had switched to 12 volts but they make one for 6v too. Vey reasonable cost and they were very helpful with any questions I had. I'd buy from them again. Very good product.

[old stovebolt]

Thank you all for the very good suggestions.