I know this is a recurring theme, but want to know if anyone has specific experience with this... about to place an order... somewhere!

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=PRF%2D20102&N=4294925143+4294839062+4294871297+4294908216+4294 925081+4294908021&autoview=sku

I want to rewire the round gauge/ idiot lite dash in our 70, but am trying to get an easy to do yet more cost-efficient method than the $480 OEM repop variety from Year One.

I know there's more than one harness available out there, but Jimminy they can get expensive! The dash is completely out, as is the rest of the interior, so now's the time to do it!

I also know there are other after-market companies out there, but I really hope for a plug n' play harness similar to the original design. I can do basic soldering and such, but if we're terminating one connection, bridging another and then searching for some connector to make some other fabbed-up piece... I'm not in that club!

Suggestions? Endorsements? Experience?

TIA guys!

-c

I went through this last summer and it basically comes down to either paying serious $$$ for factory plug and play or spending R&D time making a generic hot rod harness fit. But since you have it all apart here is what I recommend from personal experience:

Take your dash insert with all the guages and switches and everything and put it on a table.

Take all the wiring from the firewall back (minus the taillight harness) removed from the car and reinstall the wiring on the dash on the table.

Now work and fix and repair away.

What kind of problems does your wiring have? If and depending, I can share some specific techniques to use for the repairs. I even have some wiring supply goodies I could sell you locally, stuff like the GM terminals and wire loom.

Thanks Vrooom! (name?)

I have the car pretty much all apart, as you can see in the photos from my signature. With the condition the car was in, as you can guess the wiring is pretty much hard, corroded, cut and a variety of other issues that must be addressed since it's all apart.
I can just see, once it's together, I'd be chasing down gremlins for years, so as long as it's apart, why not do it right?

I have the original harness and it actually doesn't look THAT bad. I can cut/remove the original connectors, provided they play nice and don't break with handling, and splice them onto the new one. That's not a problem for me really. It's more the fabbing up a harness and trying to follow old schematics that I prefer to keep to a minimum.

Buy one off ebay. The idiot light dash harness goes for less than $150.

used harnesses = scary

...in my opinion

The terminal housings usually are not much of a problem so long as they are not over exposed to sunlight.

Might want to put the whole mess in some nice warm soapy water for a good cleaning as a start. Might look surprisingly better afterwards.

You should not need to cut anything to take terminal housings off or apart. The blade male terms should be squeezed with needle nose to remove. The female terms have a bent tang interlock that can be pushed in from the end using the right sized tool in the little slot in the housing. Once you see how it works it is pretty easy, but do not force it. In fact sometimes the females get harder if you are pulling them out too soon.

Steve

So that painless harness is pretty close then?

If I have a relatively complete OEM harness, I can use it to make the new one
complete?

Anything else recommended to have at the same time?

Oh, the painless question! I found myself asking the same thing months ago! LOL, i did go with it, i had no knowledge of the factory wiring, i had problems, i would do it all again, and i would never go to another company for my wiring needs! Umm, something else to have is a wiring diagram and this website bookmarked! LOL. I had a few problems but did the thing myself and it only took about a week. Good Luck!

I recommend M&H wiring; they have exact replacements. And excellent qaulity.

http://www.wiringharness.com/

For the 70 round gauge warning lights harness: $394.00

Well, we'll see how it goes - I just ordered the M&H harness for under the dash, and then figured what the H*** and ordered the engine and front harnesses as well...

M & H Electrical Fabricators.

Only way to go !
Just bought and installed in 70 El Camino with round gauge conversion. It's a beautiful thing !

Nate

Well, we'll see how it goes - I just ordered the M&H harness for under the dash, and then figured what the H*** and ordered the engine and front harnesses as well...
Now *that* should be a painless harness install :-)

Well, we'll see how it goes - I just ordered the M&H harness for under the dash, and then figured what the H*** and ordered the engine and front harnesses as well...

you won't regret it, at least I hope you won't. I ordered the M&H engine and forward harnesses. They are identical to stock except the headlite connectors are clear and the stock are a brownish color. Regarding the engine harness, If you have air conditioning, then you will have an extra orange wire to the interior air fan that you won't need. M&H says GM would cut that wire right where it enters the tape wrap.

My $.02...
M&H and Painless are for totally different users. M&H is the best way to go for STOCK replacement. As long as you are staying factory correct, they're an easy way to go. BUT, if you're thinking about adding anything electrical that wasn't there originally, (either now or later) then the Painless harnesses are great. You do have to be comfortable with basic electical stuff, but then that's who's going to be adding power windows 'n door locks, alarm, big stereo, fuel injection, 150 amp alternator, etc. I went the Painless route and did have a few tricky spots, but I saved much of my old harness to salvage connector shells, had good diagrams to work with, and got things sorted quickly. Oh yeah, I learned a whole lot more than I thought I needed to!
-Bill

Thanks Bill;

I got the M&H harnesses on my doorstep yesterday. Dash, engine and front light...
The only thing we'll be addng will be electic fans and I can do the wiring for those without a lot of problems...

Now, I need to get a good diagram. What is a good one to show where the connections go...? I have the one that is just a schematic in a book of about 8 pages. Doesn't lay things out real well.

The dash was a sweep, so there wasn't on to take off and compare, and there are a LOT of unused plugs at this point! 3 or 4 on the gauges, and then the door switches, but there are still several large clips. Radio I'm sure, but need a good book and pictures that say plug here and plug there.

Same thing needed with the engine. It was all disassembled and quite cut when we got the car, so it's going from scratch.

Who has a good book with good pictures and where to order it from?

Do you have a camara? Take some pics and post them, quite a few here can tell you where they go just by looking. This site here has some pics of wiring http://home.comcast.net/~caseyd55/wiring_questions.htm

Holy Sweetness Batman!

That is EXACTLY what we need...
I can post some pictures, but lemme play with that link first and then we'll start a new thread in a few days. This one is getting too diverse.

THANKS GREG!!! :thumbsup:

You want to get the GM Chassis Service Manual for your year car.
YearOne, OPG, Ground Up and others should have them. They have schematics that describe what hooks where - to a degree. They can be a little hard to follow untill you understand some of the abreviations used. But they will be factory correct. Looks like this for 72.
http://www.audiovisionps.com/ElCamino/rsm72chev.jpg