Someone hacked the $&it out of the wiring in a few places on my truck before I got to it. She's an old pig!

Is there a way to replace the wiring harness from another truck? I've followed the lines but they look like they are hard wires all the way into the firewall....

 

You could find a pickup at the salvage yard and remove the rear wiring harness, or you could replace the entire wiring harness. I think the easiest task would be to repair the damage done by the PO. Here are some well reviewed harness suppliers if you decide to go that route:

https://www.painlessperformance.com/

https://www.ronfrancis.com/

 

When I got my 86, the entire wiring harness between the tail lights was a charred mess like it caught on fire. I went to the wrecking yard, pulled another harness and rebuilt what I had, It was nice because I was able to make the wire lengths longer than original. As long as your bulb sockets are in good shape you should be able to pull from most years and have the same color coding. My truck had a pigtail down below the cab, so yours might also, It shouldn't run all the way through the firewall without a connector inline close by. I believe I pulled my harness from a truck around late 90's to 2000 era. For the most part, the lighting circuits used the same color coding, best to just write down the colors you have and take it with you. How good are you at soldering?

 

I'm not very good at soldering but I have a nice Weller my dad gave me. I guess I'll be getting practice.

 

When you say rear harness are talking about the tail lights harness or the one that runs down the frame rail and connects to the main harness under the master and to the tail light harness out bsck where the frame & bed meet.
The tail light comes in 2 types flare side and style side.
The frame harness as a guess would be 4 types.
Long or short bed and with in each single or dule tanks.
I don't know how the tranys play into it for NSS and back up lights as I don't remember now.
Dave - - - -

 

Sorry I should have clarified, I simply used to color coded wiring and soldered them in place to fix what I have. I twisted the wires together inline, soldered, then heat shrinked them, I could show you photos if you like. I've found that a small pen torch works great for these repairs, a little easier to use than a soldering gun, or iron.

 

The wires that run down the frame rails. It's all chopped near the fuel selector and it's all chopped back near the two lights too. The license plate bulbs don't work, but I'm going to be hooking up a brake controller soon so I want to make sure the wiring is solid.

 

I am an electronics technician and have difficulty soldering because of essential tremors. I know right...

Instead of soldering the wires you can crimp them and use heat shrink. For about the same investment you would spend on rosin core solder and flux paste you can get a ratcheting crimper. You're going to have to use heat shrink anyways. Check it out!




Heck, that crimper is nicer than the one I have. I just have jaws for insulated connectors and spark plug wires.

 

I never flux paste. Is that bad? I've never had issues with it. I just twist the two together so it looks like one continuous wire, heat it, a drip of solder then I'm done. It's easier to put the wires back into looms when done without the connectors.

 

Those are universal harnesses that will not fit our trucks correct?

 

If me I would try and see what you can find at the junk yard and from the sound of it you have duel tanks so look for a truck with the same and get the tail light harness with it too.

I would then remove your harness starting under the master and work your way back unplugging things as you go.
I would then lay your old harness and the JY one on the floor next to each other so you can see what may be different between them.
Then you can decide on how to go forward, do you want to use the JY harness and maybe swap needed plug & wires.
I would try removing the wires from the plugs using a tool to do so if you need to swap plugs.
OR
You can use your plugs and solder good wire between them.
Check Etrailer.com as they may have multi wire cable that you can use to make the run down the frame rail. It would not have the wire for the fuel valve or to the trany for back up light switch but if you got enough you could then use that extra for them.
You can also look at trailer light kits as they come with wire you could also use to run down the frame but this is thin wire and I would only use if I had nothing else.
Dave ----

 

Honestly, without taking the bed off you may have a real hard time getting the fuel tank pigtails unplugged, I know I can't do it without removing my bed. I just had my bed off 1 week ago to do other things and I fiddled with the pigtails connected to the tanks, and I didn't want to mess with them for fear they would break ( and mine are working fine so....). Unless someone else knows the trick, I would just solder in replacement wires.

 

When I have to solder I always use a little bit of flux paste. It reduces your chances of a cold solder joint

Dave, their traditional harnesses are universal. Apparently Painless does make a harness specific for Dentside trucks though.

 

Check out this on eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/i/162544225612?...0aAjHFEALw_wcB