New Wiring from Rhode Island Wire

[mrbobs48]

I took out all my old 6v wiring 1948 plymouth special deluxe . Rhode Island wiring did my new harness . What a nice wiring harness with numbered schematics and original color wire. My old wiring was broken and spliced into. Good folks to do business with. 

[RobertKB]

I have used YnZ wiring and had the same kind of results. It is nice to know there are two companies out there that do this kind of work well and stand behind their products.

[Darbone85737]

Good to know. I just ordered a harness for my p18 a couple of weeks ago.  They make them up as ordered and takes around 4 weeks

[50desotocoupe]

Can I ask what you approximately paid for these?  Are they a fairly straight forward install? 

[Darbone85737]

Link to their web site.   http://www.riwire.com/   You can buy individual harnesses for each application-interior, dash, headlights, etc.

Haven't received mine yet so can't answer re: installation.  A friend who had a shop in Cleveland has used them for years and raves about them so I took his recommendation 

[DLK]

Can I ask what you approximately paid for these?  Are they a fairly straight forward install? 

Sit down before reading this but I believe if you look at their website or old threads here it is about $800 for a full harness.  They make them like the original only durable.  People rave about the quality.

[mrbobs48]

dash /engine harness went in like a piece of cake. Easy

[Darbone85737]

I got my wiring from them this afternoon. The quality or material and construction of the harness is great.  Instructions and diagrams that came with the harness should make this an easy job.   My only recommendation would be they include headlight bucket grommets with the headlight wiring. They tell you to use the existing grommets but with the cars/wiring being this old it's unlikely that is possible.

 

The dash/engine wiring, headlight/turn signal wiring and dimmer switch wiring came to $ 330 including shipping

Edited May 7, 2014 by Darbone85737

[omiotek]

anyone have some pics of their harness?

[pflaming]

I made this harness yesterday in about 4 hours and about $50. Added the connectors today, took about 2 hrs. Just too simple to have someone make on for me. Will install tomorrow.

 

The first harness I made took me a week to lay out and another month to 'fully' debug it. When I knew I had to rewire the truck (fire two months ago) I ordered a kit but can't find it, so I decided to do it myself only in the truck not on a bench with a schematic.  It was so easy, still can't believe how simple it is.

 

So don't shy away from wiring your vehicles.  

 

 

I make the harness in the vehicle then removed it to solder on the connectors. 

 

Edited May 7, 2014 by pflaming

[Darbone85737]

Here's a picture of part of the engine/dash harness along with the diagram and schematic. 

 

https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1.0-9/10294344_4150067526263_4353530853534154387_n.jpg

 

Probably could make one but I love the fact that it has the original style wire coverings and connectors even though my car is just a driver

Edited May 7, 2014 by Darbone85737

[pflaming]

I am in error to pass judgement on other ideas and products. If a custom harness has special coating, connectors, etc., then there is a value in that and an expense to accomplish that.

 

However for the novice or more frugal builder, these trucks and cars are not complicated. A little study will save a LOT of money.

 

My apologies and my best to all.

Edited May 7, 2014 by pflaming

[Ulu]

I'm not that frugal, but I'll wire my own because I don't want traditional wiring.

 

I want high tech teflon insulated wire that doesn't chafe or melt like PVC.

 

It won't look original, but I'm changing all the electrics to 12v anyhow.

 

Also I want every terminal soldered & insulated with heat-shrink tubing.

 

The body will have extra ground wires in the harness to each lamp or device.

I'm putting sealer on all the body and trim bolts & I want solid grounds that don't depend on the body fasteners.

 

BTW, casual research indicates that teflon coated wire is about 5x the price of PVC insulated wire.

 

Not frugal.

Edited May 7, 2014 by Ulu

[rcl700]

On 4/22/2014 at 6:15 PM, mrbobs48 said:

I took out all my old 6v wiring 1948 plymouth special deluxe . Rhode Island wiring did my new harness . What a nice wiring harness with numbered schematics and original color wire. My old wiring was broken and spliced into. Good folks to do business with. 

What is the cost for a full wiring harness? 

I have a 1948 that needs all wires replaced 

[Sniper]

http://www.riwire.com/

 

prices listed

[Semmerling]

On 5/7/2014 at 2:48 PM, Darbone85737 said:

Here's a picture of part of the engine/dash harness along with the diagram and schematic. 

 

https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1.0-9/10294344_4150067526263_4353530853534154387_n.jpg

 

Probably could make one but I love the fact that it has the original style wire coverings and connectors even though my car is just a driver

 

It may just be me but I cannot see the photo that you posted

[rcl700]

1 hour ago, Sniper said:

http://www.riwire.com/

 

prices listed

I see the link just can't decipher the complete kit. All of it. What are they asking. 

Are there other repairable sources? 

 

Is this something I can do? 

If so, do I use 14ga wire? Is there a good brand that is affordable? Not going to crap out in 3yrs? 

[Plymouthy Adams]

1 hour ago, rcl700 said:

What is the cost for a full wiring harness? 

I have a 1948 that needs all wires replaced 

with all due respect, tax and shipping, you would be better advised to check with the company you are entertaining buying the harness.  

[Eneto-55]

(Without looking) I'm pretty sure that there are wiring schematics in the download section of the forum.  The P15 diagrams do not include the gauge information, but the later 6 volt series cars very likely used the same gauges for each function.  

There are also discussions here that explain how to tell what gauge a wire is, by the number of "strikes" or "tracers" on the wire covering.  

If you decide to build your own wire harness, make sure you use quality wire.  (For instance, I've seen "off-shore" suppliers that advertise their wire by gauge, but it is actually metric wire, and may not actually be the gauge that is listed in the description.  Some list the size in metric as well, and you can check the size by doing the conversion yourself.)

[I am still in the process of determining how many feet of each gauge & color I need, so have not purchased wire yet.]

 

EDIT:

I copied the items as listed for the 46 P15 and put them into a spreadsheet, then selected the items I will want.  But if you want to add turn signals, then that list doesn't get it all.  So I added certain items in the P17 list, but there isn't a direct correlation between the two lists.

What I came up with:

For the stock 46 total: $1,473.00 (for the 9 items I checked off from the list)

Adding four P17 items & removing one item from the P15 list: $1,900.00

(In either case, that's considerably more money that I currently have in my 46, plus the 49 1st series 2-door parts car I have, and some tools and equipment as well.  HOWEVER, that was all 1980 - 1981 dollars.)
 

I don't know how that compares to the cost of building my own, but I also plan to use tinned copper wire (marine grade), but do NOT currently plan to get wire with the cloth wrap, as is the original.  (Two reasons: No one says that they are using marine grade wire, so I assume that they are not.  Second: The cloth wrap for the authentic look adds a great deal of cost, and I'm willing to give that up for the savings, and for the higher quality wire.)

 

Note regarding tinned copper wire: The first part of the harness from my 46 that I dismantled was the heater harness, which is tinned copper.  Until I started on the rest of the wiring harness, I assumed that it was used throughout the vehicle.  I did research on it that leads me to regard it as an important thing.

Edited April 23, 2023 by Eneto-55
additional comments

[Young Ed]

It's certainly possible to DIY. I did my 48 using the shop manual and the old harness as guides. I used modern wire and upped all the 16 to 14. Matched the other gauges as listed. Another point here the shop manual doesn't list the gauges on the P15 wiring but the book I have covers 46-54 so I just used the later models for gauge reference 

[martybose]

Over two decades ago I worked with Rhode Island on a new harness setup on my car.  The were willing to make any modifications, so I did things like upping the gauge of all the headlight wires for modern halogens, deleting the voltage regulator wiring due to the single wire alternator, adding turn signal wiring and stop light wiring to the back lights., and much more.  There has never been any repairs needed, and it was still 100% when I sold it.

[D35 Torpedo]

I made my harness almost entirely from scratch. Up'd all wire size by two gauges. I'm cheap, so I used coloured shrink tube to code the wiring. Everything that is visible is taped in high grade, cloth like tesa tape. So most of it is hidden anyways. I had to buy a small roll and most of the connectors. The rest was my hoard. Everything is soldered. I used yellow bullets everywhere bullets are required. But they don't fit unless you squish them smaller. The yellow connectors are heavier than blue and reds. I prefer them for any wire size from 10 down. And I remove the yellow plastic when they get soldered. I tesa taped them instead of shrink tube. A custom terminal block was made for infront of the radiator. It has extra terminals for signals and a main ground. I added a fuse panel above the drivers side kick panel to brake up and protect all the circuits. If you are crazy like me, it will take a week to do it "right"

Edited April 25, 2023 by D35 Torpedo

[Eneto-55]

5 hours ago, D35 Torpedo said:

I made my harness almost entirely from scratch. Up'd all wire size by two gauges. I'm cheap, so I used coloured shrink tube to code the wiring. Everything that is visible is taped in high grade, cloth like tesa tape. So most of it is hidden anyways. I had to buy a small roll and most of the connectors. The rest was my hoard. Everything is soldered. I used yellow bullets everywhere bullets are required. But they don't fit unless you squish them smaller. The yellow connectors are heavier than blue and reds. I prefer them for any wire size from 10 down. And I remove the yellow plastic when they get soldered. I tesa taped them instead of shrink tube. A custom terminal block was made for infront of the radiator. It has extra terminals for signals and a main ground. I added a fuse panel above the drivers side kick panel to brake up and protect all the circuits. If you are crazy like me, it will take a week to do it "right"

Did you use mostly the same color wire, then code each piece with the colored shrink tube?  (I've considered using all the same color wire, so that I wouldn't need to buy so much wire.  So I'm interested in how this turned out for you.)

Some of my wires are obviously 'baked' from heat exposure.  (Like the first bit I was dealing with, the wires inside the heater motor, and the engine harness.)  So I plan to cover all wires that might be exposed to that sort of thing with that woven heat resistant loom.  Also will look for some sort of flexible paint, and make that stuff the correct colors.  If it comes out right, it will look at least a bit like the original wiring.  (I've collected pieces of it to experiment with, from old light fixtures my brother-in-law electrician has thrown away, and from other appliances I've scrapped out.)

Edited April 25, 2023 by Eneto-55

[D35 Torpedo]

On 4/25/2023 at 5:02 AM, Eneto-55 said:

Did you use mostly the same color wire, then code each piece with the colored shrink tube?  (I've considered using all the same color wire, so that I wouldn't need to buy so much wire.  So I'm interested in how this turned out for you.)

Some of my wires are obviously 'baked' from heat exposure.  (Like the first bit I was dealing with, the wires inside the heater motor, and the engine harness.)  So I plan to cover all wires that might be exposed to that sort of thing with that woven heat resistant loom.  Also will look for some sort of flexible paint, and make that stuff the correct colors.  If it comes out right, it will look at least a bit like the original wiring.  (I've collected pieces of it to experiment with, from old light fixtures my brother-in-law electrician has thrown away, and from other appliances I've scrapped out.)

I used red, yellow, green, brown, black, white. I only had to purchase the white. It worked out pretty good. Enough colours so it isn't to hectic. All the big runs are predominately red or yellow. I had a bunch of 12G yellow. I used it for the main run back to the plate and tail lights, as well as the one for each low beam. It all comes together under the dash. I didn't label anything, but you should. White electrical tape and a fine tip marker works good. Write your label six time. Then wrap the tape in one spot. If the label gets wiped out you can simply peel back the tape to reveal more label. Also helps to make a list or legend on you wiring diagram, I also didn't do that.

[Eneto-55]

I was also thinking about the label issue.  It would have to be very small writing, but I had checked, and there IS actually clear heat shrink tube available.  Slide labels inside heat shrink at both ends and heat it.  (I've never used clear heat shrink - always just black.  So I don't know if it would yellow over time, that you couldn't read the label any more.)  I was also thinking that if I follow the color codes in the schematic, I might cut some really narrow pieces of black or white heat shrink, and use those to label each end with the correct number of 'strikes', to indicate the gauge.  Then slide some clear heat shrink over that.  That's actually what got me to go check if there was such a thing as the clear.