My major project for '02 for the 71 is a rewiring of the engine bay and dash.
Any tips from veterans?
Thanks, Will

 

Take your time and look at a lot of drawings. It is not as bad as it seems.

 

Engine harness is a piece of cake. Very straight forward, and hard to make a mistake. Dash is tougher. Take pictures as you remove the old one so you understand how the harness is routed and label each connector. When you have the old one out, lay it next to the new one and label the new connectors the same way.

 

I am going for the same this year on my 74.Mine will be a complete rewire,
95-100 % of entire car.If all you are doing is the engine compartment one thing you may think of is to take one wire at a time,run the new beside the old
and once all has been replaced in that section cut the old loose and tie the new one in one at a time.It would take a little more time that way but then you will know the connections are correct.
Then again it may be a little lame to some...
Good luck.

 

I am going to be doing some re wire this winter too. I dont think there is ever a lame way to do it right the first time...especially when you are talking about wiring. Its not that hard....unless you lose your place. Then it can be a tough time figuring out which one goes where. The best wat to do it is take your time...make LOTS of notes...lable EVERYTHING...and take pictures if you can. Doing it one wire at a time...may take longer...but it is the best way to keep you place.

Ron

 

I put all new harness in mine a few years ago. If I were to do it again..I wouldn't go the harness route....but would make my own individual connections.

Around 1985 I totally rewired, and converted to 12v, a 41 Ford Coupe. Those schematics I used are simple and straight forward, and will work for any non-FI car.

If you guys care to, email me your postal addys, and I'll send copies. Or, if you can wait a week or so, I'll try to scan them.

 

Well I guess it all depends on just how far you want to go, and what goals you may have to attain....now if you review on of the pictures in my sig file here, you can see the totally rewired a/c controll panel and of course the cruise and other switches and light bulb display silliness....
No I have a particular hard on about Ralph Nader, so anything electrical he wants in a car is eliminated by me in all cases...NO key beeps, safety interlocks, etc....
so we get down to the basics of wiring, just like a hotrod....now my car is a whole lot more complicated than that due to L98 injection, but with this latest tear down,, addressing a whole lot more issued, like rust, footwell/firewall position, pedal location, etc...this makes for a much more comprehensive job than just wiring alone....
at any rate, the car has largely been rewired on the heater, wiper, ignition, start, assessory, etc...circuits.....about a mile of un needed wire was taken out of the car, things like the WSWiper realy relocated to the firewall just behind the controlls,....things like my own anti-theft system, burried far and deep.....I have just a simple 2 speed fan....a/c compressor on/off switch, and system kill switch (main power),....and of course introduction of later model junkyard vacuum solenoids to controll the air flow position....that simplifies a TON of vacuum wiring, not to mention rerouting all the wiring off the engine side of the firewall connector, leaving JUST the headlight wiring routed that way......so I drilled another hole for all the primary heavy engine wires, 8 ga red main power, left the fusible link in place...., purple start wire, orange, brown, pink switch accessory positions.....all routed direct with no connectors...or few as possible, all fused and easlily trouble shot when fairlues happen.....I did leave the fuse block in position, as it's infrequently gotten to, most of the fuses of interest are either relocated or renewed in other positions.....

obviously the entire engine harness is totally reworked, and I ain't done yet as I need engine back in before I redo the computer harness....
and of course need settle any issues on the rack/pinion conversiion....

someday maybe this spring, maybe next life, that car will run again...;-)))

GENE

 

OH, on dash rewiring, I took all the gray light bulbs, and harnessed them together with ONE connector for main harness, may yet put a single Radiio Shak molex conector on back of the main speedo/tach dash that will make install a LOT easier, pulling a billion lights in and out of that damn thing makes it a real bitch to deal with.....not to mention the speedo cable...now I have an electronic tach and of course an injection HEI.....so there is no more junky unreliable expensive to repair mechanical tach....'-)))....now there is a bracket running diagonally just behind the speedo cable, making it nearly impossible to remove so I pulled that bracket out for about 5 years now, no negative impact......not to mention doing the same style molex connector on back of the WSWiper controll panel....which is intermittant wipers included these days....

GENE

GENE