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what would you do on a full re-wire???

RootBreaker

RootBreaker

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Ok so now i have the ez wiring 21 kit in my posession....
I also have removed the rear wiring and under the hood. Next is in the cab.

now I am going to do a rewire mainly due to my fuseblock wires were worn and trashed..spliced and split and shorted....

The biggest thing I was not sure about for the ez kit was where to mount it.... I will have to remove the old fuse block and cover up the hole... mount this one up then drill a hole for the wires..... well neither of them really need to be done...


1. I found a hole big enough next to the fuse block... already punched out....not sure why but it is...

2. I noticed that the ez kit appears to use a GM factory style block... so I decided to take the plunge and cut mine out... yup no going back...
well guess what... the old piece fits on the new ez kit....
checkout the pics......

ez_plus_stock.jpg

ez_plus_stock2.jpg



now this is promising.....
so:
1. I dont have to cover up the factory hole....
2. I can use the factory screw holes and bolt this on
3. I really dont have to use the punchout now...


so all of this and what is the question????
Would you use the factory plugs and tie the new wires in?????



here is the deal... I removed my wires that run from the tail lights all the way to the fuse plug.. .they are in great shape.....now the ez kit does provide wires that are long enough to go to the back... but there is nothing wrong with mine..... so if I used the factory block.... I could theoretically cut and crimp ends on the wires that need to feed the lights......

my under hood and in cab wires are in bad shape.....

my biggest fear is needing to take the truck apart.... I need to derive a system where stuff can be unplugged so I could take the front clip off.... or remove the rear bed (need to take tail lights out)

if I just wire it up the ez way you run wires and crimp everything together....




so what would you do? take that extra time and crimp in the factory harness back in but with new wires?
the painless kit for my truck with the oem harness was $560..... this one ran me $167... and all I would need are connectors.....

cmon ryoken.... which way would you do this??????
 
This is a tough one to advise someone what to do. I would run it though the factory box. However, there are some spades that are wider than normal.
If you do run your wires though the factory box, you are going to need the Packard 56 spades.
When I rewired my blazer, I ran the sending wire for my fuel gage along with the wires to the tail lights. I moved the spades in the firewall connecter.
 
I've done a lot of rewire jobs.
I'm working on doing a full rewire on a 73 right now.
We got the EZ wiring kit, its as good as a painless but they do leave a few wires out, so the painless is a little better IMO.
The EZwiring kit didn't have the factory style plug, so i yanked out the stock plug, the Welded and smoothed a plate to fill the square hole in the firewall. Then Drilled a 1" hole for a grommit and all the new wires to come through.
-'Butt connectors' are not in my vocabulary. Why take the time and effort to rewire the whole truck if your gonna use crimp connectors.. any in line connections should be soldered together, and shrink tubed.
-If you need to make the front and rear wiring removable, get yourself a GM Weather-tite connector or two, depending on how many wires you need to be able to disconnect. You can even order them from summit..
I'd rather go with those connectors than a male/female spade crimp connector.
-whatever connections that do need to be crimped (ring lug, or spade connectors) i will usually cut off the plastic insulation, then crimp and solder the wire to the connector or pin... then shrink tube over it..
-Some of the connectors like (wiper switch, headlight switch, heater, etc.) need to be kept, i insepct them real good and continuity test em, then terminate your harness wires by soldering them to the pigtail you left on that connector.
-Don't overlook or skimp on the grounds also. They are just as important as all those power wires you're running in the kit. I run all new grounds like from the headlights to the frame, and all the interior stuff i like to run to one central ground bolt that goes through the firewall- to a grounding strap on the other side that bolts to the engine. Then redundant ground straps from the engine to the frame, frame to the body, and bed, etc. they should already be there but make sure they are in good condition.
-While you're doing all the wiring, might as well install an alarm, and a few anti theft relays/switches... since you're dealing with all those wires anyway..:wink1:
-After you're all done and you tested it all, don't forget to loom all your wires and make sure there are grommits everywhere your wires pass through metal.
Then you can be confident there will not be problems down the road.
 
Your wiring kit should prove to be lots of fun for diagnosing problems in the future since it uses all black wires. I'm sure the wires are labeled, but i would never install a wiring harness unless the wires were factory color coded.

Also, i would do just like Ryan said, solder and heat shrink every connection and use the GM weather pack connectors if you need to make a portion removeable.
 
JDNobodi said:
This is a tough one to advise someone what to do. I would run it though the factory box. However, there are some spades that are wider than normal.
If you do run your wires though the factory box, you are going to need the Packard 56 spades.
When I rewired my blazer, I ran the sending wire for my fuel gage along with the wires to the tail lights. I moved the spades in the firewall connecter.
Click to expand...



Crap I had to go and look after you said this.... I didnt realize that they were spades.... so you say they are removeable... how hard? THey didnt look like they want to move much but I didnt try... I just looked....



Ryan B. said:
I've done a lot of rewire jobs.
I'm working on doing a full rewire on a 73 right now.
We got the EZ wiring kit, its as good as a painless but they do leave a few wires out, so the painless is a little better IMO.
The EZwiring kit didn't have the factory style plug, so i yanked out the stock plug, the Welded and smoothed a plate to fill the square hole in the firewall. Then Drilled a 1" hole for a grommit and all the new wires to come through.
-'Butt connectors' are not in my vocabulary. Why take the time and effort to rewire the whole truck if your gonna use crimp connectors.. any in line connections should be soldered together, and shrink tubed.
-If you need to make the front and rear wiring removable, get yourself a GM Weather-tite connector or two, depending on how many wires you need to be able to disconnect. You can even order them from summit..
I'd rather go with those connectors than a male/female spade crimp connector.
-whatever connections that do need to be crimped (ring lug, or spade connectors) i will usually cut off the plastic insulation, then crimp and solder the wire to the connector or pin... then shrink tube over it..
-Some of the connectors like (wiper switch, headlight switch, heater, etc.) need to be kept, i insepct them real good and continuity test em, then terminate your harness wires by soldering them to the pigtail you left on that connector.
-Don't overlook or skimp on the grounds also. They are just as important as all those power wires you're running in the kit. I run all new grounds like from the headlights to the frame, and all the interior stuff i like to run to one central ground bolt that goes through the firewall- to a grounding strap on the other side that bolts to the engine. Then redundant ground straps from the engine to the frame, frame to the body, and bed, etc. they should already be there but make sure they are in good condition.
-While you're doing all the wiring, might as well install an alarm, and a few anti theft relays/switches... since you're dealing with all those wires anyway..:wink1:
-After you're all done and you tested it all, don't forget to loom all your wires and make sure there are grommits everywhere your wires pass through metal.
Then you can be confident there will not be problems down the road.
Click to expand...



oh contrair!!!! I am planning on doing this right...

lemme re-explain my thinking.....

now I know that there are spades...

I was thinking I could remove the wires from the factory plug that goes through the firewall.... lets say for the electric fuel pump that I have added.....

ok so I take that wire that is about 20' from the kit and cut it say long enough and "Crimp" a connector, then solder and plug into the factory harness..... now on the other side under the hood, crimp and solder a spade onto a wire and push that into the harness under the hood..... that wire will run to the fuel pump....

0 butt connectors are planned in this rewire that I am planning... everything soldered and shrink tubed where needed..... and all ran in wire loom tucked up and nice....

I have 100' of 1/2" wire loom, wire loom T, wire loom cutouts, wireloom ends and the wireloom pieces that snap onto the body to hold it up.... so I am good there..

I just removed the wires from under my hood and there are about 6 butt connectors, few wire nuts, few wires that are so shorted out they are bare wires now....

so yeah I plan on cleaning this mess up as the rewire is considered

"The Key to Reliability" to me..... :wink1:

now I gotta look into how to get those spades out.... so I can put new wires in....

now so the spade is the one side... but what sizes are the other end? female or in cab plug size?

I will be able to use my tail light wire harness but will need to put a connector in the harness to hook up to......
 
4X4HIGH said:
Your wiring kit should prove to be lots of fun for diagnosing problems in the future since it uses all black wires. I'm sure the wires are labeled, but i would never install a wiring harness unless the wires were factory color coded.

Also, i would do just like Ryan said, solder and heat shrink every connection and use the GM weather pack connectors if you need to make a portion removeable.
Click to expand...



hey but the black kit will look nice when it is all done... :haha:

also side note... I took apart the front headlights and the grounds just fell apart... it was like all they did was take a long wire and T in a wire on each side then to the rad support...
now the kicker is the T was no more than a wire with the other wire laid onto it and crimped with a metal C !!!!!!
 
There are a couple different tools you can buy (cheap price) that is designed for removing the spade connectors and other styles of connectors from the plastic housings. Try doing a search on Lisle tools and you should find them. They are worth tons more than their weight in gold.

This is what i'm talking about. http://www.lislecorp.com/tool_detail.cfm?detail=105
Here is the other tool. http://www.lislecorp.com/tool_detail.cfm?detail=1111

With both of these you should be able to remove wires from every location in a GM vehicle and not ruin the connector or the wiring.
 
The tool that 4x4HIGH posted is the same tool I have.
One problem running the wires though the factory box, is the box isn't really weather resistant. When it first came out, it probably was the best the factory could up at the time. It is no where near the current weather pak connecters.
I should have mention that last time.
 
All the wiring connectors I've run into in these trucks (other than the metri-pak or whatever, and weather-pack) is de-pinnable either with a flat blade jewelers screwedriver or a paperclip.

IIRC the fuse panel spades come out by pressing one edge or the other "in", while most everything else, like the headlight wires, are removable by inserting a paperclip or tiny flat blade into the groove from the front of the connector. Helps to push the wires into the connector, insert tool, then pull the connector out. If it takes effort, it's not "unlocked".

Oh, BTW, yay for RyanB, it's nice to hear people spending time doing wiring correctly. nothing but headaches later on for taking shortcuts. Not saying Rootbreaker will, just that it's nice to hear I'm not the only one that spends a fair amount of time on wiring. :)
 
yeah well my buds at work were kinda getting me to rethink it... just use the 1 1/2" hole and grommet.. run all wires out to the devices... and be done with it.. then in the future if I need to remove the front clip or something... then cut the wires and use a connector....

they had me almost there... but im still thinking I should stay on track and use the oem plugs.... they will be stripped of the wires and spades.... replaced with all new parts....

im still on the fence.... last night I took more wires out... hopefully tonight I will start to remove the cab wires.....
 
Factory setup is kind of nice because you've got the three pieces that you disconnect if you need to pull something like the engine harness, or headlights, etc.

Adding a bunch of separate connectors would be an expensive hassle, although weatherpacks can handle up to 6 (that I've seen) wires on one connector, and metri-packs a bunch more than that. But the weatherpacks can handle a lot larger wires, so you've got some things to think about there. Re-thinking the wiring setup is a pain. :) IMO the factory setup in regards to the firewall connector is pretty logical, and if you keep it, since your wires are all the same color, at least you know which goes where coming out of the fuse panel, based on which of the three connectors it's in.
 
yeah I have a mess of the 2 weather packs for use when I rewire my kc's....

I am gonna go the factory plug route..

most likely I am going to scan and or draw the connectors and fuseblock... to which I then will be able to label with letters where the connectors are.... then a legend to say what that wire is.....
will be a pita too but nice for future reference.. if I do all that AS I WIRE... I think it will work good.. yes this way is gonna take me longer.. but well worth it in the future....:wink1:
 
I was just thinking, and probably someone already makes it, but some shrink wrap tags that you can write on would be awesome...kind of like what you do with masking tape, but resistant to heat, water, etc., and still removeable maybe with a knife or something.

I've written schematics/pinouts down, but invariably lose the piece of paper it's writte on. Or it gets wet. :(
 
Well what do you need to remove down the road? There are already a lot of connectors in the factory wiring. This was to facilitate assembly of the vehicle more than anything else. Some of the factory connectors may already allow you to do what you want. Have you already identified the location of all of these?


Weather-Pack connectors are good, but very large on a per-wire basis. Plus, they only go up to maybe a 6-way. If you have a lot of wires in one location, you might want to go with a different type of sealed connector. It's best to have the disconnect in any single location to be in a single connector, IMO.
 
well I bought all sizes of delphi packard 56 blades and female connectors... I am going to rewire everything through the factory harness... im even going to change some things around... the harness for the rear of the truck has some unused spots.. im going to put in the electric fuel pump through that....and there are many others....
 
Now you do need to be cautious of one thing. Some of the wiring in those panels goes through the circuit breakers on the panel. I know the accessory terminals do, but not sure if any wiring OUT of the panel is wired like that either.

Definitely want to figure out what is what so you don't overload anything.

Probably not much of an issue, but something to be aware of.
 
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