Rewire Options

[67bondobronc]

There is no doubt that one of the most important components that you must check out on your EB is the wiring system. All of our EB’s are over thirty years old and the wiring is frayed, brittle, and usually spliced in several places. You may be able to use the original wiring in your EB and the various vendors offer different parts of the original wiring harness if you only need to replace one section. One thing you will realize fast when dealing with your old harness is that the Ford engineers had a cruel sense of humor because the color codes of the wires vary from year to year. So, what is an easier alternative to all of this? There are several companies that offer complete kits to rewire our EB’s, which I have listed alphabetically (not in preferential order).

Centech offers a complete rewire kit and this is considered one of the two easiest options to rewiring your EB. The kit comes with GM-styled sealed plugs and the connectors are Ford OEM so your lights will plug in with no problems. A new dimmer, wiper, and light switch are included in the kit and the wires are labeled. The wires in this kit are long enough so you can modify them if needed. The newer Centech harnesses include an adapter so your original ignition switch can be used and the fuse box has eleven fuses. You can find this harness for around $430.
http://www.centechwire.com/catalog/broncos/br10.shtml

EZ Wiring offers four different rewire kits but these are not EB specific and they will require more automotive electrical knowledge base than other kits. I have heard that these kits are used by many of the street rod guys with great success but there has not been a lot of feedback on our Board about these. These kits come with labeled wires and they can be modified to include any aftermarket equipment or gauges that you have added to your EB. The best thing about the kits are the prices, which range from $120-$165.
http://www.ezwiring.com/

Painless Wiring offers a complete rewire kit for EB’s. This is the second of the two easiest ways to rewire your EB. This kit includes wires that are labeled, 12 fuse block which is covered and for resistance to weather. The ignition, wiper, headlight, and dimmer switches also come with this kit. The connectors on the Painless kit are Ford OEM so your lights will plug directly into them. Long wires enable you to mount the fuse block where you would like under the dash. This harness is currently being offered for around $579 at different sites on the web.
http://www.painlesswiring.com/webcatalog.php

Ron Francis offers a kit that can be used on EB’s. This is a popular choice for those who have aftermarket accessories on their rides and want a custom wiring kit. This kit does rewire an automotive electrical background. Ron Francis kits offer 18 circuits on 16 fuses and the wires are long enough to be custom-fit to any application. Randy at Adventurous 4x4 offered a Mass Buy recently on a Ron Francis kit that he modified specifically for the EB but this kit is not listed on the Ron Francis website. This wiring kit will run you around $399.
http://www.ronfrancis.com/wiringharness.php

Which wiring kit is the best? Well, that question will bring you more opinions than you ever wanted. I believe it is safe to say that all kits are adequate and the Centech and Painless are probably the easiest for novices. If you have an EB that has a lot of “goodies” then you probably want a kit like Ron Francis or EZ Wiring. Many people on the Board have been able to use all these kits with EFI. How long does a rewire job take? Usually about 20 hours………..of course this depends on your ability and how many “beverages” you consume.

Whatever you do, make sure you check the wires in your EB and if you think you need new wires then you probably do, so replace them! I know there are other companies that offer wiring kits but these are the four that have received a vast amount of attention on classicbroncos. If you have any information that could be included in this FAQ please respond below.

 

[rednecktech]

Wiring problems

Does anyone have a wiring schematic, or do you know if they are included in haynes or chilton manuals?

 

[mudmagnet63]

http://classiccarwiring.com/

This is what I used comes laminated so grease wipes right off and color coded made trouble shooting a breeze. a must have for EB owners

Mud

 

[markperry]

I did the Centech.....very straight forward!

 

[LV73Bronco]

I recently added the American Autowire brand for early Broncos. It was very expensive at $1125.00. It had easy to follow directions but took a mechanic familiar with electrical 40 hours to complete. The biggest advantage was it had many extras left over to run any accessory you will ever need. I now have 4 USB ports, two lighters, 4 separate off-road lights, room to add my power inverter, and AC.

 

[brattwurzt]

WOW, the painless is up to $999 now.

 

[Delbert]

It looks like this post was started almost 10 years ago. The Centech link "cant be found". Does it really take 20 hours to rewire the EB now in 2015?

 

[OklahomaBroncoB]

I just spotted the American Autowire one on special on Wild Horses http://www.wildhorses4x4.com/product/American_Autowire_66-77_Bronco_Harness/americanautowire thinking about grabbing one!

 

[Imhisnibbs]

Please bear with me this is my first post. I have a 72 Bronco and just bought the EZ Wiring harness. After dealing with the overwhelming look of it, I started to separate it out, decide where to install the fuse box and started to run the rear wires and front wires where I want them. I decided to hook up the rear harness first as I figure it is a relatively easy way to get my feet wet.
It makes no sense to wire to the old pigtails so I am going to get the pigtails and new grommets for the rear side & tailgate lights which is pretty straight forward and not too expensive.
However, the next thought that occurred to me is that I should also get the pigtails and new connections for the gauges front lights etc etc.
Does anybody who has gone through this process happen to have a list of all the pigtails connections, other terminal connectors I should consider buying as well as suggested upgrades so I can make a list of what I need and come up with a budget? I would rather get it all now rather than buy as I need to save time and be more organized?

Any help for this rather overwhelming project would be greatly appreciated

Thank you!

 

[Stiehl13]

Ok guys, i need a little help. So i have ha parasidic draw commong from fues 8, which is the interior curtesy lights. So after snooping around i found that the door lights where cut, so i rewired them. Now there on but wont go off. So, i went to the doorjamb switch and found them cut, rewired them. No response with either button, door lights stay on. I moved back to the dome light, these where damaged, rewired them. Still, door ligjts stay on with no response with door jamb button. And no lights at dome or mirror lights.

 

[TMP]

I have an 89 Ford Bronco Eddie Bauer Edition, some mice chewed on some wires. There are wires going to the windshield washer motor not sure where the wires that have been chewed on go, can someone help please?!

 

[friar93]

any updated opinions on the best wiring harness out there...particularly for someone that has never done it before?

 

[Darryl M]

Does anyone make a simple harness for a 6 cylinder with nothing but a radio and a heater? 1969

 

[Pa PITT]

Darryl M.
i'M GOING TO SAY for what you ask .. Yes they do. Sorry but I don't know the price today.
But back when I put this DIESEL motor into my 1972. I sure needed a new wiring harness. Painless was not quit 500.00 at that time.
& I knew I'd be cutting most of it & throwing it away...
.... SO IN MY SEARCHING AROUND I FOUND ONE E-bay .. American E Z -Wire... Seems like it had North Western WRITTEN ON THE WIRES IN THE KIT.
Search both names. I believe I only gave about
$135.00 at that time but .. That was about 12 to 15 years ago. SO i KNOW IT'S 3 TIMES THAT NOW... BUT...
iT COMES IN 4 Sections .
1. Head light
2. Motor
3. Under dash
4. Rear tail lighting & Fuel tank section.
Now it has about 3 different Fuze boxes you can choose from.
1.st Had about 8 circuits.
2.nd Had About 15 circuits
3.rd Had about 23 circuits .
I'm going to tell you buy the one with the most circuits ... So Be it if you don't use half them ... You own them when you do need them.
NOW the fuze box had already attached too each circuit about 20 foot of wire. Mostly 16 ga. & 14ga.. but a couple of the circuits had 10Ga. still in 20 ft. & I believe each wire was labeled as Right REAR Tail ..RRMarket. Another License Plate ... Back UP RR....
Fuel Pump...
.. EACH OF THOSE 4 SECTION had some way to attach together & make one harness.
& Sat the under dash harness / Circuit ... each wire in it was 20 ft long & labeled about every 18 inches.
... NOW it also came with a sack of ... END USE PLUGS or TERMINAL End crimp on & Yes you can Soldier them on. ''Pleas do''.
& I needed a few different Electrical Plug since mine was going Diesel .. Those either I already had on a stock pile box or I could go to town & buy them under PICO Brand or NAPA . Or Std. Ignition.
& .. If you do this, I'm going to tell you it's a great time to up-grade some of your switches like get a new Head light switch & get a new starter switch & I expect you'll need several Toggle switches . Pico makes a good 75AMP Toggle .
.... Also as you build / connect your plug end onto the 20 ft wires . You cut each wire to IT'S CORRECT length & save the Colored extra footage of cutoff sections of wire. Now you have a great color coded stash of wire .
...& Also now is a great time to add the Head Light H/D wiring harness & I believe it comes with relays to help the wiring not get hot.
& After you've got all your wires ... In each section laid out. It's a great time to LOOM THEM UP INTO 3/8 & 1/2 plastic looms .
& If your a real stickler. Wait until the very last & Soldier the Terminal Plugs on so you can not have too much slack gathered up inside your Plastic Looms .