The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay New Wiring Harness '58 Apache w/235

I am finally getting close to ordering a new wiring harness for my 58 Apache w/235 engine.

Can any one give me suggestions on a good, reliable source for the main harness? By good and reliabe, I am thinking of accurate coloring, accurate length and guage of wires, clarity of insturctions, tech support.

Also, any first hand experience would be great.

Thanks in advacnce.

Bob

any of the vendors [I use Carter regular, but there's other good ones] should have a good OEM style harness, your choice of alt or gen, and they lay right in just like original, with all the plugs, so don't really need much more than a wiring diagram ..... and all the tech support you could need can be found here!

if you don't have a shop manual, it'd be a good thing to order at the same time, but folks here can help decipher stuff with ya

Bill

My brother used Painless Wiring for his 66' C-10 when he rewired it. When I get the money and the time I will probably go with them also. I do remember that each wire is labeled as to where it goes and the coloring is good.

If you're not going all original, I think EZ-Wire is the best ... the wires and coatings are top-quality and labeled every 6 inches ... and EZ-Wire is the lowest price, too. Here\'s All My Info

hey Bob! seeing these guys recommending the "universal" aftermarket kits, I just gotta add that not only will an OEM style repro harness [identical to original] fit in your truck the way GM designed it to, using all the original clips/holes/grommets in the original locations, but every wire except the tail light wires will be the correct length with the correct ends already attached .... and have the proper cable wrap already on

and that's first hand experience from someone who has rebuilt a couple TF trucks' original wiring harnesses to a safe, functional stage, installed a couple original style repro harnesses, and spent uncounted hours re-doing the "Painless" universal 21 wire kit in a friends 56 panel so that it fit close to factory ... except for not being wrapped at all, but requireing a big pile of 'zip strips'

go original

Bill

JD Bob,

For my 46, I went with the modern wire harness from Carters. Since I am building a driver, I didn't want the extra cost of the cloth harness. (in Carters, it was called Cloth or modern wire or something similar)

When it showed up, I was impressed with the way it looked. The directions were easy to follow to boot. The modern wire had a woven cover that made it look like it belonged in the truck. Everything was bundled nicely so far, it looks good in the truck. The items I have wired up function as they should.

Probably not a concern for your 58, but another good point was that the harness came pre-wired for signals.

My $.02...

exactly right 46, the older harnesses come in either OEM style cloth coated wire or modern vinyl covered wire - by the TF years the OEM harness used the vinyl coated wires and was tape wrapped rather than woven cloth wrapped, and the TF harness had the signal wires in it originally, in case that option was added

Bill