Restomod Wiring: Painless Vs American autowire

c24sc · May 26, 2010

Hey guys.
Ok. Read both company writeups.
Painless-12 fuse two relays, and have to cut a hole in firewall (negative).Tech support (positive)
Aautowire- 4 relays, ? fuse circuits? (unclear how many it has), but have the fuse block in center of firewall (negative). Tech support (not so good).

My electrical ability is very high. My plans are to have a/c, power windows, electric fan and possibly fog lights in my 66 restomod. I could easily set up new relays etc, but nice to have a bunch to begin with.

Looking for input/opinions.

Thanks guys!
Nate

golf4283 · May 27, 2010

I did the Painless kit in my '66. I have no electrical background whatsoever and it was as the name implies to install... Painless. That's my recommendation at least.

rbohm · May 27, 2010

either one will do just fine. but who says you have to cut a hole in the firewall? there are already openings where the wiring is designed to go through, you just need a rubber grommet to protect the wiring. and with both harnesses you can put the fuse block anywhere you want.

robbz28 · May 27, 2010

I bought the painless kit for the 67 mustang, and I didnt have to cut any holes in my firewall, but yours is a 66 and there may be some differences, but anyway, my kit went in without a problem. I have no experience with the other brands, only this is my second Painless kit and I have been satisfied both times.

AAW · May 28, 2010

No site spamming please

68stang351 · May 28, 2010

AAW said:
........

If I am not mistaken, you and Painless have similar pricing for a 67-68 Mustang harness. What's the advantage of your product? Just curious.

Edit: Looks like they went up. But I would still like to hear your answer as I'm in the market.

c24sc · May 28, 2010

AAW said:
........

I hope and don't plan on having any difficulties installing the harness or adding to it, but others have said its been tough to get help/writen directions. But i'm more curious to as to why the fuse panel is in the middle of the firewall. Or better yet, is there enought wire to mount it in the original spot and run things to where their suppose to be. I'm assuming all the connectors come pre crimped on the ends?

Nate

restomoded66 · May 29, 2010

Hi! One more option you could consider since you are doing a restomod is to run the wire outside the engine bay to clean it up. I plug the fire wall hole and put all the electronics under the battery tray. The only wire you see are the one going to the alternator, coil and engine sending unit.

2+2GT · May 29, 2010

Frankly I'd use the OEM type wiring from Alloy Metal. Pops right in the car with no drama, and if you want to add power windows, the threaded spike on the back of the ignition switch is where Ford added accessories. It's a high-amp, ignition-switched source, strong enough to operate the factory air conditioning. Don't see how you could do better than that. The harness comes with the factory fog wire, and if you want an electric rad fan (I dislike them, a thermal clutch fan* works as well with far less complexity), run that from the solenoid.

*You can change from a standard fan to a thermal clutch fan in about 10 minutes. That's a lot easier than the fan bracket/cage, wiring, relay, and water temp sender will take to install.

bocksta · May 29, 2010

I used a ron francis harness when doing my wiring a few years ago. Its a nice kit with great instructions and tech support.
Theres also some new tech out there called isis wiring heres a link ...ISIS Intelligent Multiplex System - Automotive Wiring Harnesses, Car Wire Harness, Engine Wiring Harness, Auto Wiring Harness, Truck Wiring Harness, Car Wiring Kits
its supposed to be the next step in the evolution of auto wiring.

viperx6x9x · May 31, 2010

Do they make these kits for fairlanes? I have been trying to convert from carb to efi for a while now and don't know where to begin with the wiring. I have all the parts (upper/lower intake, fuel rails, speed density computer etc.) but have yet to find wiring diagrams for both setups so I can figure out what to connect where. The Fairlane is a 69 (302) with a guestimated 10 wires in the whole engine, and the wiring harness i pulled from the donor car has like hundreds of wires it seems like. Donor car (88 town car) had power everything they had back in 88. I don't know what to cut out and what to splice where.

Any ideas on where to start with this thing? And for those who have done this conversion should i keep the speed density computer or just toss it and find a mass air setup? which is easier to work with on this type of conversion?

bocksta · May 31, 2010

Do they make these kits for fairlanes?
Wiring kits that the OP is talking about are for the car front to back(headlights ,taillights dash, etc) .
I have been trying to convert from carb to efi for a while now and don't know where to begin with the wiring. I have all the parts (upper/lower intake, fuel rails, speed density computer etc.) but have yet to find wiring diagrams for both setups so I can figure out what to connect where. The Fairlane is a 69 (302) with a guestimated 10 wires in the whole engine, and the wiring harness i pulled from the donor car has like hundreds of wires it seems like. Donor car (88 town car) had power everything they had back in 88. I don't know what to cut out and what to splice where.
You could use your donor harness for your swap . As long as you stay away from modifications to the engine.

Any ideas on where to start with this thing? And for those who have done this conversion should i keep the speed density computer or just toss it and find a mass air setup? which is easier to work with on this type of conversion?

I think most people doing the EFI swap would go mass air. Here's a link for ya
Mustang Mass Air Conversion | StangNet

viperx6x9x · Jun 7, 2010

Thanks, that was actually extremely helpfull. I emailed painless about the wiring issues to see if they had a product tailored to fairlanes and have yet to get a reply so this should be fun.

Hack · Jun 8, 2010

viperx6x9x said:
Thanks, that was actually extremely helpfull. I emailed painless about the wiring issues to see if they had a product tailored to fairlanes and have yet to get a reply so this should be fun.

It doesn't exactly answer your question, but I bought the Ford wiring harness from Summit and used it to convert a car to EFI in the past. This harness just uses a stock Fox Mustang computer. I hate wiring but the instructions and customer service were great. The price has even come down quite a bit since I bought it. I know that Painless sells a version of this harness. It isn't a complete wiring harness, but it takes care of all the EFI requirements.

viperx6x9x · Jun 8, 2010

that is worth a look. I primarily just need the wiring for ignition and computer and all the fuel rails and such components that make it run. I can wire the turn signals and headlights and all that auxiliary stuff separately. By the way do these things require O2 sensors and all that emissions jazz, or can you make it run right without them?

Bullitt · Jun 8, 2010

I'm in the middle of this actually.

I bought a Painless harness ("specific" for 67/68) and returned it because I was relatively unhappy with what I got. Needed modifications for power windows / locks / etc and just wasn't "painless".

Bought the American Autowire kit and I'm quite a bit happier with it. It's still not plug + play, but I think it's a little closer than the Painless kit. It has the headlights on relays already, something I would have had to add to the Painless kit, and it's also got relay power for power windows.

You still have to make a lot of connections and I will have to change connectors for the gauge cluster / turn signals.

One negative (or positive depending on your case) is the relocation of the fuseblock. It mounts to the firewall... right where my EFI gas pedal goes. I haven't quite figured my way around this one yet.

Another negative is that it does not come with heater / AC wiring, simply a power output for it. I need to look more into this as I have a factory AC car.

Anyways, will post some more impressions when I get further along in the install.

2+2GT · Jun 8, 2010

viperx6x9x said:
Do they make these kits for fairlanes? I have been trying to convert from carb to efi for a while now and don't know where to begin with the wiring. I have all the parts (upper/lower intake, fuel rails, speed density computer etc.) but have yet to find wiring diagrams for both setups so I can figure out what to connect where. The Fairlane is a 69 (302) with a guestimated 10 wires in the whole engine, and the wiring harness i pulled from the donor car has like hundreds of wires it seems like. Donor car (88 town car) had power everything they had back in 88. I don't know what to cut out and what to splice where.

Any ideas on where to start with this thing? And for those who have done this conversion should i keep the speed density computer or just toss it and find a mass air setup? which is easier to work with on this type of conversion?

Any Scott Drake dealer (Glazier Nolan lists it) can provide a stand-alone EFI wiring harness which should work as well on a Fairlane as a Mustang.

Bullitt · Jun 9, 2010

Or you could go to Fordfuelinjection.com for a guide on modifying an existing harness. I did that and it was relatively easy.

Restomod Wiring: Painless Vs American autowire

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