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wiring harness reviews

22K views 33 replies 21 participants last post by  67chevytruck 
#1 ·
I have searched for wiring harness reviews but most of the information is a few years old. I need to buy a wiring harness and just wanted to see what you guys are using. Looks like EZ is a decent one, speedway sells one,,,on and on.
How about this guy, anyone bought a wiring harness form him?

Enos Custom Components, San Luis Obispo

Thanks
Steve
 
#7 ·
I only use American Autowire, because they are top quality. Their fuse blocks are made from a modular system, the same system used in high-end over the road trucks. If it's good enough for vehicles designed to take a beating for millions of miles, it's good enough for me. :thumbup:
 
#8 ·
What are you going to be wiring? If it's something simple like a little hot rod without a bunch of accessories or a computer controled engine and all that crap a simple hot rod wire harness is a piece of cake to make. Not only that you get so much more educated about your car by making it.

Brian
 
#13 ·
There are a myriad of auto wiring harness manufacturers. If you buy by price only you will get an inferior harness. You need to research the comany and the harness you are considering. Will they tell you what type of wire they use? If not look elsewhere. The best and stsndard wire to use in an auto harness is "gxl" wire.

Vince
 
#17 ·
I used a harness from Haywire - good quality wire, all labeled and the correct colors (GM). Kit included headlight switch, ignition switch, GM steering column connectors, fusable links, a selection of connectors, headlight plugs, et cetera. They were also helpful when I asked questions.
 
#21 ·
I called my buddy at Slicks Rod Shop in Roanoke VA, he has been selling Autowire to most of the guys and they were all satisfied with the harness.
I'm going with American Autowire Highway 22 harness. Little more money but as
JoeG and 302 Z28 said..get what you pay for.

Thanks for all the replies!!

Steve
 
#23 ·
Has anyone used Speedway?

I'm leaning heavily towards using the Speedway 20 Circuit GM Wiring Harness Part # 91064027 for around $165 plus shipping.

I'm restoring a 49 Ford F1 and it'll end up with electric fiberglass tilt front, power seats, cruise control, A/C & Heater, alarm system, electric door openers on shaved doors, so that's why I decided to go with 20 circuits instead of the 12.

Has anyone used a Speedway harness?
 
#24 ·
I'm leaning heavily towards using the Speedway 20 Circuit GM Wiring Harness Part # 91064027 for around $165 plus shipping.

Has anyone used a Speedway harness?
I bought one of these
My first impression was it was a nice kit---still may be.

I have wired a few different cars so I tend to really examine a harness
to get a bit familiar with it. (Using different kits)

Have found errors in a couple of the kits and returned one due to mismarking


Now--the 20 circuit speedway kit

Found an error that could be a bit troublesome to someone wanting to use that particular circuit.
Since that kit is so inexpensive, I thought I would send a note to who I "Thought" may have produced the kit.

The reply I got was pretty much that that kit is a cheapo chinese copy
of a major supplier over here.

The box the kit comes in--------(except for the printing)
All of the instruction sheets-----(except for name in lower corners)
And virtually everything else about the kit
is a COPY of a first run kit of our USA supplier.

Right down to the wire numbers, spelling, drawings and yes---even the afore mentioned error in the documentation.


I bought the kit from a suggestion on one of the forums I visit.
Had I known it was a "copy" I would not have purchased it.

Have made several modifications to it as it is going into a Falcon Based Ranchero.

So---use this info as you see fit.
 
#25 ·
I did something a little different on my Pantera. I have a lot of electrical accessories, power steering pump, trans cooler pump, fans, etc. The car is a mid engine car. I hated the electrical panel under the dash. I moved it to the front trunk. I used a Hawire TA panel:

http://www.haywireinc.com/cartimages/prd_zm_192.jpg

I like it because I like the terminals. Some projects will have a lot of changes over it's life and I expect this car to be a little bit of a rolling experiment. With terminals I can change things out pretty easy.

When I set it up I got the parts to re wire the box so I can extend the wires and move the terminals to where I have room. Then I added relay panels for every fan, pump or anything else I suspect a relay would be needed.

It's not as clean as I would like it right now, but I am working on it:



The rear firewall has it's own set of fuses and relays:





There is a lot of items on the electrical. Even the heater box is scratch built with 8 servos and a custom circuit which operate the heater box a little different then a traditional heater.






With every wire rad individually, I have kept a couple of spread sheets to keep all the wiring connections sorted out. I use a heat shrink labeler for most wire. As long as the terminals on the fuse box and relay connections are updated on the spread sheet and diagrams it is pretty simple to follow the wires.
 
#30 ·
Great idea. I never thought of using my circuit programs to layout the electrical system. I make the solid state auto cancel (inertia based) turn signal, flasher, brake light controller. The controller in the Pantera is slightly different as it uses an optical encoder I made to cancel the turn (Patents filed on both).

I think I still prefer the Corel for the drawings though; especially if they get complex. It is easy to adapt different drawings and colors:


http://www.rc-tech.net/cars2/panttransam/Elect/Pant EL 14.jpg

Each circuit panel an relay bank is drawn out such as this:

http://www.rc-tech.net/cars2/panttransam/Elect/Circ Breaker2.jpg

They are living documents and constantly changing. At that point the excel file becomes more useful to me as to where each item hooks up to. I can go to the master electrical diagram but the excel file pointing to where they go is the key which works for me.
 
#29 ·
That Haywire module is exactly what I was looking for to replace the original donor I have from an old Camaro when I started my research. Since I'm not a shop and this is just my personal restoration I figured by the time I buy all the wires in different sizes it'll be cheaper to just buy a kit. The fact that the wires are labeled will make my life way easier too, again since I'm not a shop or mechanic, just an average joe.

They're all pretty much in the same price range $160 to $200 then suddenly jump to $400 with nothing in between.
 
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