Wire an entire Charger?

[koosh]

Hi guys…. found 68 charger needing to be put back together…. Over the years Ive worked on many old cars, about 80% mechanical 20% electrical. How difficult is it to install a brand new whole car harness? Are there “how to “ instructions/videos you’d recommend?
Currently researching best brand of harness, Painless, M-H, etc. BIG differences in price!

 

[danf_fl]

Also interested.

 

[68Moparmaniac]

If the cars blown apart complete wiring job isn't hard, get new replacement/OEM style harnesses from M&H, plug and play it's not difficult at all. I replaced all the wiring in my Charger, I felt it was cheap insurance against 50+ year old wiring.

 

[Jonas Nordstrom]

M&H here too, a bit expensive but sooo worth it with all the connectors and colors that corresponds with the original wiring schematic.
I re-wired the whole car and it was not hard to do.

 

[Austin Charger]

Hi guys…. found 68 charger needing to be put back together…. Over the years Ive worked on many old cars, about 80% mechanical 20% electrical. How difficult is it to install a brand new whole car harness? Are there “how to “ instructions/videos you’d recommend?
Currently researching best brand of harness, Painless, M-H, etc. BIG differences in price!

My '71 needed entire rewire. I used M-H from Year One. High quality product and made job easier. Take plenty of detailed pics and make notes that will help getting it back in working order. Make labels with tape and sharpie.

 

[Austin Charger]

Forgot to include factory service manual with wiring diagram showing wire and tracer colors is a good reference. Especially for dash and engine compartment.

 

[451Mopar]

The factory reproduction harnesses from M&H (Year One) is usually the best option. It seems expensive up front, but includes all the correct connectors and dash / rear light sockets.
The higher end custom non-stock wiring kits are good if you want custom wiring and adding many extra features, but they are also pricy and you will have supply or re-use some of the light sockets for the tail and dash. They usually come with some connectors, but many are generic packard connectors. Best example is the turn signal harness connector.
Also, even though the wires are labeled, the colors of the wires are usually based on the GM wiring colors.
You also need to have good wire strippers, cutters, and crimpers for tools (maybe a heat gun for shrink tubing?) Also, you likely will need to get extra wire loom / wire tape / shrink tubing. I don't think any of the universal kits have bulb socket pins to correctly terminate the bulb ends, so I think you need to splice the old bulb socket wiring to the universal harness. So might add a soldering iron, and solder to the tools list.
Please correct me if I am wrong on the bulb socket pins? I don't recall seeing any in the universal kit I was using, but also didn't need them as the car had the Digi-Lights tail lights and a custom dash with aftermarket gauges and switches.

 

[WileERobby]

I've only used the M&H/Year One stuff, and that's the only one I'd use again. Is the car empty, or the wiring still in place ? It's really not difficult either way.

 

[gkent]

The problem doing a '68 is the FSM is an absolute bitch to follow. Its fine to trace a single wire but to do them all would be a nightmare. And there are so many splices its ridiculous.

My advice would be to buy a complete dash harness and install that "as is". Frome that point the rear end is child's play and the front end wiring isn't that difficult. If you're planning anything like upgrading the headlights, installing EFI, electic fans, etc then you may as well build your own front end harness right from the start.

If you're going the full resto route then you have no choice but to use a reproduction harnes or a good original. Otherwise, to do a custom front and rear only you could use one of the lower priced kits with a small fuse panel (most kits are rated by the size of the fuse box).

Getting back to the dash, there's no problem using a decent "original" harness if you're going to use relays to run most of the electrical components (highly advised) then there will be no high current running through that harness to melt stuff. Check it over and as long as the insulation is still in good shape it'll be fine.

FWIW one need only look at a headlight switch to realize what a bitch of a job rewiring a whole dash would be.

 

[440 4 speed]

I've only used the M&H/Year One stuff, and that's the only one I'd use again. Is the car empty, or the wiring still in place ? It's really not difficult either way.

Canadians can purchase M&H wiring from National Moparts, in Can$.

 

[WileERobby]

He's asking about installing brand new harnesses.

 

[CHARGERSTEVEN]

There is also a place here in Canada that will rebuild your original dash harness and any other you want rebuilt.They use all correct connections n correct wiring colour to oem specs for the 68 charger. One thing with rebuilding old harness is you wil have the correct options done without ordering everything separate . The place is called Premium Dash Decals

 

[hunt2elk]

I have totally rewired several cars with M&H harness'. It's really not that big of a deal. Nice to have a factory service manual or a Classic Wiring color coded schematic in case you run into any issues however.

 

[Sixpactogo]

If the cars blown apart complete wiring job isn't hard, get new replacement/OEM style harnesses from M&H, plug and play it's not difficult at all. I replaced all the wiring in my Charger, I felt it was cheap insurance against 50+ year old wiring.

I too used new M&H Harnesses. I didn't verify each wire as some suggest but I had my dash on the bench at the time. I did bench test the function of everything before re-installing the dash but found no issues. The underdash is the most critical. The underhood and trunk wiring pretty much plug and play.

 

[SGTPaul]

Evans wiring. For everything but the dash stuff.

 

[AR67GTX]

I’m not sure about 68s but my 66 and 67 have a whole bunch of accessory and option wire harnesses that typically do not come with a reproduction main harness, or may not even be available. Have a radio? There’s a harness for that. Have a console? Theres a harness for that. Have a heater or AC? There’s are harnesses for those. My point being don’t throw anything away as you will probably have to repair as necessary, and re-use any accessory or option harnesses in your car with the new main harness. Most of them clip into the back side of the fuse box so take good pictures of where each accessory harness is terminated on the fuse box. But in a disassembled car the install is easy although if the old harness terminations were not tagged when it was removed you will probably have to trace out a few circuits and mystery wires. And yes, on my 66 there were even a few wire color discrepancies between the FSM and the original harness. And there were a few more between the reproduction harness and the original just to keep things interesting. I used M&H and think overall they are very good.

Also a good idea to check all wire color positions in each reproduction harness plug against the original as every once in a great awhile a couple of wire terminations get switched in position which will drive you crazy. I’ve run into 2 on two cars I’ve rewired. And I found a ground lug once that both crimp points were on wire insulation instead on one on the wire and the other on the insulation. It didn’t ground very well until I fixed it.

Just some lessons learned.

 

[radical rob]

Did mine the hard way. Used a haywire kit and spent a lot of time with the fsm

 

[davek]

M&H plug and play

 

[ywca]

I’m in the process of installing the American auto wire kit in the 68X. Some of the wires you have to cut to length. and install the proper Packard connectors. The back lights came with the bulb sockets, and each one has its own ground. The bulb sockets for the side markers were not right, they were too small ,and the original socket only had one wire and used the body for ground. so I had to MacGyver the original socket with a ground. For all the side markers. all my inner fenders are painted And coated , you would have to clean a spot to bare metal for the nut to make good ground on the single wire socket , I didn’t like that idea. I have all the wires rolled up to the kick panel , I worked from the back to the front to start with because it looked pretty easy. That’s as far as I have gotten with this , my next will be to get the front done to the firewall .I can say this, the instructions are very good, and they have really good coloured pictures. I haven’t seen any other wiring kits, so it was kinda hard to judge. I was trying to find on some of the older threads which wiring harness was the best, everybody’s got a different opinion. thanks, Perry.

 

[Jc cooper]

In response to your question, as others have said, M and H under the dash and Evans under the hood! Pretty easy To do , because most all harness plugs only fit one place ! Good luck, don’t get frustrated, take your time, it’s very doable!