painless

[deputydawg]

has anyone hear installed a painless wiring kit in there dodge? If so how hard was it and was it a weekend job? Mine will be hear tomarrow and am trying to get a head start. Will i have to compleatly remove the existing wire all to gether? any info is apreciated

[Flake]

We put a 18 circuit universal in my `76 RC. We had to seperate a bunch of the wires because they were run with wires that went to componentes that weren't anywhere near each other. We removed all the original harness, it was time consuming but was worth it in the end.

[GRMhick]

Never done a painless, but it takes me about 4-8 hours to re-do an orignal dodge harness with new wires, keeping the orignal fuse box.

[deputydawg]

I tryed to do a re-wire on this truck once and got it close. I am putting in the 12 circute kit. The original wiring came loose from the wheel well and got tangled up in the steering shaft. riped every last wire to shreads. naturaly there color coding and the book dont match up and the 1 wire that is color coded has thirteen other wires that could match. but it does run and starts but it will be all brand new by the weekends end. so i can start taking out the old wiring? EVERYTHING? or just parts that are in the kit? do i need to wait and run the new before i take out the old? many questions I know sorry.

[Elwenil]

If it were me, I would label each connection as you take it apart, then pull the whole harness out. Then use the old harness as a guide for lengths and what circuit goes where, then transfer the labels and any connectors that need to be on the new harness then wrap it all up with harness wrap and install it. Before you wrap it up, it might also be a good idea to draw a new wiring diagram. I think the Painless kits have the wires labeled, but it's hard to see all that after you wrap it and it can be a lot quicker to look at a diagram than to crawl under the dash and start tracing wires. Just my .02

[deputydawg]

so from my understanding the harness will come with all the ends pre-attached! such as light fittings and all or will i have to get some to attach the old ones in place? i dont know time will tell. I am goin to go pick it up today. The ups man left the house about 10 minuts before i got home and i missed him. I have not touched anything on the dodge as of right now. hoping to see what exactialy there is in the new harness. i plan in using the same diagram that comes with the kit but if i have to make and changes i will make a new diagram like you have suggested. not a problem. I hope it dont take to long. I will have some help from my brother on the install. so hopefully it will be done in a weekend.

[Elwenil]

This is just my opinion, and normally the way I do things, but personally, I wouldn't want any help. This is the sort of thing that i like to do alone, because things tend to get left out and mistakes are made when there are too many minds working on different ends of the same thing. If it were me, I'd drink a beer, relax and take my time, and not rush it. It'll take as long as it takes. If you rush it and make mistakes, it could take twice as long. Do it once, double check it, and check it again.
Also, I've never used a Painless harness myself, since I normally just get wire off a roll and make my own, but the one that I did see a friend using was universal and he had to cut it all to length and put most of the connectors on it. He bought a bunch of the female spade connectors that are inside all the plastic plugs and put it all on so it worked like the factory harness. I do the same when I make my own harness pieces. If I remember right his came out of the box with the wires all coiled up and attached to the fuse box and that was it. Everything was loose and I don't really remember any wires having any connectors on it. This was for a drag car, so it may be different than what you bought. Just my .02

[deputydawg]

Well i got the harness last night. opened it up and started to reading it... didnt look to bad. then the phone rang and i had to drop everything... my horse got loose and was running around in the yard. So i spent the remander of the day mending fence. I have read the instrunctions and it really looks simple. everything is marked with color code and is labled as to what each wire is for on the the wire its self. some of the wires are pre-termined, and some are left open so i can attach my own ends. simple enough. I think i am going to cut out everything that has to do with the new harness and leave the ends that i have to cut off right where thay are. then bring in the new harness and start to conect wires as to where thay go and determin if i need the ends on or to compleatly replace them. so it really does sound simple. like you said have a beer and get started. I am thinking this might requier two beers :D thanks for the info and i will post as things go along.

[deputydawg]

ok for the most part everything went very smoothly. I had 90% of the truck wired in about 10 hours. everything was labled, color coded and marked. I did how ever do away with the Ballist Resistor and that brought up a whole new problem. The harness is pre-wired for vehicals that dont have those or a Electronic Ignition Contorle Unit. I guess you can have on with out the other. So I am back to the phone lines to get more info as to how im gona wire this section. but all in all its DONE. two years latter i finaly have my Dodge back................

[Elwenil]

Why did you do away with the ballast resistor? Or does the kit not have provisions for it, and you are going to put it back in? Sorry, I'm not sure I understood that 100%, but you really do need the ballast resistor. Without it you can burn up a coil pretty easily. You may have to slavage some of your old wiring to do the ignition. Mopar Performance used to sell just the harness out of the electronic ignition kits also, so that may be a shortcut to look into. Just my .02

[deputydawg]

yes the ballist is going back in. I wanted to eliminate it because it was busted up pretty badly. and didnt want to put a new one in. stupidity is my only excuse. other than lasy. but yes i am gona get one today and then rewire the thing so i can get it goin. I do how ever need a new speedo cable minus the cruse controle section. I am going from the tranny straight to the speedo box. any ideas?

[Elwenil]

Junkyard or parts store. Get one for the same truck, minus cruise. I forget what year truck you are working with (and I'm too lazy to go back and read) but I know that no truck before '94 or so came with cruise standard. You can probably still get a stripped down 2005 work truck without cruise. Anyway, the cables should be available out there somewhere and it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg.

[deputydawg]

I found my problem with the speedo cable. The threaded end on the tranny side is stripped pretty badly. I went and got a new (gear holder?) part for the trany side and now i am looking around for a cable. I just hope that the gears on the inside are not all buggered up. I burnt a fuse in the gage section of the new kit so some thing there is not quiet right yet. luckaly it was a fuse that burnt and not the who brand new harness. I would of been pissed. Any way got the ballist yesterday aswell. so maybe this week it will be all done. then it time for a new front drive shaft and install the radio, cb and the mount for the GPS. then some carpet and padding. I can say DONE at that point.

[deputydawg]

Finanly. The wiring is done and everything works like a brand new one. (go figure) the next step is a front drive shaft. I installed the 4" lift and my first trip oput woth it i seperated the shaft from the slip yolk. I also tore up the ball socket inbetween the two u-joints on the rear section of the shaft. any ideas of where a person can go to get this fixed or should i just get a new 1 peace er and do away with the cv joint?

[Elwenil]

That joint is a Double Cardan joint, and you should keep it. If you go to a standard shaft, you will have to re-phase the yokes, since a D-C shaft has the lower yoke inline with the shaft, and a standard shaft needs to have the faces of the yokes parallel to each other. It you try to tilt the front axle to re-phase the yokes, you throw off the front end alignment. If you don't mind more front end vibration when in 4WD, then having them out of phase won't matter, but it can cut down the life of you U-joints. Napa or a dealer can supply you with all the stuff to rebuild the D-C joint. It's not a bad job, just takes a little time since it looks like a puzzle.

[deputydawg]

That joint is a Double Cardan joint, and you should keep it. If you go to a standard shaft, you will have to re-phase the yokes, since a D-C shaft has the lower yoke inline with the shaft, and a standard shaft needs to have the faces of the yokes parallel to each other. It you try to tilt the front axle to re-phase the yokes, you throw off the front end alignment. If you don't mind more front end vibration when in 4WD, then having them out of phase won't matter, but it can cut down the life of you U-joints. Napa or a dealer can supply you with all the stuff to rebuild the D-C joint. It's not a bad job, just takes a little time since it looks like a puzzle.
so i can get the kit to rebuild the shaft? that would be great. What am i looking at as far as a price goes? and do you know the part number might be? I am going to look for a new grill and driver side running light bessal so it is all legal. But I am still concerned about the length of the overall shaft. will i have to extend it and if so then is that something i can do at the house or should i have a drive shaft shop do the complete job? it dont really mater to me one way or a nother. I just know its gota be done.

[MMiller]

I know you guys are now past the wiring, but I did do away with my ballast resistor and the dodge ignition module. I used a new Mopar performance Distributor(electronic of course) and a Jacobs coil and Jacobs computer. It is a stand alone ignition system that is working quite nice. It has a fully adjustable rev limiter, multispark at lower rpms. Startup is very crisp and drivablilty is wonderful.

Michael

[deputydawg]

thats what i would have like to have done with my dist. but i didnt realize that without the ballist and the electronic ignition controle unit that the truck would not run. I did have the ignition modual hooked up but it still didnt run with out the other stuff being hooked up to. I figured that a ballast resistor would be cheeper right off the bat then a new puter and dist and all the other stuff. I am trying to get it done right to my standards but right now i will settle for "right" by dodges standards. for now. I did blow a fuse in the cluster on the dash so i pulled the wires off the cluster and will go with now gages probable from autozumer. that is the only other prob that i had.

[Elwenil]

I don't know what the part number is off the top of my head for the D-C joint kit, but it's not a hard thing to come by. Any good parts guy will know what you are talking about, but if you got to an Advance Auto or a Autozone or something you may have to explain it to them. Also, some people incorrectly call it a C-V joint. It's like a $10 kit, but you also need the two U-joints, so that will probably put the whole deal in the $40 range if you buy good joints, like Spicer. As for lengthening your shaft, I have a local machine shop do it. To lengthen a stock shaft and reuse all the original yokes normally costs me about $35. I know that will sound real cheap to some of these guys out west, but I live in a small town and I know the guy who owns the shop. Hell, I had a new intermediate shaft made for my W100 with all new Spicer parts from scratch and it only cost me $118. Shop around locally before you try and buy a mail order shaft or something. Any competent machine shop can make a nice straight and balanced shaft.

[deputydawg]

sounds great i will check it out today and see what i can dig up. I have a press if i need to do this myself but isnt the joint under some tenshion? (sp) I thought it had springs and was under pressure.

[Elwenil]

There is a tension spring on the center pivot ball, but it's not a lot of tension really. The main problem with rebuilding the joint is that is comes apart sort of like a puzzle. It takes a little thinking to take it apart, but it just takes time. I rebuild mine in the driveway, with no special tools.

[deputydawg]

sounds easy enough and i will get the parts this weekend so i can 4 wheel it this forth of july. I am lpanning on having some trucks out in the desert. I really miss this truck. It has been setting for close to 2 years and its time to get it back on the road. I get it done then i can turn my attintion to the scout and get it done. I almost bought a heep yesterday to but i have to many projects unfinished as it is. lol go figure. once its in you, you gota have more. right now there are three 4x's in the yard. still not enough!