'70 Painless Kit *POST INSTAL*
Pulled the trigger on a Painless 12 circuit kit. Wish me luck. Any advise would be appreciated. I have read a ton on here already. Don't think it will be too hard. Going to try and take care of it next weekend. I will post pics and details once the drama begins.
***UPDATE POST INSTALL****
Only took a weekend and a few small issues nothing major. One brief phone call to Painless about an ignition wire and the rest was simple. All wires are nicely labeled so they are clear and easy to read.
Pros:
Nice new wire
Most everything had plenty of length
Over all quality of fuse box is great
Labeling was easy to read
Manual has good info related to cruisers
Cons:
Turn signal wires are a bit short unless you mount fuse panel on drivers side
Manual doesn't give detailed instructions(but enough to get by if your patient)
Not enough connectors with kit
So I started by separating everything during the week, grouping/taping all the wires that go to the same general area together. (this was rather easy as most of them already came zip tied together in separate groups)
IMG_1447 by mark.delgadillo, on Flickr
IMG_1446 by mark.delgadillo, on Flickr
Then I got all the old crap out. There had been a fire under the dash at some time during the life of the cruiser and PO's had done some repair wiring but I'm not a fan of every wire being red and everything running through 2 fuses.
IMG_1444 by mark.delgadillo, on Flickr
After deciding to mount the fuse panel on passenger side (its about 5" wide so the stock location was not a useable choice for me) I debated over the glove box but the turn signal wire length prohibited me from doing so. The fuse panel is mounted directly under the vent tube. Just enough out of the way for passenger feet as well as easily accessible.
IMG_1448 by mark.delgadillo, on Flickr
Next I routed all the wires wrapped with painless power braid (this stuff is awesome, i have more on order, puts regular wire loom to shame, looks like it will provide amazing protection and looks very professional) to the engine bay and dash. I opted to run the rear turn signal, back up light, and sending unit wiring inside rather than along the frame for more protection from the elements.
IMG_1449 by mark.delgadillo, on Flickr
IMG_1453 by mark.delgadillo, on Flickr
IMG_1450 by mark.delgadillo, on Flickr
After this it was pretty easy to decide what wire goes where, THEY ARE ALL LABELED. As for the factory switches A schematic from coolerman http://www.globalsoftware-inc.com/coolerman/fj40/schematics/ worked great (THANKS!) As well as the Haynes schematics were easy match with the harness.
The kit came with new connectors to rebuild factory plugs such as alternator or horn plugs, however, they are a mm to wide to fit into toyota plugs (as this kit is more tailored to a bronco or scout). One other snag that I ran into: I am running a GM column with a sigflar 900 turn signal switch, this posed a bit of an issue when hooking up the turn signals. Thus the call to painless that took about 5 minutes for them to tell me what I needed to do. Note, you cannot use both flashers when using a siglflar, you have to use theirs and jumper out the fuse panel to either have the hot with key on or constant hot, I opted for key on. Needless to say I am shopping for a new column with built in turn signal switch.
Over all I wouldnt say Painless but far easier than expected. It took me roughly 3 days with trouble shooting the turn signals and ignition issue. If I had to do it again, I would. Just be sure to dedicate a solid weekend to it and be patient. Have schematics and a multi meter to test the connections. I used my battery teder for the triump to supply a small amount of power to everything before hooking up the battery.
Let me know if you have any questions as I will help out as much as I can.
Pulled the trigger on a Painless 12 circuit kit. Wish me luck. Any advise would be appreciated. I have read a ton on here already. Don't think it will be too hard. Going to try and take care of it next weekend. I will post pics and details once the drama begins.
***UPDATE POST INSTALL****
Only took a weekend and a few small issues nothing major. One brief phone call to Painless about an ignition wire and the rest was simple. All wires are nicely labeled so they are clear and easy to read.
Pros:
Nice new wire
Most everything had plenty of length
Over all quality of fuse box is great
Labeling was easy to read
Manual has good info related to cruisers
Cons:
Turn signal wires are a bit short unless you mount fuse panel on drivers side
Manual doesn't give detailed instructions(but enough to get by if your patient)
Not enough connectors with kit
So I started by separating everything during the week, grouping/taping all the wires that go to the same general area together. (this was rather easy as most of them already came zip tied together in separate groups)
IMG_1447 by mark.delgadillo, on Flickr
IMG_1446 by mark.delgadillo, on Flickr
Then I got all the old crap out. There had been a fire under the dash at some time during the life of the cruiser and PO's had done some repair wiring but I'm not a fan of every wire being red and everything running through 2 fuses.
IMG_1444 by mark.delgadillo, on Flickr
After deciding to mount the fuse panel on passenger side (its about 5" wide so the stock location was not a useable choice for me) I debated over the glove box but the turn signal wire length prohibited me from doing so. The fuse panel is mounted directly under the vent tube. Just enough out of the way for passenger feet as well as easily accessible.
IMG_1448 by mark.delgadillo, on Flickr
Next I routed all the wires wrapped with painless power braid (this stuff is awesome, i have more on order, puts regular wire loom to shame, looks like it will provide amazing protection and looks very professional) to the engine bay and dash. I opted to run the rear turn signal, back up light, and sending unit wiring inside rather than along the frame for more protection from the elements.
IMG_1449 by mark.delgadillo, on Flickr
IMG_1453 by mark.delgadillo, on Flickr
IMG_1450 by mark.delgadillo, on Flickr
After this it was pretty easy to decide what wire goes where, THEY ARE ALL LABELED. As for the factory switches A schematic from coolerman http://www.globalsoftware-inc.com/coolerman/fj40/schematics/ worked great (THANKS!) As well as the Haynes schematics were easy match with the harness.
The kit came with new connectors to rebuild factory plugs such as alternator or horn plugs, however, they are a mm to wide to fit into toyota plugs (as this kit is more tailored to a bronco or scout). One other snag that I ran into: I am running a GM column with a sigflar 900 turn signal switch, this posed a bit of an issue when hooking up the turn signals. Thus the call to painless that took about 5 minutes for them to tell me what I needed to do. Note, you cannot use both flashers when using a siglflar, you have to use theirs and jumper out the fuse panel to either have the hot with key on or constant hot, I opted for key on. Needless to say I am shopping for a new column with built in turn signal switch.
Over all I wouldnt say Painless but far easier than expected. It took me roughly 3 days with trouble shooting the turn signals and ignition issue. If I had to do it again, I would. Just be sure to dedicate a solid weekend to it and be patient. Have schematics and a multi meter to test the connections. I used my battery teder for the triump to supply a small amount of power to everything before hooking up the battery.
Let me know if you have any questions as I will help out as much as I can.
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