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| Getting Wired |
Wiring was one of the last major jobs left on this project, and for many out there, a job better left to the
pro's but before you throw in the towel on this one, let me just say you can do this!
Painless Performance Products has over 20 years of experience helping the average car guy
achieve a wiring job they can be proud of. All Painless kits come with everything you need to complete
your job with professional results. So with nothing to fear but fear itself we dusted off our crimpers and
ordered up a universal 12 circuit chassis harness, a gauge harness kit and a battery cable kit, then got
down to business.
The key to a successful job is to take the instructions out of the box, leave the shop behind ,and spend
a few nights reading them over before you ever start the job. This will get you thinking about your layout
before you unroll the wire into a pile of spaghetti. A little trick we found to be helpful, while you're in this
planning stage, is to think about circuits you won't be using and how you can use them elsewhere. We had
a few that we wanted to reallocate, so before we got to far along they were plucked from their sections
and re-routed to other areas that needed the power. For example, we did not have an electric choke or an
AC pump so we moved those circuits from the engine section to our tail section were we could then use
them to power up our bench seat with some accessory power and a heated seat element.
We started off easy, laying out the gauge harness for our removable dash while sitting in the comforts
of the kitchen table. Then the harness assembly was secured with zip ties before we made our
connections. The beauty of this little harness is that it is designed to plug into the main harness so our
dash can be unplugged and removed at any time giving us easy access to everything behind our dash.
Now that we were all warmed up, it was time to tackle to the main harness. I must admit when you first
unpack this large bundle of wires fresh out of the box it looks a bit daunting, but once you start separating
out the different sections it all starts to makes sense. The great thing about the Painless harness is that
the fuse block is already pre-terminated from the factory and every wire is labeled, numbered and
sectioned making the layout very easy. First thing we did was mount our fuse block. Once this was
secured we started laying out the different sections (engine, dash, head, & tail) towards their destinations.
We took our time routing each section using the supplied zip ties to secure the wires before any
terminating was done. This approach of working in sections also made it easy to work on one area of the
car at a time.
During the mock-up of the car we roughed in our master disconnect switch, chassis ground, remote
charging terminals and each route for our battery cables. This insured that any holes that needed to be
drilled in the car were done prior to paint. The only thing left to finish the job was to fabricate our battery
cables. The Painless battery kit includes all the terminals and quality shrink tube to do this job right. We
borrowed a good cable crimper (Thanks Dom!) then laid the cables in place to get accurate
measurements before they were cut, crimped, and the shrink tube was applied. A rubber grommet was
placed in the body were the cable passed through the floor and each cable was routed and clamped or
zip tied in place.
Painless recommends testing your new system using a small battery charger as your power source
before hooking up to your battery. This will supply enough power to your new wiring job to test your work
but with very little amperage in case mistakes were made. If you end up with any questions or problems
their tech line is extremely helpful at getting you back on track. Because we took our time and worked on
things as time permitted this project took us a few weeks to complete. But after going through the
process from start to finish, I can say this is a job the average car guy can do with some patience, and it
really was painless.
pro's but before you throw in the towel on this one, let me just say you can do this!
Painless Performance Products has over 20 years of experience helping the average car guy
achieve a wiring job they can be proud of. All Painless kits come with everything you need to complete
your job with professional results. So with nothing to fear but fear itself we dusted off our crimpers and
ordered up a universal 12 circuit chassis harness, a gauge harness kit and a battery cable kit, then got
down to business.
The key to a successful job is to take the instructions out of the box, leave the shop behind ,and spend
a few nights reading them over before you ever start the job. This will get you thinking about your layout
before you unroll the wire into a pile of spaghetti. A little trick we found to be helpful, while you're in this
planning stage, is to think about circuits you won't be using and how you can use them elsewhere. We had
a few that we wanted to reallocate, so before we got to far along they were plucked from their sections
and re-routed to other areas that needed the power. For example, we did not have an electric choke or an
AC pump so we moved those circuits from the engine section to our tail section were we could then use
them to power up our bench seat with some accessory power and a heated seat element.
We started off easy, laying out the gauge harness for our removable dash while sitting in the comforts
of the kitchen table. Then the harness assembly was secured with zip ties before we made our
connections. The beauty of this little harness is that it is designed to plug into the main harness so our
dash can be unplugged and removed at any time giving us easy access to everything behind our dash.
Now that we were all warmed up, it was time to tackle to the main harness. I must admit when you first
unpack this large bundle of wires fresh out of the box it looks a bit daunting, but once you start separating
out the different sections it all starts to makes sense. The great thing about the Painless harness is that
the fuse block is already pre-terminated from the factory and every wire is labeled, numbered and
sectioned making the layout very easy. First thing we did was mount our fuse block. Once this was
secured we started laying out the different sections (engine, dash, head, & tail) towards their destinations.
We took our time routing each section using the supplied zip ties to secure the wires before any
terminating was done. This approach of working in sections also made it easy to work on one area of the
car at a time.
During the mock-up of the car we roughed in our master disconnect switch, chassis ground, remote
charging terminals and each route for our battery cables. This insured that any holes that needed to be
drilled in the car were done prior to paint. The only thing left to finish the job was to fabricate our battery
cables. The Painless battery kit includes all the terminals and quality shrink tube to do this job right. We
borrowed a good cable crimper (Thanks Dom!) then laid the cables in place to get accurate
measurements before they were cut, crimped, and the shrink tube was applied. A rubber grommet was
placed in the body were the cable passed through the floor and each cable was routed and clamped or
zip tied in place.
Painless recommends testing your new system using a small battery charger as your power source
before hooking up to your battery. This will supply enough power to your new wiring job to test your work
but with very little amperage in case mistakes were made. If you end up with any questions or problems
their tech line is extremely helpful at getting you back on track. Because we took our time and worked on
things as time permitted this project took us a few weeks to complete. But after going through the
process from start to finish, I can say this is a job the average car guy can do with some patience, and it
really was painless.
