electrical problems

[guf]

yesterday i went to pick up my truck from having new brakes, some hoses, tune up done. I paid way more than i wanted to but felt like it was a good place to start to get a few things "professionaly" done. i drive away like 3 blocks and as i struggled to get it into gear i heard a slight popping noise and smelled smoke, the truck stopped. i knew it was some kind of wiring problem because the truck would not turn over and smelt like burning wires.
the shop then told me there was major wiring issues and the was no fusible link near the battery and caused some kind of short. i know there is a rats nest under the dash and random wires all over the truck the PO was such a hack. I expected there to be problems. but i gave them a running truck and spent money and time away and they give me a non running truck back. i'm so frustrated and explained it to them calmly that i just want the truck at my house.
they did get it running again and i can get it tomorrow.
so my question is should i go ahead and get a new harness rewire the whole truck to help avoid more electrical problems? but i am just starting this project, should that be done after bodywork is done and engine stuff done? will i be wasting time because i"ll have to do it all again when i paint. i wanted it to be a drivable restoration but have another car if needed. does someone have a step by step order of operations suggestion plan? ideas?
thanks

[gator2511]

I think You have to decide how you are going to approach this resto. Are you going to drive it while doing the resto or not? It seems that if You are going to drive it very much or even drive it to the various shops to get work done you will need to make the repairs necessary to make it reliable. When I approach a project like yours I always sit down and make a list of all the things I want to do and form a logical plan from there. If you can tow it to and from the body shop then wait for the harness work. Maybe some one can give You a better plan but thats what I do. Have fun!

[GREASEMONKEY72]

i suggest you get rid of the 3spoke and get some more steelies.....


but i would think to be on the safe side just go and rewire it that way it runs and drives and theres no chance of an electrial fire, when it comes time for paint and whatever else its easier to just move or tape off the new wires then to mess with hack job wiring, cause if its that bad its much better off being safe then sorry

[cdowns]

usually in cases like this i tend to just try to id the crap an start by cutting out all the non essential added on stuff and tacky tack on stuff . then with the aid of a wiring diagram id each wire check for condition proper routing and good solid contact(if i see it has a crimpon connector it needs attention) lots of time it turns out that its not as bad as it looks

one truck i had there were 4seperate radio hookups under the dash(hots and speakers) after iding them and eliminating them what looked to be a major nightmare turned into just replacing a couple of terminals and adding a few spots of shrinkwrap

[guf]

i will stop at the used wheel store and get the steelies on the way home. the 3 spokes are killing me too.

[Overkill67]

I would just replace the harness. It is easy enough to do PLUS if you put any power to the system while doing the resto your chancing on burning up all the work and money your putting into it. I have 3 things I never let go if I think there is an issue, front end parts (tie rods ball joints ect.) brake, and electrical. Most anything else that breaks probably wont put you or someone else on the road at risk.

[sleepyboy]

I was in the same boat; one painless harness later,
I am happy

[jimmydean]

I drive a majority of my projects, but not daily. I agree that it's best to look over everything and focus efforts on reliability first.

A rewire would be ideal, but it takes some time to do it right. If you have everything ready to go, it can be done in a long weekend. I would suggest fixing the wires that burnt if you can and start looking at a complete rewire very soon.

My truck will get a rewire at some point, but this weekend will be spent just cleaning up the mess that's under the dash for now.

[Billla]

I'm in both camps

I'd start as cdowns said and just get rid of the junk that GNDN (Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing) and see if you can live with that while you're working on other stuff.

I agree that changing out the wiring harness is probably something you'll end up doing long term - and not a horrible job - but I sure wouldn't want to tackle as a maintenence item (need to do it NOW) vs. a restoration item (it makes sense to do this when I do...).

[Longhorn Man]

I seem to be the minority on the subject, but I'm willing to bet that your harness is salvagable. With minimal learning, you can figure out how to repair your harness and make it safe.
I feel the aftermarket harness replacement industry is one step away from being a sham, praying on the fear people have of fire. While the truth is, most of the replacement harnesses, you end up with just as many splices as you would have if you just rep[aired the original stuff.
I'm not saying that everyone should fix there harnes... there comes a point that junk is junk... but like it was mentioned above... remove the crap that's not even doing anything, inspect everything real good, and see if you actually need to spend a small fortune in time and money to rewire it.
All my trucks have been daily drivers... a 300,000 mile old truck, a 500,000 mile one, and my current ride, at about 150,000 miles. NONE of them needed replacement harnesses. And on top of that, 2 of them were southern trucks.

[jhow66]

Check your battery cable from battery to starter. Probably up against exhaust pipe and burnt into.

[jimmydean]

Originally Posted by Longhorn Man

I seem to be the minority on the subject, but I'm willing to bet that your harness is salvagable. With minimal learning, you can figure out how to repair your harness and make it safe.
I feel the aftermarket harness replacement industry is one step away from being a sham, praying on the fear people have of fire. While the truth is, most of the replacement harnesses, you end up with just as many splices as you would have if you just rep[aired the original stuff.
I'm not saying that everyone should fix there harnes... there comes a point that junk is junk... but like it was mentioned above... remove the crap that's not even doing anything, inspect everything real good, and see if you actually need to spend a small fortune in time and money to rewire it.
All my trucks have been daily drivers... a 300,000 mile old truck, a 500,000 mile one, and my current ride, at about 150,000 miles. NONE of them needed replacement harnesses. And on top of that, 2 of them were southern trucks.

Painless has a great product. It's not that I fear the factory wire design or anything, but I doubt the factory harness was built with 30+ years of use/abuse in mind.

If you look at my new truck, you can see a number of places the PO has cut/spliced who knows what at various stages. A painless kit is only like $350 and takes about a weekend to install. It uses the factory style setup and is built to last.

I guess for me it is worth $350 and a couple days to not worry about wires for anotehr30+ years/