wiring harness.. original vs painless
 

what are the pros and cons of an original wiring harness vs a painless type aftermarket one? Im not worried about origanality, the cost is around the same i think.. and i will mostly be using original type stuff like gauges and so forth.. nothing hi tech..
thanks

Re: wiring harness.. original vs painless
 

use the classic update kit from american autowire.... you will be glad ya did. It comes with everything.......

Re: wiring harness.. original vs painless
 

Look at M&H Auto electric, it is a plug and play reproduction wiring harness. No need to put the used connections on the wires.

Re: wiring harness.. original vs painless
 

My factory harness wasn't hacked up too bad so I took it out and added wires where I needed some added, removed a couple I didn't need, and wrapped it back up. I wound up selling the painless harness I bought a few years ago.

Re: wiring harness.. original vs painless
 

it's got new blade style fuses. and the one from painless is 18 circuit so it's got spots for stuff like elec locks, windows, and all the electric bells and whistles...

Re: wiring harness.. original vs painless
 

thanks for the info.. ill check out some of your suggestions

Re: wiring harness.. original vs painless
 

I am not a fan of aftermarket wiring harnesses. I have used several M&H harnesses and never been disappointed. Wire color, connection, and all of the plugs are JUST as the GENERAL made them. Somewhere down the road you MIGHT have a problem, and a factory wiring diagram, and the troubleshooting info in a factory manual will help you realize why you put it back as it should be.

Re: wiring harness.. original vs painless
 

I just purchased me a painless wiring harness, I will let you know how it goes. I went with it because I was concern with the heat from the amps. I went with a stroger alternator upgraded my headlights and rear lights. I intend to put speakers. So current was the biggest issue for me.

Re: wiring harness.. original vs painless
 

I am just finishing installing my painless wiring kit. One thing that irritated me was I spent about 3 hours looking for the wiring for the back up lights. Then after reading the instructions there was a little Astrix beside the wiring for the back up lights that says your kit may not come with these wires. Great another trip to the auto parts store. Another thing that you may want to look into is buy a new signal line switch and headlight switch. This eliminates some of the gremlins that are going to run into. I spent a couple hours trying to figure out why my one signal light was not working. Turned out to be a cracked wire on the signal light switch harness. And also I had a bad connection on the headlight switch which was another head scratcher. You should be able to get both these switches for well under a hundred dollars but well worth it. Overhaul the kit was not hard to install. all the wires are well marked and the instructions are easy to follow.

Re: wiring harness.. original vs painless
 

To add to this, the kit I have PN: 10206 already has circuits for cruise, power windows, power door locks, cargo light, and a couple others that I forget already installed with fuses. That being said, its not painless. It didn't have the circuit for the door switches for the dome light, nor the wiring for the dome light, but does have the pigtail for the dome on the fuse panel. If you have factory ac, you have to buy an additional harness. They also don't have a wiring diagram available, so I had to do a lot of figuring out where stuff goes.

I just finished the cab yesterday, the underhood sections for another day.