Installing a Painless Wiring Kit for ' 83 CJ-7

From the multiple cracked wires under my hood, it is time to replace the wires for my '83 CJ-7, 258. I am no electrician but I can follow a map and in my younger days loved to install stereos, equalizers, amplifiers and speakers. I could use some feedback on the level of difficulty associated with installing the kit. Is it just going to be a time consuming meticulous process to follow each wire from the fuse block, etc.

Also, I believe the Ignition Control Module is mounted under the dash and the wires come through the firewall. Is the bundle of wires also included in the kit?

Lastly, due to an oil leak and some nasty looking spark plugs ( oil fouled) I was considering having the engine rebuilt or even upgrading to a 304. Question is which situation is best: 1.) do I install painless wires then pull motor, 2.) pull motor, put back in then install wires, or 3.) pull motor, install wires with motor out, then put motor back in?

Any and all feedback is needed and appreciated.

Thanks, Dilla

Reply to
dilla1986
Loading thread data ...

I have been told the painless wiring is as the name implies.

The $20.00 Haynes manual has a perfect wiring schematic for the CJ's.

The CJ harness is in modules that terminate with plugs at the fuse block. The engine is one, the front lights a second, the dash a 3rd and the tub.

That unit under the dash is a Ford emissions computer and is a piece of garbage if you change 'anything' on or about the engine. Killing that is called the 'Nutter' bypass after the gent who did the write-up. That adds a fast 25% seat of the pants boost in power and mileage.

The ignition module in located on the fender 'waaay' down under the washer bottle.

As far as the order of things, I think I would do the wiring and a tune up first, then if needed the engine.

Most folks don't realize you are 'supposed' to put a kit in the carb every time you change the plugs. The kits cost about twenty bucks and can do wonders for them.

Are you sure your plugs are oil fouled? How much oil do you burn? It takes a 'lot' of oil to foul plugs. She would have to be a good blue smoker. Fouled plugs are more likely a carb or tune up issue.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

dilla1986 wrote:

Reply to
Mike Romain

I left you a detailed response over on the other forum. Last year I installed one of the Painless kits on my '76 CJ5 restoration project and consider it one of the best upgrades I made on the Jeep. Well worth the cost. FYI, it took me two days work to install, however bear in mind that on al, the terminal, rather than just cruimp them on like Painless recommended, I used heat shrink and solder. That may have doubked the amount of time it took to install.

The instructions are very good, and each wire is labeed and numbered, plus color coded to the factory diagram. It was a fabulously high quality product, far better than the original it replaced.

Reply to
Jerry McG

I had to rewire my pickup truck and the painless kit saved me no end of headaches. Highly Recommended!

---------------------------------------------------- Del Rawlins- del@_kills_spammers_rawlinsbrothers.org Remove _kills_spammers_ to reply via email. Unofficial Bearhawk FAQ website:

formatting link

Reply to
Del Rawlins

I have the Haynes Manual...got that from the seller of the first CJ I purchased.

So if I perform the Nutter Bypass, any problems passing Tx State(or any other) emission test? Where do i find Nutter bypass instructions, or is kind of remove wires and plugs and components attached to this computer?

Ignition module then will remain unmolested.

Plugs looked like crap, so i put in new ones right before I had a rebuilt carb put in by a local shop. It started running a little rough about 500 miles later, so i pulled plugs again. Oil gunk on a couple and oil coming out the exhaust. she does smoke but not a lot. Also, cannot tell how much i burn cause it leaks out the valve cover and i think now the rear seal, but that's another issue.

thanks for the help!

Reply to
dilla1986

thansk, i'll go over there and check it out. Heat shrink and solder sounds great.

recommended,

Reply to
dilla1986

Reply to
dilla1986

I put the factory-preterminated "12 circuit" Painless kit in my `79 CJ-5 restoration. The kit is very complete and from the firewall back it really is quite painless. The under-dash part is clear and easy to understand -- but it really pays to pull the dash off and work like a gentleman instead of trying to save the effort of pulling the dash.

All of the harness ends, lamp sockets and single wires are labeled with

1x1 tags, so you know where everything goes. For the most part, ends are terminated in OEM-identical plug connectors, except the volt and oil gauge connectors which are ring terminals rather than push-on connectors.

The thru-firewall bulkhead connector fits the OEM hole, but will not mate to the OEM connector so you cannot replace only half the harness, you must replace the whole system. It also lacks a gasket. I moulded butyl rubber (the black tacky stuff used by window installers) around it to caulk it.

Under the hood, it is less painless and grows more painful from left to right. The harness is made to fit a very wide range of years (1975 -`86) and engines in a perfect example of "one size fits nobody". The lighting portion of the harness is easy enough, it follows the standard path along the left fender and into the grill. Curiously, it assumes that you'll have a fiberglass nose and runs the headlight ground back to the firewall (Jeep ran separate headlight grounds to screws on the back of the grill on each side) but makes no provision for signal light grounding (on steel bodies they ground through their mounting screws). I was not entirely comfortable with the wire gauge used for the headlights and felt that it could have been heavier.

Because the harness is a universal fit, it is left up to you to route the wires to various engine and under-hood accessories. In some cases you'll want to break open the loom (split plastic tubing over a harness made up with zip-ties and black tape) and insert those wires to keep it neat. I did this for my oil and temp senders, for example, which needed to go to the right side of the engine. Painless includes extra zip-ties for this purpose.

The instructions for the charging system are, quite frankly, a mess. If you follow the written instruction as first given you'll end up installing a system fuse in a place where it is jumpered by a parallel cable. It is only when you read the erratum pages at the /back/ of the manual that you find that you should have done it differently, and even there it is a mess

-- to make it worse, some heavy wires have different numbers on each end. The instructions call for splices and doubled-up wiring where it makes no sense. My advice here is to break open the Painless harness, study the existing alternator harness and if salvageable blend it in to the Painless harness, being sure to place the system fuse between the alternator and the load.

The Painless harness _does_not_include_ the ignition harness, so don't pull it off and throw it away. My `79 used the electronic breakerless system with a module bolted to the left fender (your system may vary). It does include the feed from the ignition switch to the coil (you must install the resistor -- find a place on the firewall where it will not get splashed with cold water), a tach feed, and the wire from the starter relay to the coil. The wires that should go from the ignition switch to the ignition module on my `79 needed to be pulled out of the loom because they ran to the right side instead of the left side where they were needed. The plastic loom was too small to accept the ignition sub-harness and I salvaged the larger OEM loom here to keep things neat and protected.

Back to the ignition resistor: at least for the 1976-82 model span Jeep used a resistive wire blended into the harness, not a mounted GM-style ceramic resistor. The wire can be found by looking for a piece about 2' long spliced into the harness along the firewall, is is stiffer than the usual wire and the insulation feels softer and loose on the wire. Don't be fooled into thinking that you don't need the resistor just because you can't find the ceramic one on your firewall.

On the whole, I found it to be a good product with imperfect documentation at a rather steep price (Painless makes harnesses for high-end hotrods which seems to be a market with very deep pockets). Engineering support was spotty, you can spend quite a lot of time in a hold queue wanting for tech support, and at least one tech got rather too defensive when I mentioned the lack of clear documentation on the charging system. I know that there are two other manufacturers (4WD.com seems to be one) and that some here have experience with them. You should comparison shop before you decide, but the Painless system is certainly a quality product.

Reply to
Lee Ayrton

thank you for the detailed response. it is comforting to see a littel "negative" feedback along with the positive.

Now a question for all. If i want to change out the ignition wiring, i trust that kit is also available from the typical Jeep OEM suppliers, Quadratec, J.C. Whitney and 4Wheel parts, etc.

thanks to all for the replies.

Reply to
dilla1986

Reply to
L.W.(ßill)

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.