Well my Z's engine bay harness has been through hell and back. I'm debating ripping it all out, and rewiring the whole car. Problem is I've never done anything this serious. Has anyone done anything like this and can give me some pointers? Even better if they're close to me in Daytona Beach, FL, and can help out :D
I wouldn't rewire from scratch, just get another under hood harness from somebody and replace what you have.
Can't speak for JapCars, but my wife and I are wrapping up (pun intended) an out-of-car harness rebuild in her Fiat.
Depending on how accurate your wiring diagram is, how much experience with wiring you have, and how many idiot POs have thought they knew how to rewire, it can be a breeze or a beast. The Fiat was a beast. Lots of shoddy "fixes", wire colors didn't match, factory-looking wires where wires weren't called for on the diagram, etc.
I built her a work table the size of a sheet of plywood, layed the harness out on top, and pegs to help maintain proper wire length. Sounds ghetto (and it kind of was); check these out for a better idea. This is from the Wiesmann website.
Once she had the table and the harness stretched out where she could see it, she pieced it together one wire at a time. Very time consuming.
I have rewired 2 cars from the ground up using "universal" street rod Painless harnesses. If you have a factory wiring diagram for your car and the Painless harness, its pretty easy to make it work in just about anything, but it won't be factory any more.
JohnInKansas wrote: Can't speak for JapCars, but my wife and I are wrapping up (pun intended) an out-of-car harness rebuild in her Fiat. Depending on how accurate your wiring diagram is, how much experience with wiring you have, and how many idiot POs have thought they knew how to rewire, it can be a breeze or a beast. The Fiat was a beast. Lots of shoddy "fixes", wire colors didn't match, factory-looking wires where wires weren't called for on the diagram, etc. I built her a work table the size of a sheet of plywood, layed the harness out on top, and pegs to help maintain proper wire length. Sounds ghetto (and it kind of was); check these out for a better idea. This is from the Wiesmann website.
I've done this for both a simple race car that I edited out much of the original wiring, and for a dual computer V12 in a town car.
by far, it's the best way to go.
JohnInKansas wrote: I built her a work table the size of a sheet of plywood, layed the harness out on top, and pegs to help maintain proper wire length. Sounds ghetto (and it kind of was); check these out for a better idea. This is from the Wiesmann website.
This is so NOT ghetto, this is how I lay out wiring harness at the office, how some small airline manufactures lay out wiring harnesses. Most custom made harness's are also prototyped this way.
The concept isn't, but mine was. 
I'll rebuild/customize the harness in my Triumph when I get to it, and will be making another wiring table, probably with something other than reclaimed materials this time.
I had my AE71 totally rewired..... I paid someone to do it. The reason I chose to rewire it was similar exp to yours... and the fact that some of the components from the original system are VERY costly(can you say $100+ relays???)
My re-wire began with an EZ wiring harness... the smaller "Mini 20" http://www.ezwiring.com/wiring_harness.html
Now most of these re-wire kits are designed around direct circuits(only relay being the blinker relay). I decided, along with the person doing my rewire, that we would add a few relays
Now, in my case I was mounting full aftermarket management... so there was also a harness required for that....
http://hachiroku.net/forums/showthread.php?t=16037&page=14 - most of the wiring "fun" begins here, and runs for a few pages....
alfadriver wrote: ... a dual computer V12 in a town car. ...
Sorry for the hijack, but are you able to share any more details on this or was it a work related project that will never see the light of day and you're not allowed to talk about it? I used to have silly thoughts about an Aston Martin V12 into a Lincoln LS to make a modern day Zephyr.
Bob
There is at least one production V12 with dual computers out there that treats the engine as two 6 cylinder engines. BMW V12 out of the early 750s and 850s, in case you were wondering.
In reply to Schmidlap:
That was a rolling prototype for the V12 that ended up in the GT90- mid 90's. The car had been butchered to no end.... We had revived it, and rebuilt it so that we had a V12 to do some prototyping of controls.
But I can assure you that the car died, and was not reborn. I broke it. 
(not intentionally, but while we were starting it the very first time...)
BoxheadTim wrote: There is at least one production V12 with dual computers out there that treats the engine as two 6 cylinder engines. BMW V12 out of the early 750s and 850s, in case you were wondering.
Odd- this is the second time I'm poting this.... crashed the first time around.
As I was saying- I'm sure there are a lot of V12's with dual computers- since the largest set up was 10cyl for a long time, and it was only possible since it wasn't a high reving engine. I know the V12 Astons through the DB9 all had 2 I6 control set ups.
To the OP, back off the tanget- even if you got a Painless system- I would suggest laying it out on a board with pins. It's pretty easy to make a 2D layout of the harness, and if you make the turns and tie offs at once, it will look a whole lot better. And will be a lot easier to install.
I noticed you no longer have fuel injection but this diagram might still be helpful if you decided to repair your current harness.
im going to be doing the same thing to mine, only with waaaaaaaaay less circuits, especially if we can end up going carbed. I'm seriously lusting after a l28e with carbs that is for sale here for cheap. just need a few things now to make it work.
either way, you have to keep the board updated on your success with this!
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