What is better kit? Painless, EZ or other?? Easy of install and quality of kit. Its being installed in a 59 F100 stock. Secondly, the painless offers bulkhead connector or grommet. Any suggestions??

Thanks

 

I've been a "CentecH" guy for many years now doing an average of 1 a year, seems when anybody round here gets in over their head in the wiring dept it lands in my shop.
the only hiccup you gotta be aware of is to integrate the "cvr" when using the factory gauges but thats just minor and super easy to figgure out.
That being said, in my 58 i used the best of 3 harnesses to build a near perfect factory harness. I guess thats a benefit to a canadian truck as opposed to a southern one the wires don't tend to go brittle form intense heat of the weather.
In Alta. you should be able to find a few harnesses in trucks laying about to ressurect into1.
Mikie
near ottawa
1958 M-100 panel & 1964 econoline p/u

 

I used EZ Wire and it worked great, but it is nothing like stock.

 

Are there any universal kits out there on the lower end of cost that work with our trucks? I just got my '58 F100 home and it was running then just stopped and a few lines are fried. Looking at the hack job from the PO and knowing that some wires are OE to the truck I think I'd rather just replace the harness than spend the next year or so chasing electrical gremlins but I don't have $300-500 to spend on a fancy harness. I've seen "universal" kits for $50 to $200 but not sure if they would actually work with our relics! Any thoughts or just suck it up and spend the money on the proper one?

 

As I said, I used EZ wire. I used the 21 circuit set up because I added many electrical gadgets to the truck. If you truck is fairly stock, this unit will work for everything and is $155. EZ Wiring E-Store - EZ Wiring Harness Kits

 

I was looking at that kit last night, wondering if that would work for what I need. I've not done a lot of electrical (ok, VERY little!) but I want to learn. Thankfully I don't have any fancy stuff on my truck, and don't plan to add any in the future so the basic should be good. Thanks for the insight and link!

 

I installed an ez wire harness in my truck as well and it's very good, great labelling and very straight forward. I have a 75 steering column so that took me the most time probably. But really it's straight forward.

D

 

They label every wire every 6" or so. It makes it easy to know what goes where.

 

Ok, bought the EZ wiring harness and got most of the lines laid out. I'm no pro at electrical, first time doing a whole harness, but I am able to get most of the lines laid out to their parts in the engine bay. I'm having a hard time, however, figuring out where a lot of stuff goes once it passes the fuse box and runs through the firewall. The PO's on this truck did a ton of hack jobs all over so under the dash is a veritable rats nest of wiring. I'm afraid to just start hacking it out but tracing some wires around to where they go can be difficult, and I can't really trust that they are connected where they should be connected.

Does anyone have a solid wiring diagram that they used to help sort it all out? I found some old ones online but, again, I'm not wiring pro so they make the job seem more drastic too. Thoughts? Suggestions? I really want to tackle this myself so any direction would be great. Thanks!

 

I know you can do this if I can. Just take each componet one at a time and don't be distracted by the whole project. There is a nice lamented diagram on ebuy 1958 58 1959 59 1960 60 Ford Truck Full Color Laminated Wiring Diagram 11" x 17" | eBay it shows all the stock system. It may help you see the system.
Good luck in your quest!

 

The kit is designed to replace all the wires. There is really not any value in tracing the old ones. It can be intimidating, but it is best to just remove all the old stuff, just leave a short pigtail at each device. Take the gauge panel out and remove all the old wiring.

Lay out the new wires on the floor. Find what you don't need and remove them if there are any, such as "power windows. Separate the wires in 4 groups. In the cab, front, rear and engine, Then mount the fuse box under the dash where you can access it to replace fuses. Then route the wires that go in the cab out the gauge panel hole, just let them hang there for now. Route the other wires through the firewall, then separate what goes to the front, what goes to the back and what goes to the engine and route them in groups to their areas. Then you have 4 groups that are less intimidating and you do them one at a time. The labels on the wires tell you where they go. Such as Left Rear Brake light or front left turn signal, etc. The wiring diagram maybe a little help, but you mainly just have to find the device to be wired and route the wires to them one at a time. The wires are long usually enough that the routing is up to you, you don't have to follow the same route as the old ones.

You can do it, hope this helps and just ask if you run into an issue.

 

Thanks guys, I love this site! Since I'm new to working on something this old the plan was to leave the old wires in place and replace them 1 by 1 so I can trace to where they are connected, but, I think Walston has the right idea. Since the PO's really messed up a bunch of this stuff I think I just need to cut ties with all the old wires and clear them out.

I'm having some difficulty with some of the connections though. For instance, the original turn signal indicators are run up the column and soldered in to an assembly that's mounted under the steering wheel. Am I honestly looking at running all that new wiring and soldering that back on? Or am I missing something that should be making this easier? I'm sure I'm complicating this whole thing but thanks again for the help guys, greatly appreciated.

 

I just finished a quickie rewiring on my '58 F-100. Although I have an EZ kit for the truck, I just replaced the stock wiring with good quality aftermarket wires. I will use the EZ kit when the truck gets blown apart for painting.

I always use wiring rated as GXL quality or better (TXL or SXL). This way I know the insulation will last. This is especially true for the wires under the hood. The Chinese crap is not worth installing if you are interested in quality or longevity.

One other item I use is a wiring diagram made specifically for my truck. The best diagrams I have found are from Classic Car Wiring (Classic Car Wiring . Com : Home of the original color laminated classic car wiring diagram). These diagrams make finding and tracing the original Ford wires relatively easy. It takes most of the guess work out of the job.

I also use a small 12 volt, 10 amp DC power supply to energize all new circuits. Using the battery to test out a new circuit can cause serious damage if you have something connected incorrectly.

 

Good call Oldbleu, I thought of that yesterday as I was under the hood cursing the PO's! Seems like just running some good quality wires to make her run would be sufficient for now and save the nice harness for later. Might still do that! I have also found the laminated diagram from a few vendors, found one online for free too so we'll see if that works before I drop another $20 on this project and another week of time waiting for it to show up!

Thanks for all the help guys, I'll let you know how it turns out!

 

I would leave the existing wires that run up the column and terminate to them under the dash.