Wiring help
 

Good afternoon all,

I’ve got a 68 I am in the process of LS/TKX swapping. With the swap I’ve got a terminator X to run the motor and Dakota digital RTX gauges with the Holley interface module.

I was planning to rewire the truck with an American auto wire or painless kit. My question is for those who have done similar, at that point is a full harness worth it? The Dakota digital has all its own stuff as well as the terminator engine harness. I didn’t want to spend the time and drop the money to just not use half the stuff off the new harness.

Thanks!

Re: Wiring help
 

I did LS swap(with DBW PCM and aftermarket harness), Dakota Digital RTX, and vintage air, also did DBW cruise control. I just added to the factory harness. I used a 4 fuse holder under the dash and used circuit breakers near the battery for the vintage air and fuel pump. I also used a fuse/relay box near the battery and fans for the 2 stage electric fans.

Everything on the 4 fuse holder was all really low draw and just plugged into the aux out on the factory fuse panel.

It is a lot of work to route, cut to length, and terminate all the wires from one of the AAW kits. I helped someone who was using the AAW kit and thought it was a pain. It had a few wires that were duplicated from his engine harness and last I saw it was never fully wrapped like factory harness.

I guess the argument I have heard is with the AAW/painless you can route it however you want. But I've been able to route mine like I wanted also. I left the dash harness basically intact. I also left the rear light harness intact, although I had filled the hole in the firewall and run it out the floor of the cab where my other wires were exiting and wrapped it in braided wrap. Then reworked the front light and front engine harnesses similarly, removed unused wires and re-routed or replaced wires to be longer etc.

If your dash harness is in good shape I would stick with it. If it's not and you are good at wiring and routing I'd consider the AAW/painless.

Re: Wiring help
 

Re-wiring is a big PITA. Even if you have the correct tools and a special crimper that folds the stabs into the wire insulation. Hiding and routing the wires took me a long time.
The fuse block hole must be modified to fit the replacement Painless harness. A lot of little things that add up. On the plus side, the painless comes with extras like wiring for a rear-mounted tank. In your case, the Terminator X likely includes the pump circuit.
I would recommend the stock harness and just using the Terminator X as add-ons. I think it would be the simplest of the options

Re: Wiring help
 

If the '68 wire and connectors are all still good and working you save a ton of work not rewiring lights, horn, wipers, heater and stereo. Just cut off all the wires for gauges and engine bay you wont need and clean up the rest.

I'd keep the body harness, engine harness and gauge harness as independent as you can so you can disconnect and replace them independently. I favor serviceability and protection of the wires over hidden wires.

If you have a 56 year collection of butt splices, twisted together wires, rusty grounds, corroded light sockets and remnants of 6 different stereo installs that has to be ripped out.... if you buy a basic kit from one of those vendors it is only going to have about 4 wires going to engine bay for gauges you won't need.

Those basic kits don't really save you any actual wiring work. They do save you the effort to select and buy the basic parts individually, but you pay for that service and you will probably need to add in connectors for column, ignition, heater etc so the price creeps up.

Personally I'd just go buy spools of wire, a set of either Deutsch or AMP waterproof connectors (or knockoffs),crimper, heat shrink, wire loom, wire clamps,fuse box, new bulb sockets. A labeler that can print on heat shrink and clear heat shrink to go over the labels is a nice touch. This is going to add up, you wont save money but you'll have the basis to do a good job. The next project will be cheaper.

Re: Wiring help
 

I did a full re-wire on my '67 using an M&H upgrade harness kit. Well pleased with the quality and fit. I did modify mine quite a bit in an attempt to clean up the engine bay as much as possible.
I made a custom cover for the bulkhead connector and routed all the wires under the fender and under the core support.
Attachment 2420319

Attachment 2420320

Re: Wiring help
 

I've used the Painless wiring kit (21 circuit)on few of my hot rod builds. Yeah I don't find wiring fun but I dislike chasing old wiring harness issues even more.
I haven't used AAW but all the wires included in the Painless kit are terminated at the fuse block. You just have to route the wires, cut to length and terminate.
I like the fact that all the wires are labeled full length.
I use connectors from Fleet Farm that have have shrink tubing and and some type of goo inside so they are water proof when you shrink them down.
On my 68 C10 LS swap project I used Painless. But did it a bit different than above. I made some "L" brackets to move the fuse block back away from the firewall a bit. Then I filled the stock fuse block hole. Then I made a small hole in the fire wall for the front and back harness wires. Battery is in front of the right rear wheel.
I love to hide chassis and LS engine wires.
Couple of pics.

Re: Wiring help
 

Sweet thank you all for the replies, I think I’ll install my engine and harnesses to get a feel for routing then just go from there. This is the first project I’ve done of this caliber so I didn’t want to be wasting money.

All good ideas I’ll have to consider.