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Painless wiring harness?

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filmsomething

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cincinnati, ohio
Ok so most of the wiring in my 76 k5 is old and needs replaced. Now I can just buy a few spools of wire and go to town replacing stuff or I can buy one of the Painless wiring harnesses. Has anyone use one of these before? How well did it work for you? It's for a pretty much trail only rig but needs to stay street legal. I was thinking of doing the 12 circuit universal one, now I'm wondering if I want to get rid of the dash and do a push button start or get the colum adapter.
 
I've used their stand alone TBI harness and it was enough to convince me to always buy their looms if I need to do anything else in the future. It's a great product, well labeled, factory terminals , good instructions and really helpful phone tech back up too.
 
I re wired a 72 Nova with Painless kit. All nicelly labeled and well done. I hate doing electrical. Now my buddy the computer geek rewired his 71 F-250 with just a bunch of different colored spools of wire. Was cheaper but took longer and more work than I wanted to do.
 
Just did one in my 75 k5 was fairly straight forward. Only thing i have not hooked up yet was the Heater controls i used the 18 circuit.
 
I replaced my entire harness on my 80 with the 73-86 chevy truck complete harness and fuse box kit. One slight issue with the oil sender unit wire in the fuse box (difficult diagnosis, but easy to fix.....loose connection), but overall it was one of the better purchases I have made. I would definitely recommend their kits.
 
I also have one. It was very easy to install but took a long time to do. I used the universal harness with the gm keyed ignition and it worked out great. I am not using any of the factory gm guages so i didnt need any of the dash wiring.
 
Check out www.hotrodwires.com This guy knows his stuff and his service is top notch. He was a gm electrician for like 40 years. His kits are half the price of Painless, all wires are labeled and very high quality and he doesn't get pissed when you call him asking him dumb stuff 100+ times. I put a 12 circuit one in my truck and it's worked flawlessly.
 
Well I like how the hot rod wires are alot cheaper, I kind of wanted to use my factory key though, I guess I can just rewire that part. Its about 100 less then the painless so I might shoot for it. should i get the 12 circuit or 18?
 
filmsomething said:
Well I like how the hot rod wires are alot cheaper, I kind of wanted to use my factory key though, I guess I can just rewire that part. Its about 100 less then the painless so I might shoot for it. should i get the 12 circuit or 18?
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Call Bill and ask him what you need. All i needed was the 12 circuit and he didn't try to push anymore than that. You will still use your key unless you swap the key cylinder.
 
i re-wired my 82 k-5 with a painless kit, the 18 circuit kit. had everything i needed and more. including fuse box, bulk head, and the other thing i thought was nice, is that it had pre-wired stereo leads (+ bat, and + ignition) so no splicing to install a stereo. i also oreder and installed at the same time, their "high output alt kit", and "water resistant dual battery kit"..

all said and done it took me 11 hours start to finish..that includes stripping my interior, removing every single "old" wire from the truck, installing the painless kit, and re-installing my interior. and that was pretty much non stop working, except for the 20 mins or so to grab a few pieces of pizza to eat..
 
I don't wanna come across as knocking painless... there stuff is excellent quality, easy to use and their customer service is good. However, if anybody needs a kit of comparable quality with better service, check out hotrodwires. Like I said earlier, I have been to this guys shop and seen first hand the way he does business. He truly has a passion for cars and trucks and wanted nothing more than seeing my project work out for me. Oh yeah... HALF THE PRICE OF PAINLESS!!!
 
If your into keepin it lookin oem and untouched,all the factory clips in the right places and the proper sheilding whare you need it most,and made in rhe usa by real americans,someone like the hotrod wire guy sounds like someone Id check out.I used M&H wiring.they make factor corect products so if you was to have a problem in the future or add something later you could use your factory manual.they even do custom stuff like blade styel juchions that still go through the fire wall and plug into the back of the fuse junchion like the oem stuff.I own a first gen so I like to keep it as orginal as possiable.
I used their engin harnes when I did my bbc.To sartwith I hade a short water pump sbc,and goin to a long water pump bbc I had to change the hole wiring harnes in the engin compartment.So I have a right side alt.and a proper engin harness that looks like that it belongs there.nice and clean
 
I need to completly rewire my 1985 K30 Dually, and after seeing Hot Rods harness I am going to buy their's for sure. The 18 circuit harness kit is a full $300 cheaper than painless. That is not just a little savings...THAT IS A LOT! :eek1:
 
After seeing Koldsimers harness, I am impressed with the stuff. Looks like latemodel fusebox.
 
ive installed one

on my 56 chevy sedan delivery used the 12 circut harness its bitchen an the
guys at painless have a tech department ready to help it only took my an afternoon to in stall it its realy easy however its only for lights an basic engine stuff if you have more modern engine stuff youl need a diffrent harnes
for the engine ie-fuelinjection or crank trigger
 
another one you can try is centechwire.com I had a bad experience about 9 yrs ago with a painless kit I installed in an early Bronco. I know that painless has come along way since then, but I installed a Centech harness in MY 81 CJ-5, the kit was a little more expensive, but the quality was way beyond that of Painless. If I rewire my 83 K5, I am going to go the Centech route. Oh yea, but the way, I did the rewire thing to a 75 Chevy Pick-up once the old fashioned way about 20 years ago, it worked just fine, but, I don't care which company you buy the harness from, buy a harness kit. Wire by wire is a pain in the ASS.
 
it only took my an afternoon to in stall it
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I have have seen a few people make this same statement on this site about installing a complete (front to rear bumber) wiring harness , and I find it hard to believe. I installed a complete new 12 circuit wiring harness many years ago in my 1970 SS Chevelle, and it took me 4 days to get it done. The turn signal switch harness alone took me a whole afternoon. It took another day to do the fuse block, blower and wiper motors. Then it took another full day to do the engine compartment. And then another to run the harness back to the tail lights.
 
filmsomething said:
I should be ordering the hot rod wires harness tomorrow
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Glad we could help you find what you needed!
 
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