creating wiring harness. bear with me here.

[neanderthal]

i am seriously thinking of making my own wiring harness for my car. i think the painless harness and its ilk are a little overpriced. there cant be $300+ worth of materials in a wiring harness, can there.

supposing i use my old relays from my 76, how many circuits do i need to worry about.

this is gonna seem a little random, but like i said, bear with me. im going to count the different circuits. if i get pretty much all of them, then im going to edit my post and start adding all the relays and switches to each individual circuit to figure out how complex the whole project will be.

really just thinking out loud here. thanks for your patience.

individual circuits. where i say circuit, im not only talking about the actual circuit, im talking about the actual wiring too. i might need help with the lighting coz theres a lot of different ones.

1 lighting

- switch

- wiring from switch to fuse block

- wiring from fuse block to headlight relay

- headlight relay

- wiring from relay to headlights

- 2 headlight bulbs

- 2nd dual position headlight switch for fog lights (possible future upgrade to add driving lights as well.)

- relay for fog lights

- relay for possible upgrade with additional driving lights

- license plate

- 2 license plate bulbs

- rear running light circuit

- 2 bulbs

- dome light circuit

- 1 bulb

- 2 door switches

2 brake lights

- wiring from switch to lightbulbs

- from handbrake to dashlight

- from switched power

- 2 bulbs

- switch (at pedal)

- level sensor at brake reservior

- handbrake sensor

3 reverse light circuit

-reverse light switch

- 2 bulbs

4 indicators

- left circuit

- right circuit

- 4 bulbs

- hazard switch

- indicator stalk

5 fuel level sender

-fuel pump (my car has an electric pump.)

- power to carb for electric choke

6 horn

- relay

- horns (planning to use two, one low frequency, one high frequency like mercedes used to. you cant not hear it.)

7 wipers

- 3 position switch

- regulator

- relay (is this necessary with a regulator?)

- wiring

- from switched power (key on)

- to fuse block

- from power to relay/ regulator

- from there to wiper motor

- and windshield washer pump

8 cigarette lighter

- switch

- small light for glovebox

9 interior heater/ fan

10 radiator fan (thanx to the faq for this one!)

- wiring

-battery to fuse

- fuse to relay

- switch to relay

- manual switch to relay

- switched power (key on) to relay

- relay to fan

- to tell tale light

- relay

- manual switch

- thermo switch

- tell tale (fan on) light

11 oil pressure circuit

- oil pressure sensor

- oil pressure gauge (my car has a gauge as well as the dummy light. i want both to work.)

12 alternator?

13 starter?

14 ignition?

did i miss any circuits?

or parts thereoff?

cheers

[neanderthal]

i am seriously thinking of making my own wiring harness for my car. i think the painless harness and its ilk are a little overpriced. there cant be $300+ worth of materials in a wiring harness, can there.

supposing i use my old relays from my 76, how many circuits do i need to worry about.

this is gonna seem a little random, but like i said, bear with me. im going to count the different circuits. if i get pretty much all of them, then im going to edit my post and start adding all the relays and switches to each individual circuit to figure out how complex the whole project will be.

really just thinking out loud here. thanks for your patience.

individual circuits. where i say circuit, im not only talking about the actual circuit, im talking about the actual wiring too. i might need help with the lighting coz theres a lot of different ones.

1 lighting

- switch

- wiring from switch to fuse block

- wiring from fuse block to headlight relay

- headlight relay

- wiring from relay to headlights

- 2 headlight bulbs

- 2nd dual position headlight switch for fog lights (possible future upgrade to add driving lights as well.)

- relay for fog lights

- relay for possible upgrade with additional driving lights

- license plate

- 2 license plate bulbs

- rear running light circuit

- 2 bulbs

- dome light circuit

- 1 bulb

- 2 door switches

2 brake lights

- wiring from switch to lightbulbs

- from handbrake to dashlight

- from switched power

- 2 bulbs

- switch (at pedal)

- level sensor at brake reservior

- handbrake sensor

3 reverse light circuit

-reverse light switch

- 2 bulbs

4 indicators

- left circuit

- right circuit

- 4 bulbs

- hazard switch

- indicator stalk

5 fuel level sender

-fuel pump (my car has an electric pump.)

- power to carb for electric choke

6 horn

- relay

- horns (planning to use two, one low frequency, one high frequency like mercedes used to. you cant not hear it.)

7 wipers

- 3 position switch

- regulator

- relay (is this necessary with a regulator?)

- wiring

- from switched power (key on)

- to fuse block

- from power to relay/ regulator

- from there to wiper motor

- and windshield washer pump

8 cigarette lighter

- switch

- small light for glovebox

9 interior heater/ fan

10 radiator fan (thanx to the faq for this one!)

- wiring

-battery to fuse

- fuse to relay

- switch to relay

- manual switch to relay

- switched power (key on) to relay

- relay to fan

- to tell tale light

- relay

- manual switch

- thermo switch

- tell tale (fan on) light

11 oil pressure circuit

- oil pressure sensor

- oil pressure gauge (my car has a gauge as well as the dummy light. i want both to work.)

12 alternator?

13 starter?

14 ignition?

did i miss any circuits?

or parts thereoff?

cheers

[us4736]

i built a cobra kit car a few years back and it came with a painless harness and i'll tell you its worth every penny .you mount the fuse panel run power to it and all the wires are labeled left side right side all the lites ,blinkers ,heater,wipers etc,etc,etc . there is alot to wiring a whole car .i'd think about it bin there done that

[us4736]

i built a cobra kit car a few years back and it came with a painless harness and i'll tell you its worth every penny .you mount the fuse panel run power to it and all the wires are labeled left side right side all the lites ,blinkers ,heater,wipers etc,etc,etc . there is alot to wiring a whole car .i'd think about it bin there done that

[Arshloch]

I am doing the same thing on my 68', for now, just tackling single loops that were damaged or corroded under the hood. In my case, the thing is extremely simple unlike the later ones. It barely has anything on there.

I assume you can go by the hot-rod mantra and do a custom harness,but in many cases you may not be able color code the thing properly.

On the other hand, some universal harnesses that I have looked at are junk with shitty crimped connectors (widely available). Overpriced.

In my opinion, it is worth the asking price only when it's specifically manufactured for this particular vehicle.

[solo1b16hatch]

My .02 cents worth.

Label, photograph and document everything very well. Have lots of patience and work slowly. I made a harness a few years ago for my old road race car. It took quite a while but the end result was great!

Good Luck to you!

[ash00]

Im doing this right now in fact, and so is JustinB on the forum as well

I wanted to do a custom block for this, and found a few good fuse blocks. I instead just went with the ron francis fuse block with my custom wiring. Although its a HUGE block, it has most of what you need and its a front exit wiring block, so it can mount flush unlike the painless unit.

Either way, definetly come up with a schematic first off, label everything and make sure you have sufficient grounding. Also choose a connector that you can dissassemble/reasemble without sacrificing a pin. I chose the Deutsch connectors from LADD industries. Excellent connector, and about the same price (minus the special crimper) than weatherpaks, etc.

Email me- I might have some pics (stupid flickr messed my account up so nothing is posted anymore)

Good luck

[Jack]

I bought the 14 circutit micro PP harness. It is excellent quality. I also bought the headlight upgrades. I was looking at the new Summit catalog this week and they have just the 14 circuit fuse panel FS. You'd have to do every wire individually, but it is an option. I spent a bunch of money on the kit but with the exception of the pigtail off the wiper motor, 100% of the wire in the car is new. The PP kits are designed for Ford/GM/Mopar and old BMW's are much different. You will need several additional 25" rolls and colors of wire. Buy the PP wire it is excellent quality and "works" in hand very well. I replaced all the connectors and pins in the molex connectors too. That is not cheap either. Again, this was not an inexpensive mod, but it is nice knowing what is what and that it is new. I bought Porspero's diagram and blew it up to 4x3' and mounted it on plywood. much easier to deal with. I fabbed up a brackett over the brake booster for the fuse panel. I ran extra unused circuit wires into the area where the factory fuse box was and built a cover for it. I also had the entire interior out of the car. I wouldn't want to think of doing it with the dahboard installed. That is a back and joint pain issue for me.