The Dodge Challenger Message Board

I am looking for advice on what wiring harness to use for my 70 Challenger. There is bugger all left of the original harness and I am planning to completly re-wire the car.
I see some of you have used the "Painless" harness. Does it come with the connectors required?
Are there any other good options that members have used?

I am 6 months or so off starting the wiring but thought I would try and get parts sorted now.

Thanks

Danny

The painless system is better than the original and uses the same colour codes. The wire used is a higher quality with lower resistance and better heat resistance. Yet much thinner and lighter than the original.

But the installation looks nothing like the original. No bulkhead connector for a start. Which, for those of us that have had many problems in that area, is a bonus.

Although many connectors are included in the kit, there are many Mopar specific connectors not included. So you need to keep all your original connectors so you can re-use them where needed.
An example would be the steering column plugs. You need to carefully remove the pins, clean them up, and re-use them by soldering the new wires on.
But other things like the rear light fittings you get new pins in the kit for inside the fitting.

There are also a few wires not included. The neutral safety switch wire, the screen washer pump motor wire, the wiring for the variable speed windshield wipers. So you need a few reels of various coloured wire to fill in the gaps.

After fitting the Painless kit, and also fitting relays to the headlights, I had a full battery voltage (14 volts) everywhere in the car for the first time ever.

If you want to keep the car looking original you have no choice but to fit a reproduction harness.

Thaks for that Dave. It is hard to see what comes in the kit from the photos but I did notice lake of bulk head connector plug. I wasn't sure if I had to re-use the old one or if it was eliminated. I am aiming for a nice driver/cruiser and the odd 1/4 mile event at my local strip which is only local lads with small budgets. I am not too worried if things like the wiring do not look original as long as it works well and doesn't cost the earth. Sounds to me like the painless kit should do the job just nice. Thanks for the advice

Anyone use Ron Francis wiring? http://www.ronfrancis.com/searchprods.asp

A mate of mine used one in his '57 Chevy and was well pleased, but was super impressed when I showed him the Painless kit. I used the same kit as Dave and found it a delight to do, everything goes to what you'd expect, colours match, most all fittings are present, only a few odd bits from old loom needed

Thanks for the recommendations gents. I ordered a painless harness from Summit today.

Good choice mate, my install still fresh in my head, don't hesitate to ask .............having said that the wires even have the source, location and direction written on them, sweet, even my dog could fit it
Dave, can you tell us why you do the headlight relay mod with the new loom?

Headlights have a big current draw. Putting such a load on the harness as a whole would serve to pull the voltage down in the harness.
The other big consideration is how much current you are putting through the headlight switch. If the switch has to work with high current it will eventually offer enough resistance to lower the voltage to the lamps and even fail eventually.

Using relays means you can power the lights directly from the battery/alternator and the harness and headlight switch only have to carry the tiny current for the headlight relay.

So the overall net result is headlights at max brightness, electrical wiring in the harness at full voltage and less load, and a headlight switch which will last a lifetime if not much longer.

Ta for explaining it, total sense when explained like that mate. It was the bit about the lamps being directly fed from battery thjat made it clear
Do we have a link or diagram of the mods required?

Yes.

Excellent Daveman, thats well easy to follow, ta mate

Good choice mate, my install still fresh in my head, don't hesitate to ask

Thanks Mate