Painless Wiring kits

[Gary 351C]

Anybody have experience with these? I just spent 2 hours under the dash of the Montego and still can't figure out where the problem is. I'm starting to realize that messing with 40 year old wiring is going to be like chasing a flock of chickens. I'm considering one of the 12 circut wiring kits for $550 from Summit.

[dieselgeek]

Painless kits are nice, but it's a good idea to first learn what's wrong with your current wiring (IMO). What's it doing or not doing?

[Gary 351C]

I was getting power to everything but when turning the ignition it wouldn't crank. Here's what I checked or replaced:

Battery, starter solenoid, both battery cables, starter, voltage regulator, ignition switch on steering column, fuses, neutral safety switch. I ended up running two jumper wires from both sides of the starter solenoid in to the ignition switch and it would start but lost most of the other electrics. The only thing I haven't taken apart is the connector at the firewall where it connects to the fuse box.
I'm pretty much out of ideas and figure upgrading the whole thing would be better in the end.

One more thing, when it first happened I'd turn the key I'd hear a "bonk" (yes, it made that sound) and the dome light would go bright to dim.

[TheSilverBuick]

I'm with D/G, as under dash wiring kits are quite expensive, and it's better to know what and where the problem is than to throw parts and good money at it, only to find you still have the problem afterwards.

[Gary 351C]

I totally agree, the kit is what I paid for the car and I definately don't want to buy stuff I don't need. Unfortunately electrical is my worst subject and it's VERY frustrating not being able to figure it out.

[SuperBuickGuy]

rewiring a car sounds so easy.... it's not, especially with the general kits.
Here's the times on cars I've rewired
65 Chevelle - American wiring harness - 40 hours, plus at least another 20 hours in getting the right connectors/switches/senders
54 Studebaker truck - general, no-name wiring harness (marked every 12" with what the wire was to), 160 hours
75 Camaro - Rewired with a new(er) harness, 40 hours
84 Buick Riviera - 6 months (was doing it for grandpa, otherwise I'd have torched the car)
77 Cadillac Seville - never finished, the car was scrapped after 7 years, wiring harness fire. "simply" replace the wiring harness with a wrecking yard one where I got the complete firewall.... I honest bet there was 300 hours in trying to get it together.
67 Camaro (x2) - can't remember the brand, but allegedly it was specifically for 67 Camaros - first one I did.... 120 hours.

All of those hours, was the INSTALL time, Not the time spent taking the car apart and removing the harness.

Suggestion - rewiring through a 2nd, general fuse block. The benefit of that is when you put a stereo in, lights, or whatever else, you'll have a newer panel to connect to.

That all said, if the switch is diming the interior light in the "start" position, you're more likely to have a bad starter than anything else. (bad brushes, or arcing where the brushes ride)

[Bob Holmes]

Please explain how you checked things, and what you replaced. I assume its a typical Ford system.

Did you check all your grounds?

[Gary 351C]

First of all, thanks for all the responses. Since I have two of these monsters, I swapped the questionable parts for known good ones from the other car that works fine, including the starter. It does sound like a bad ground somewhere but I checked that also unless there's one hidden that I'm not aware of. The problem also started intermittantly, then went totally bad. Also none of the wiring had been butchered, it was totally factory when I bought the car. It even had the original radio in it.

[Bob Holmes]

Have you traced your voltages from battery to starter. What's your voltage at the battery side of the solenoid? Whats your voltage on the starter side of the solenoid?

[Gary 351C]

I haven't done that, so far I've been looking for obvious stuff. I'll have to try that after work tomorrow, I'm not giving up this time! I'll fix this damn thing if it kills me!

[SpiderGearsMan]

Painless kits are nice, but it's a good idea to first learn what's wrong with your current wiring (IMO). What's it doing or not doing?

HELL YEAH ..sold one to Malc 4 years ago

[anotheridiot]

American wire are closing the gap with Painless and are alot cheaper. Mainly need to look at the ends and how easy it is to hook up. really dont want a ton of wire splices out by connectors with a generic kit. You really shouldnt consider just fixing a starting issue, you need to consider that there is problems with wires and the last thing you want is a shorted wire burning down your car. If one is bad, odds are more are bad too.

[milner351]

Rebel wire is cheaper than ron francis, american auto wire, and painless - I got their kit for $240ish, they're in TN - I was very happy with the responses I got on the phone before ordering the kit.

Since the falcon was coming all the way apart anyway, I'm going to do my first rewire from scratch, you'll all find out how that goes in the project thread when I get to that point.

I'm keeping all the pigtails from the OEM harness, but nearly everything will be different than stock save for marker lights and tail lights, so I may not need much of the OEM. Have you looked for glass fuses lately, they're not easy to find anymore...

[Bob Holmes]

I assume this is a fender mounted solenoid?

[CDMBill]

Many vintage Fords have a fusable link wire in the ignition to starter solenoid run, otherse have a ring terminal version inline, check that for continuity. I had a pin back out in the steering column connector that comes to the ingnition switch out of the under dash fuse block through the steering wheel key/interlock mechanism. Started as intermittant Nuetral/park no crank and then no crank at all. Took me forever to find it.

The bonk may have been the starter bendix catching on the ring gear caused the link to burn out, maybe?