Need help from those that have installed Painless harness

[mgb0302]

So I have the opportunity to buy Painless' 26 circuit customizable generic harness http://www.painlessperformance.com/webcat/10140from a friend. The fuse panel on it is the same as the one on Painless' 66-77 Bronco specific harness and it has all the circuits I need. However, I called Painless and the tech was very pessimistic about the ability of it to work in a Bronco. Specifically, he stated:
1) the glove box hole on my Tuffy Security box was not the same size. TRUE- but even the directions in the Bronco specific harness provide a template for a hole to be cut for those with a steel glove box.
2) He said the length of the wires would not be long enough to reach the driver' side and therefore would not allow me to mount the panel in the glove box (even if I cut the hole in my Tuffy box to fit like the mention in the Bronco specific harness instructions).

I find it hard to believe that the wires in any customizable kit would not be long enough to work in an EB since the width and length of the EB is shorter than almost everything out there. I am wondering if he was just trying to get me to spend $1000 on the Bronco kit.

I guess my question is, has anyone ever used this generic harness? FYI- I am pretty good with electrical and would be able to modify minor connections to meet Bronco specific items (i.e. heater, alt, etc).

Much thanks

 

[Brent13]

No clue. I did the Painless harness, awesome piece in my opinion. I would guess one could get it to work. As far as mounting the fuse block in the glove box, I did not follow those directions as I feel the glove box is a crappy location. Mounted mine on the dash for better access.



I don't think I could pull off what you are considering. I needed a vehicle specific harness to ease the pain. Don't see why you couldn't add to the wire length if needed, but will be far from "painless".

 

[DirtDonk]

It won't have any Ford-specific connectors of course, so don't throw away anything from your old setup until you're completely done.
For that reason you'll have to come up with your own scheme for the alternator. Depending on which alternator you're using, this should be pretty easy though. They do include a charge wire, but it's not meant to feed your ammeter or anything else, so should be plenty for most alternators going straight from the output to the battery.
But bigger is even better, as even Ford spent the big bucks for a 6ga charge wire (vs the 10ga in the kit) or even a 4ga wire in their longer runs.

None of that seems insurmountable though. Since it's a buddy tell him you want to take it out of the box and stretch out some wires to see if they're all going to reach the parts of the truck they need to.
Can't imagine they aren't already more than long enough to do this, unless this kit was designed specifically for small UTES or buggies. Even then our Broncos aren't much bigger!

Good luck.

Paul

 

[DirtDonk]

Oh, and how much experience do you have at this kind of stuff? The more the better when you're dealing with anything that's "universal" in nature.
Always!

Paul

 

[redline8300]

I used the Bronco specific harness but found that I cut a fair amount of the harness to clean it up. I also used a bulkhead connector so I could remove the dash and not remove/cut the entire harness, only the primary power half. I agree with Brent that the glove box location was less than user friendly so I built a center console and mounted the fuse block there.

 

[mgb0302]

Thanks for the input. I took some more looks at the directions for each harness and, after reviewing those, in addition to your comments, I think I can make it work.

DIRTDONK- I am no electrical engineer but I did install the Centech Harness and have come to be pretty proficient with electrical stuff. The reason I want to do this upgrade is because I have added additional circuits and I just want to clean it all up.

Thanks

 

[eric0o1]

looking over the lengths, i think you'll be fine with the 10140 fitting an EB.

 

[DirtDonk]

Well there ya go mgb. Thanks Eric!

Paul