Can anybody convince me that it is better to pay 400 dollars for a Painless wiring harness than 200 for something like the EZ wiring harness. I posted this on the electrical page and nobody responded so I'm hoping for more input here. Personal choices and results would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

Matt. . . . FWIW, Niether are a plug & play deal.
Ya gotta screw around fitting & installing ends and all that, clamping, altering, cutting and so forth with both. Then when you get done your wires are no longer OEM colors. Ya gotta make your own "roadmap" so you're not totally confused in a few years when something does go wrong that needs tracing.

IMHO all I've ever gotten with either/ any of those "kits" is several hundred dollars worth of wires wrapped in harness tape that I had to fit/ install anyway. Then when the customer decides to add tunes or something later on and cuts the wrong wire, it takes me 3 times as long to try to figure out what he did.

Once I started including a "roadmap" of a system when I did the job, it made it easier to trace IF customer does not lose it & remembers to bring it when he comes back. If not he will dislike me because I get very pricey when I got to waste my time retracing what I already did.

What I do is more than most would do. I fabricate a harness using a salvage yard harness from some other FoMoCo product, and do so folowing an OEM schematic for whatever I'm working on, so everything can be "run" or traced using OEM Ref Materials and anybody can work on the Truck. . . .

Ready mades are great for street rods and other "One Off" builds, but IMHO they are the wrong choice for an OEM replacement, AND, FWIW, "EZ" is less help than Painlless if you do run across a problem. Of course this is only my take on the subject. I can get strange sometimes as many know.

FBp

 

I thought it would be eaiser to change a harness out in an 1981 F250. I got the harness from Ron Francis wire works. The product was great all the wires are labled every few inches all go to different spots on the supplied fuse block. If i had it to do over again i would just rewire using the stock setup. It would have been less work.

I Agree with FBP those kits are great for a rod. But other wise find a good wiring diagram and replace the wires. You will probally be happier in the long run

Most of those kits have a fuse block and Lots of loose wires and conectors. nothing is plug and Play execpt the original

Jim

 

That helps a lot. This truck is pretty much a one-off truck. The reason I need to rewire is because my harness short circuited and burned up. It wouldn't be so bad if it only burned a little but the engine compartment as well as the cab went up in smoke. This being said the entire truck harness and wires need to be replaced and I figured a kit would give me a good starting point. Besides by doing this I don't have to wait for the next thing that didn't get replaced to burn up. Before I buy I do need to design a wire map like you said. That will help later on. Thanks for the input.

 

If you are going to use an after market kit call and get the specs on the kits. Due to the size of the fuze block that came with the kit from the kit i used i had to rethink where i was going to mount it. The good thing is that it camp setup for everything i wanted dual tanks electric windows. There is not really a lot of wiring on these old trucks you could probally do it all your self with a selection of colored wire and a good fuze block. antother option is puling a good harness out of a doner truck in a wrecking yard.