jumpr71

I bought a 1966 Fury III that sat in various places (both in and out of the elements) for about 20 years. After about a week of replacing gaskets, spark plugs, plug wires, ballast resistor, rebuilt carb, etc..., I have noticed a recurring theme under my hood. The old copper wires are shot. I want to re-wire the whole thing. Are there any companies making complete wiring harnesses for old Furies? I have a wiring diagram/service manual. I have a bit of time for the job, and I am only part moron so I am reasonably sure I can pull this off.

Any tips or tricks from someone that has done this before would be appreciated. I would like to do firewall and forward first, then interior/dash, followed by everything aft of the back seat. Is this a good approach? Are there any special tools that I wont be able to live without? Thanks in advance...

Rob G

rydeer

I know this is late, I'd try American autowire, You can google them or they advertise in all the mags.

moe7404

get a Dorman 86263 crimper. black handle yellow strip. it will REALLY crimp

440roadrunner

In my opinion, rewiring your car is going to depend on a few things...........

Are you going to restore it to "correct," or are you going to "rod" it and maybe put some HP into it, including (maybe) a big stereo, fuel pumps, electric fans, and a "big" alternator?

If "factory correct" you have a couple of ways to go. One would be to pull the old harnesses, lay them out, and rebuild them. You can buy the terminals which fit in the connectors, IF the outer connector housings are OK

Otherwise, you'll need to Google around for the "Year One" types of resto correct harnesses.

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But if you are gonna DRIVE the pants off it, and maybe build it a little, you might want to modernize the wiring, get rid of the problems with the bulkhead connector. This is where you get into the more "universal" harnesses which typically provide a FAR better fuse panel (more circuits) but which deviate from the old wiring scheme.

This includes Ron Francis and Painless, both of which are way overpriced in my opinion. The forementioned American Autowire seems to be well thought of.

Read this article on why you may want to make that decision

http://www.madelectrical.com/electri...p-gauges.shtml

and headlights

http://www.madelectrical.com/electri...adlights.shtml

jumpr71

Thank you all for the suggestions. I have been away on a job, and have not been able to get anything done with my car. I cant wait to get home so I can spend the next six months wrenching away.

jumpr71

So I asked for advice back in August, and I am finally able to get into the shop for a couple of days to rewire. I went with the Painless 14 circuit for Mopar. Apparently the 14 circuit is now 21 circuit, so I get some bonus circuits. I will be rewiring the entire car, and should be finished by Thursday. I have never done any type of wiring whatsoever so this should be interesting. I will post pics...

440roadrunner

This may be too late, but I recommend you sit down in your armchair, before you start, with the harness..........and carefully "ohm" out where the circuits go to the fuse panel. Unless "Painless" has changed their destruction books, "they don't tell you" this, therefore there is no "real" diagram.

One huge bitch I have with people like Painless is that they mark the wires with lettering as to "power windows," etc. So if you don't HAVE those, and want to use that circuit for something else, you have that "there" defugalty, LOL

Also, seriously consider moving to a modern "relay box." I'm "low buck" here so I used one out of a late Voyager. But Bussman makes them, too. The ignition / regulator, pump/ EFI, headlights, etc, all run off relays.

Also consider adding a hidden switch somewhere......this can be simple.....for anti theft. Depending on what you are using for an ignition system, and especially if you use an electric fuel pump, this can be pretty simple. If you have a tach, and points or Mopar ignition, just ground the tach wire

jumpr71

I am actually most of the way finished attaching connections, and I am about to test. I have been using the ohmmeter regularly, and I have someone with way more knowledge than I have working with me. This has been a bit more of a project than I anticipated. I have run into a snag rewiring the a/c control and blower motor. It seems that the a/c control unit and blower fan switch has two power wires. Is this correct...or do I have to retrace my steps, and find where some phantom wire originated? I will throw this caveat out there. The previous owner made a "custom" switch, and I think he knew less about electricity than I do. Either that or he was hammered drunk, and working in the dark.

440roadrunner

Go over to MyMopar, the tech section:

http://www.mymopar.com/index.php?pid=31

Go to service manuals and download the '66 Plymouth service manual

http://www.mymopar.com/downloads/ser...ice_Manual.zip

Now those manuals posted there do not use the proper "dash" page numering system so you have to play with page numbers. The AC diagrams are generally not in section 8 (electrical) but rather in chapter 24......Air Conditioning.

Start on page 813, and go down to 817, that diagram indeed shows two feeds. Since they don't show the guts of the switch, I would guess one circuit feeds the blower, and the other handles the compressor clutch

jumpr71

Huge thanks 440...It never dawned on me to look for a whole section on air conditioning. Most appreciated for that tip. So here's the progress so far. My buddy and I have been doing a very meticulous job of testing, connecting, testing again. The entire engine compartment is done...the ignition/charging worked perfectly. My engine roared to life.The entire tail section is done, and all the lights work as they should. Heater, and a/c control is going in tomorrow, and the rest of the instrument panel will be finished as well. We would have been finished with the instrument panel today but we had to do quite a bit of repair to the pin connectors on the printed circuit boards. All of my headlights will be replaced tomorrow, and we will connect those as well. I would have kept the old headlights in, but when I removed the connectors, it pulled the contacts right out of the old headlights. All in all its been a hell of a learning experience. I will definitely write a review about my Painless Wiring experience. If anyone cares to read it it will be found on my blog. My profile has the info...pics coming

440roadrunner

Be sure to go through the cluster, I keep telling guys to think of the instruments as an "end to end" system.

This includes the senders, sender connectors and wire, connections along the path, cluster connector, connections at the gauges, the gauge units, the IVR unit, the socket and connections it fits in, and of course, the power connection to it once again, the PC board connector (if used on your panel)

Even some of the cars which use "push on" connectors are not exempt---these connectors can become corroded or even fail internally.

Replace the IVR with something like an RTE which is solid state

A 3V battery should produce almost exactly full scale reading or just below when applied to the gauge unit, IE two D batteries in series.

jumpr71

Rewiring job complete, and everything works well. All of the lights in my instrument cluster light up. All of my lights works as they should. The radio works...everything came back to life nicely. A/C clutch engages but I disconnected until I charge the system. The heat blows warm, and at three different speeds. Not the easiest job on earth, but not the toughest job either. Meticulous testing, taking our time, and paying attention to detail was the order of the day...it was very satisfying to hear my car roar to life, and even more satisfying knowing that everything electrical on my car has a new wire. Drum brakes are next...replacing shoes, and rotors. I am reasonably sure I can pull it off...

440roadrunner

Very good. As an old guy, I bought my present car to "have a little fun" in my later years. It's nice to have some amount of confidence that stuff like ignition, lights, and charging system LOL are actually going to work.