After taking the plunge and cutting out all the wires last year, I had been sketching and researching how I want to do the electrical system. As a matter of fact, I even took my notes with me when I deployed for IRAQI FREEDOM, and sorted through them in my down time. At least it took my mind off of everything else...
I decided to buy one of the pre-terminated hot rod kits, and used the Painless wiring website extensively. I decided that I needed more than the basic 12-circuit kit, and was leaning towards the 18-circuit. But then I found a harness from E-Z-wiring on eBay that was a 23-circtuit with all the extra goodies, and it was $100 cheaper than Painless. I was sold!
One of the best parts of the EZ wiring kit is the chart that comes with the guide - it leads you through the process before you start, asking you which wires to keep and which to divert.
After about 2 weeks of study, I was ready to take the plunge. I spread the wires all over the garage, and started trimming and re-routing them to my custom locations. I also got a 3/4" hole saw and a bunch of grommets, and decided to strategically place them to keep things clean yet accessible.
As you will notice above, I decided to locate the fuse box under the center dash, recessed into
the cut out area. That kept it out of the engine compartment and close to the instrument
cluster, and I figured that I would make a fuse cover for that.
If you want to check out the cover, click HERE.
After running the rear harness inside the chassis (taped a lead to the old one, and pulled it through), I concentrated on breaking the wires out into groups. The E-Z kit had cable ties and headlight plugs and all that, so things went well. I took my time in cutting and crimping, and almost every crimp has heat-shrink tubing to protect it. The second picture shows the new 95 amp one-wire distributor that I found on eBay. I did not want to mess around with not having enough amps for accessories, so I went for the good stuff. This picture also shows the headers and distributor...but more on them in a bit.
After about two weekends of work, things were mostly done. I did add in a set of mini-gauges from Summit for water temp, volts, and oil pressure. I also wired in the coil and ballast resistor for the new distributor, and the starter went in as well (more on that on the next page.) It was a true moment of triumph when the blinkers and headlights actually worked!