I'm starting to research options for rewiring my 78 F150. My harness has been hacked into many times over it's 40yr life, and sadly, most connections were done with wire-nuts. This coupled with grounding problems, it's best to rewire and address all the issues at one time vs as they occur. I know there are a few sources for harness "designed" for our trucks, but want opinions from those who have used them. Centech, American Auto Wire and Painless come to mind for the "designed harnesses" How much of these are truly plug and play? I have no issues just buying a generic universal harness and wiring it myself, I've done several complete rewires on classic cars, that had no aftermarket support, this included soldering all connections vs using the cheap butt connectors that most kits come with.

Some things to keep in mind, I plan to add stand-alone EFI with computer controlled distributor/ignition when I complete my 460 Rebuild/Swap, along with an E4OD stand-alone controller, Power Window and Power Door Lock conversion is on the table as a future mod, new single din radio, aftermarket A/C (currently have old aftermarket system on truck, but currently non-functional), Trailer wiring (lights/brakes) (for occasional hauling of other toys to car shows), Dakota Digital VHX gauge cluster is also a future mod plan. As with all plans, things may change slightly, but would rather have flexibility for future mods if they should arise.

 

I'm using the American Autowire Hwy 22 kit right now and I love it, I like the way the wires terminate at the fuse block easy to understand directions and drawings. This is my first time rewiring a vehicle so I don't have any experience with any other kits. also about the only wiring that is stock on my truck are the lighting circuits.

 

FWIW :

I looked at wiring harnesses prior to rewiring everything in my truck, but decided to custom build instead, with a variety of single different colour wires.

I calculated what fuses were required for each circuit, especially on the LED circuits, which circuits needed relays, and created 2 fuse boxes. One for constant live power, based in the engine bay, and one for accessories, which included the ignition circuit, based in the cab.

The OE wiring has too many splices for my liking.

I ran a lot of wires down behind the dash, through the shifter box, to tranny gauges ,and along the inner frame rails to the rear lights, and fuel pump.

It does take a long time though !

Hopefully you find these pics useful :





I see there's a limit on picture size when uploading, so I can't upload more useful (?) detailed pics.

 

No worries on additional pics. I've done several complete rewires, one on a 69 Ford Fairlane about 14yrs ago, and on our 62 Ford Galaxie. Neither at time had much support for harnesses, so it was a simple universal harness.

Very clean install though on the pic that did load!

 

I have used the Painless performance kit on my 76 F250.
At the time I was a complete noob to electrical wiring.
I wont say it was completely painless...but it was not hard to install...every wire has printing on it that indicates what it is and where possible they tried to match the colors of the oem harness.
The worst part was splicing the main harness to the connector that plugs into the printed circuit board on the back of the gauge cluster.

The painless kit was for the truck only and did not include the jumper harness for the duraspark electronic ignition. That must be purchased separately...and it is pretty expensive for what it is.

 

I've used 2 painless universal kits before. Most all common wiring harness kits anymore have printed labels. I know painless only advertises their F150 kit as up to 77, but seeing as how the wiring ends are not attached for the clusters, ignition, etc... I would assume it'd work up to 79. I'm not too found of their cost though considering the need to still add on wiring ends and potentially additional harness work for DuraSpark.

I'm trying to see really if one of the pre-fab kits is better and truly plug and play to make them worth the added cost.

 

Give Ron Francis a look. Ron Francis Wiring I haven't had to do much wiring since my truck is pretty unmolested (one owner; father in-law), but I like what I see in their catalog.

 

 

I think you're right. I have no issues with the time or amount of work. wiring, along with body work is my zen. Crank up the music and get lost in the work. I'm trying to keep my current harness band-aided together until I do my 460 Swap next year.

 

My personal opinion is that none of them are what I would consider truly plug-n-play. Way too many options for routing and termination for that.
That said, I prefer the Painless Ford-specific harness for one main reason. It's the only one that uses Ford wiring colors. Yes, I know that they all have the descriptions on them. And quite frankly I think the other companies have easier to read printing than the Painless does. But the factory wire coloring usually sways me in that direction.
I've done several Centech and a couple of Painless harnesses in old Broncos, and was happy with both. I actually thought the Centech was easier, but don't actually like the pre-loomed aspect of the custom harness. I have too many little things I want to change and don't want to waste a perfectly good taped section of harness.
Fort he pickup I don't believe they pre-tape anything, but I could be wrong on that.

I've always wondered why they stop at '77 too, but I bet it's for the more intricate smog setups under the hood. I would bet that most of the under-dash wiring is so close to the same as to not make any difference. But look at the spaghetti factory of wires under the hood that were not on earlier models, and I bet that had at least something to do with it.
TON's of extra wires over on the driver's side corner on my '79, that I'm sure would not be in the replacement harness from anyone. If you were retaining any of that for passing an inspection, you'd have to re-use the existing wires, or create your own for that.

The TXL wire that Painless uses is cool in that it's smaller diameter for the same gauge. But that's not a total selling point for me, since there's plenty of room on our trucks to route harness branches around. But on a performance car, smaller and lighter might be a selling point.

From the sound of it, you probably couldn't go wrong with any of the kits. I'm still just a little bit on the fence, but am leaning to Painless for the coloring.

Paul

 

I used a Painless fuse block and re-wired my truck with it. I was able to concentrate on systems at a time without having to worry about all the extra wire laying around. I, too, had a couple of different add-ons that I needed wire for. I was able to find clear shrink tube and that helped me secure the wire labels. Total time to wire the truck was a full weekend. If you do it, I recommend all new sockets or you tail light assemblies. The job is so much easier when working with new.

 

My plans include all new light sockets, and wiring connectors where possible.

 

Good. You can get creative with your tail lights. I have mounted a switch operated back up light on the bumper. The actual back up light is now used as the turn signal/hazard light (be sure to use an orange light for the clear lens), while the top light is used for the running/brake light. I have never liked the 3 in 1 combo in its stock configuration.

 

Not a bad idea. Any pics? I'd hate to drill into my bumper, as I have a replacement chrome step bumper to go on after repaint.

 

Hey all - I think I've made the decision to get myself a universal harness, but here's a question for you experts.

Do I pull out the old harness and then "match it up" to the new harness, and transfer the 'clips' over, or just hardware it?

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks in advance!