electrical questions?

[dardy]

Finally have garage for 64 j200 pickup and had some questions about replacing the wiring. Wanted to know your opinion about how complete are the wire harnesses that you can purchace. I guess what I am asking is can I just pull all the wires out now and just replace with the new harness or should I wait and pull as I replace. The wiring that is there now is a rats nest and mostly in the way for disassembly. Any information wourld be helpful

[tgreese]

IME (in my experience, in my estimation) the wiring on an old car generally seems more overwhelming than it really is. You just have at it, and remove or repair one circuit at a time. Don't think about the whole mess - just pick a wire and figure out what it does, and repair it or remove it as needed. Rinse and repeat.

The hot rod aka 'universal' harnesses are one way to go. But you're going to have to connect up the circuits according to the harness maker's diagram, and decide how your devices fit in with the new circuit diagram.

The harnesses on old Jeeps are quite simple: no fuse panel, just some inline fuses and a circuit breaker on the ignition switch to protect the lighting. Once you learn where the fuses are, tracing down problems becomes quite straightforward.

Personally, I would never burn my bridges until I came to them. Put off ripping out any wiring until you're actually ready to install a new. working harness, or until you have a plan for repairing what you have. Ripping out the confusing wiring may be satisfying now, but I'd resist the urge to tidy up.

[Joe Guilbeau]

Hi,

I have built prototype wiring harnesses for the automotive industry, where dual fuel conversions with Gasoling and Propane were integrated.

You can rebuild your own wiring harness, all you need to do is source TXL wires in the appropriate color, get the firewall plug (probable from a CJ sourced supplier) then the individual connectors, sockets & pins and seals, then some crimp tools to complete the job.

Just lay out the old harness on a plywood sheet and use 4-inch finishing nails to separate the looms so the old harness lays out well.

Then place the new bulkhead connector and nail around it so that you can crimp on the bulkhead connector and plug the wire into the correct position.

Use the old harness as your guide as to color, AWG size and length.

Lay the new wires over the old harness, then use flat nylon lacing harness "tape" to meke everything look nice and neat.

Use barrel crimps for the solder splices, and be sure to put on the adhesive heat shrink BEFORE you solder.

Then go and start crimping on the connectors.

Lay the harness on the jeep and see how she fits, should be a snug layout,

Then make any adjustments needes, and use heat shielded wire looming to make her pretty.

Simple, huh?

[lkmarsh]

It is tempting to just rip and tear everything and start over, and you can get away with it if you know what every wire does. Helps to know auto wiring in general. Your 64 is about as simple as it gets, except for silly stuff like a relay for parking lights. Joe laid out the method for reproducing your exact harness. This takes time and patience, and the OEM wiring diagram is good to have around, too. I chose Tim's method, because I was making many changes.

[jeepfan93]

Honestly if you're gonna do the wiring and plan on keeping it, Painless is the way to go. But as stated, a basic knowledge of auto wiring is needed.

[dardy]

Thanks for the advise. things look pretty simple under the hood,I can follow most of the wires to their sourse but under the dash look like a bomb went off. Now I am going to pull the front off all in one piece. easier to work on the engine> I think I have all the bolts, won't know for sure until I get some help from my brother to lift it out and up. I'm sure I'll hve many more questions as the project progresses. It just feels good wrenching on it after it has been sitting for 2 years.

[joe]

Me, I'm lazy, I'd just go with a truck harness from EZWire(cheaper than Painless or Centec). Plus you get the added bonus of a fuse box rather than the stock inline fuses.