Got a 12 circuit EZ Wiring harness and was wondering what advice anyone could give in regards to hooking it up to the gauge cluster and steering column.

Thanks so much for your help and have a great day.

-Larry

 

I've never used an EZ Wirng harness, so I can't give specific advice or suggestions. I'm more NOS and OEM even though I'll be the first to admit that the stock harness leaves a lot to be desired.
The one bit of advice I would give though is if you splice the original Ford plugs into your new harness don't use crimp style butt connectors. The best, and proper, way to do this is to solder the two wires together and use heat shrink tubing to insulate and protect the splice.

 

I agree with making good connections. I also have never worked with EZ wire, but I'm sure like many aftermarket harnesses, they are gear more to GM than Ford. Yes, use your stock plugs for the column and cluster. You can take the old wires out and insert your new wires in. Do that one at a time so you know what goes where. If you don't already have one, get a good wiring diagram.

 

What ya gotta do is hook the wires up to the gauge cluster where they go. Then this is the tricky part, hook the wires up on the column where they go.

 

"Hook the wires up where they go" ... gee, that sure is helpful advice.

 

You think that's bad fmc? Check his answers in this thread:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...n-go-with.html

 

Your welcome, I'm always here to help.

Bad, what's wrong with my answer?

 

HA! Pretty sure this guy is a troll...these threads aren't the only ones.

 

Yup, X2, troll material.

 

Are you two calling me a troll, that's not very nice. I'm going to have to report this to a moderator, they don't allow name calling here.

 

holy moly yeah we got some GOOD ONES there. well since theyre forum moderators they will probably laugh at you because referring to one as a 'troll' is not a derogatory comment or in any manner referring one in a diminutive manner but as one who pretty much just messes up forum talk.

Im sure what to offer for advice on a aftermarket harness kit other than to take advantage of the awesome new fusebox, get rid of any unnecessary wiring and keep it super neat and basically draft out your own wiring diagram so that if any problems arise in the future it will be easy to work with. because once you may this conversion our help will be meaningless in a sense.

one thing i could say to do for the cluster is leave the factory plug, cut 12" down and find a nice connecter such as some nice GM(dont worry) Weatherpack connectors(available at parts stores in several different terminal amounts like 2,3,4&5 wire. theyre compact and seal themselves and make for a neat job) and essentially make a nice adapting pigtail. this way youll have a quicker disconnect and it will be like those nice stereo installation kits. just a thought.

 

If I wasn't so hung up on originality for my project I would rewire the entire truck using heavier gauge wire and weatherpak fittings, I love those things.

 

Deutsch(spelling) connecters work pretty nice and they come in many different numbers of pins. I was soldering them for a bit but finally bought the crimp tool. Expensive and a bit easier to install pins. Almost worth the money.
Check out Summit etc.

 

another pretty cheap way is to go to radioshack and buy a few "project boxes" theyre a small black plastic box with a lid fastened by phillips screws. then turn around and get terminal strips, cut them to length if needed to fit in the box. drill holes for each wire or small groups however you like and all your wires just need stripped and the terminal strips tighten down with a small flathead screwdriver. you can pair wires together or even add jumpers anything you need to do and all neat once the cover is on!

thats how ive done a bunch of my wiring when i got rid of bad connectors for the ignition module and headlight/tailights connectors. its a pretty solid dependable system and easy to change or add wires, etc.

 

The other thing I would do is add things like ATO fuses, a headlight relay system, H4 headlights and other improvements that 40 years of technology brings.
I would like to stay close to the original color codes just for nostalgic sake. There are a couple of companies in Rhode Island that can provide correct color coded wire in bulk lengths.
And, like 7636074460 suggested, draw up a new wiring schematic. Those things are incredibly helpful when needed.