American Autowire Harness

[DirtDonk]

The AAW kit is not set up for a stock alternator or external regulator. You will need to supply your own internally regulated unit, charge wire, or make your own stock harness from readily available stuff if you want to stick with stock stuff.

The stock ammeter is non-functional in any way with the AAW harness. There is not even an included circuit to make it work.
This is why they recommend (or apparently include, which I did not know or had forgotten) a volt meter instead.

Both of the others are compatible with upgraded and internally regulated alternators, but still include wiring to keep the ammeter functional with alternators up to about 70 amps or so.
(by the way. The Bronco's semi-unique fully inductive ammeter gauge is completely safe from overload and burning out or shorting out from too much current flowing through it. It's the wires themselves (just 10ga) that could fail if overloaded from being used with a too-powerful alternator. The more common type of ammeter is not recommended for use with anything larger than it's stated capacity as it can short out and cause a fire. Which is much of why ammeters fell out of favor with many to begin with.)

You never need a separate harness for a Pertronix Ignitor. It's a stand-alone unit with it's own two wires that you connect to the existing ignition power wires, which all three harnesses do provide.

The AAW is still a nice harness, made to excellent quality standards. They just feel you should upgrade to a more powerful alternator (like most of us do already anyway) and sort of force your hand by not including anything for the old charging system.
Their Mui-Bitchin' Heavy Duty harness (http://www.wildhorses4x4.com/product/American-Autowire-Severe-Duty-Universal-Harness-Kit) has a similar expectation, but is universal and not Bronco specific in any way. And it would require the most input from the installer.
But it's the coolest of the bunch too!

I don't consider ANY of them to be truly Plug-n-Play like you might hope. There is a lot of work to finish off any installation of any of them. The Painless is the most "Ford-like", the Centech is the most "finished" and the AAW is very well appointed and customizable for a middle-of-the-road price.

Sorry I don't have info on the gauge yet either. As I mentioned I either forgot it was included or never knew. I'll see if I can get some info and add it to our site.

Paul

 

[brattwurzt]

Not sure if this is a AAW offering or a WildHorses offering, but here is the kit that includes the voltmeter, new alternator and glove box: http://www.wildhorses4x4.com/product/WH-Deluxe-66-77-Bronco-Rewire-Kit-American-Auto-wire-Harness

 

[brattwurzt]

Their Mui-Bitchin' Heavy Duty harness (http://www.wildhorses4x4.com/product/American-Autowire-Severe-Duty-Universal-Harness-Kit) has a similar expectation, but is universal and not Bronco specific in any way. And it would require the most input from the installer.
But it's the coolest of the bunch too!

Paul

Hey Paul, I'm interested in hearing more about it, and why you like it, and if you installed on on a Bronco etc.

Stephen

 

[JGbronc]

They must have changed. Dad's did not include a volt meter, and I'm pretty sure I could have wired it for the amp meter if wanted.

 

[DirtDonk]

That's our kit bratt. We add the alternator, voltmeter and glove box.

Paul

 

[DirtDonk]

They must have changed. Dad's did not include a volt meter, and I'm pretty sure I could have wired it for the amp meter if wanted.

Just something we put together in "kit" form to make an easier order. Lots of customers that are buying a new harness are just getting ready to upgrade their alternator too. And since the AAW kit does not support a stock setup, we offer our 1-wire version of the 3G. Our voltmeter swap is a natural at that point too.
The glovebox included is not really needed by 100% of purchasers, but enough are still running the old beat up cardboard originals that a new one is not a bad idea to do at the same time you're retrofitting the new fuse panel.

Not sure how you would wire the ammeter in, unless you do it yourself from scratch. Since there is no charge wire included in the AAW kit, there is no "charge loop" for the ammeter to work from.
Both Centech and Painless include their stock ammeter loop wiring from the alternator, through the cab, to the gauge and fuse panel, then back out to charge the battery. The wire in the AAW kit is strictly from the battery to feed the fuse panel.

May be something I'm missing, and I have not installed an AAW kit personally yet, but that's how I see it.

Paul

 

[DirtDonk]

Hey Paul, I'm interested in hearing more about it, and why you like it, and if you installed on on a Bronco etc.

I have not installed one yet myself unfortunately. Very interested in how it will ultimately lay out once installed.
The reason it's cool is because it's even easier to customize the wire routing of the whole chassis to where you want.

The fuse "box" in this case is actually completely waterproof and can go under the hood or anywhere else. The very nice panels/boxes of the AAW and Painless kits are "weather resistant" but not completely waterproof. Honestly, this is not really a big deal for 99% of us anymore, as most of the Bronco owners out there are garaging their rigs now and not likely to leave them out in the open rain or sink them into a mud pit anytime soon.
But it's still a cool thing. Kind of like Pelican case overkill-cool, if you will.

It's main claim to fame is that it's completely modular as you can see in the pics. You put the box anywhere (literally) that you want to. For us hot-roddy wannabe types that think a hidden wiring scheme would be neat even on an old Bronco, this is also kind of cool. It can be surface mounted, or flush mounted with the wires hidden behind the panel.
The wire branch bundles plug into waterproof connectors and each has way more than enough wire to route cleanly out of the way without running short.
That's kind of a big deal for me, because I've run short of at least one circuit wire each time I've installed a Centech because I didn't like their routing and wanted to run the wires the way I wanted. Most will likely just use what's available in the way they can, but one thing I hate about the look of a re-wired Bronco is too much wiring strung across the firewall and haphazardly around the engine compartment. I don't necessarily think everything should be hidden, but I do think it should look more professional.

Like the Painless, it's got beaucoup extra circuits and wires.
Like all the others, it uses generic wire colors, but are also clearly printed with the functions where applicable.
I still like the factory color scheme of the Painless, but this AAW kit would really lend itself well to someone totally customizing their rig's wiring.

Last though, this would not be for the faint of heart, wiring-wise. You must terminate 90% of the loads yourself. Nothing is laid out for you. You have to come up with your own routing. That's the beauty of it for someone that's already comfortable with wiring stuff up.
But it would definitely not be considered plug-n-play by any stretch.

Paul

 

[a74ranger]

I agree with most all of the comments above. I had never previously installed a wiring harness, so I don't have experience with Painless or Centech, but I found the harness relatively easy to install. Here are a few specific comments:

- As others have said, you have to make all of the terminations yourself and this is time consuming. The advantage is that you cut each wire to the exact length you want and you get a very clean look. As they suggest in the kit, practice terminations before you start on the bench and you will quickly get the hang of it. I would also suggest renting their crimping tool unless you already have one designed for those type terminations. I soldered and used heat shrink on most of my terminations where applicable.

- All of the wires are clearly marked and easy to work with. I neatly stored the unused wires rather than cutting them off.

- The harness has lots of extra circuits which worked well my accessories like an electric fuel pump, lights, etc.

- I like the fact that the harness included all new switches, high/low beam switch, etc. It even includes under the dash lights which are awesome.

- I upgraded to the 3G alternator which is well worth the money. I did purchase the extra wiring/fuse kit for that.

- I used a separate volt gage in my dash but it would be easy to replace the stock ammeter gauge with the WH voltmeter during the install.

- The customer service at AAW was awesome. I had to contact them about several items (given I am a novice at wiring) and they were always quick to respond and very helpful.

At the time I purchased my kit, it seems as though the price was between the Centech and Painless. The Centech did not include a lot of the extras and I didn't see the value in paying a lot more for the Painless in my situation.