bakes85

I am soon going to replace my wiring harness, not under the hood but everything in the interior

I plan to use this universal kit from summit http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-890020/

so anybody every installed a wiring harness before?

just looking for some insight into how tuff a job it is

John in RI

iTrader: (167)

How much do you plan to remove from your car ?!?! I (personally) would use factory parts rather than trying to re-build all that wiring using an aftermarket set-up. It looks like the universal could be made to work - but I can only image the amount of time & agrivation that it's gonna' take to get it right !

If you decided that you would rather use factory wiring than let me know what you need to replace. I parted out an 85 Trans Am a couple years ago and still have most of the factory interior harnesses avalible. There is a Dash harness, a body harness, and a tail light harness that run inside your 85. ( There is also an independant wiring harness for the P/Window, P/Lock, & P/ Mirrors if your car has those options. )

What happened to your original harness(s) that you want/need to remove them all from the car ??

bakes85

well, previous owner decided he wanted to add in power windows, power mirrors, a power seat and an alarm system with a remote that controls almost everything on the car, and he chopped up everything, its amazing the car did not catch fire. I am looking to replace everything from the firewall back pretty much. and my thinking is it might be easier, safer and more reliable to go with new wires instead of trying to find old wiring

matthufham

iTrader: (5)

i've swaped a 91 firebird harness into a 89 camaro

went v6-v8 which was the reason for the swap of both motor and harness

the harness was a manual, we had a auto, so we had to buy connectors, add, and eliminate wires there

the firebird has pop up lights and different harness wires and connections there, so we did the headlight relay upgrade.. based solo from the harness and somehow got the other lights to plug in

the bird had power mirrors, defog, lights, and other options we left undone

the camaro had v6 vats which disables fuel pump but the bird had TPI vats which disables the injectors as well, so we got the computer chip modded to disable vats.

the fuel pump and rear harness in the bird had more, and different color wires so somehow we figured it out by testing things.

the gauges were different and the speedo in a bird that year is electric and manual in our camaro, we needed an adapter. took a lot of crosswiring to connect all the gauges

the rest went in pretty similar since they're not that different. we had a heck of a time figuring out all the engine sensors and plugs. plus we don't have smog on it now and we didn't have alot of parts to begin with

a problem i see you having is the connections to everything. either missing connectors or wires being different colors. plus you'll have to strip the car and the dash is held onto the firewall with a million screws and that might take hours to get out, plus you'll end up putting 1/4 of the screws back in the right holes and throwing the rest in a jar if you're like me.

bakes85

well, I already have the interior stripped, theres nothing in there but wires. so idk, like my thinking is even thou it would be alot of work I might be better off taking the universal harness and just taking the plugs that I have and putting them onto the harness. and I dont need to do anything with the engine.

and I got loads of time to work on this, I am 14, fixing the car up for when I am 16

matthufham

iTrader: (5)

i'm 19 and i've been doing this since your age, and i wouldn't dive into it like you want with the entire harness. you need to do small things over time and gain the knowledge/familiarity unless your dad or big bro has alot of experience to help you with.

bakes85

dont worry I have help, my dad was working with cars since he was 15, my dads friend down the street has been working on cars since he was my age, so im not doing this all by myself.

and i have some knowledge about wiring.

radical82

The harness you have referenced is for the entire car... Is your car fuel injected or carbed? The reason I ask is that it's going to take a bit of research to figure out how to wire this harness into the existing underhood harness.... I've wired a lot of cars, even used the same harness you have referenced from Sumitt, but it's always been the entire car and on injected cars I use an aftermarket harness for the engine, too....

Project-RS

iTrader: (1)

im not a fan of power anything only for the reason of electrical issues that "could" happen. i made my car from ecu to non ecu. another reason why i went this way was because like your case bake, the previous owner hacked everything together and just stuffed it under the plastics. i had 3 car alarms all hooked to each other.....haha, and useless switches that went to nothing (i searched the wires) i took out over 15lbs of wires that didnt have a purpose. but if i was doing what your doing bake. i would run a summit or painless wire harness

bakes85

The only thing that needs wired under the hood is the HEI distibutor they put in, because I have a carbed 350. and babygirl, I dont like power options either, but for now I am just gonna keep the power windows for now because they are already installed. but yeah its so ridiculous what these guys did. like the alarm system is tapped into everything.

so yeah I am just gonna go with a summit harness.

thanks for the input guys!

Project-RS

iTrader: (1)

on the alarm. make sure you reconnect the solid orange or yellow wires back together. there pretty thick so its easy to notice

bakes85

im pretty sure I am gona pull out the whole alarm system once I get the new harness, and then after I have the harness installed and tested everything then decide if i really want the alarm system

Project-RS

iTrader: (1)

the thick wire goes to your ignition or ignition related. your car wont start without it

bakes85

well the harness replaces the ignition wires

Project-RS

iTrader: (1)

i took everything out thats ecu related. even the plastic duct work for the vents are all gone. there are like 10 wires under my dash......lol

bakes85

nice, I dont need an ecu at all anymore since they swapped in a carbed 350, but they left in the ecu, and all of its wires and just chopped them and left them hang, its insane.

Project-RS

iTrader: (1)

its so east to remove the ecu harness. i did it just have a tight spot in the passenger fender area to pull some wires out. a little time and locating the wires.

bakes85

yeah, Im gona try and make this simple wiring if i can, but its not gona be easy. haha

Project-RS

iTrader: (1)

as far as taking the old out, it wasnt bad at all. and it was my first time taking a ecu out.

bakes85

yeah.

radical82

The harness comes with good instructions and all the wires are individually labeled and color coded, so it doesn't go too bad, just takes some time is all.

When you get the harness, it will be wrapped in sections, engine, front lights, rear lights, interior.... Keep things grouped that way. IMO, after having done a number of complete re-wires, I'd rather re do the whole car then try to figure out some sort of factory harness that who knows how many different people have hacked away at!!!! Best part is, when it's all done and working you'll know you have a good electircal system...

Another piece of advice I'd offer is to use soldered connectors and shrink sleeve on all your connectors!!!!

bakes85

yeah, im definitely gonna make good connections, the previous owner used about 100 rolls of electrical tape on the car. and its horrible

SolarGoldRaptor

How do you separate the interior harness and engine/headlights harness at the firewall ?

bakes85

well I did not purchase my harness yet, but It says its supposed to come all separated and labeled.

radical82

I was referring to separating the wires in the aftermarket harness, not an OEM harness....