Author Topic: Advice please - new harness for 1986 Pickup  (Read 3102 times)

Offline vtvette

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Advice please - new harness for 1986 Pickup
« on: February 24, 2015, 12:07:56 AM »
Hello all, I am new here helping out my neighbor with his 1986 Chevy pickup. It's a lowered 2wd, converted to single tank, has A/C and Power Windows/Door Locks.

Overall the truck is in very nice shape. It has a 454 from a 1994 Suburban installed by a former owner. The install was done pretty well except the wiring - it is absolutely atrocious. I've been restoring cars of all makes/models and caliber for 20+ years this is among the worse wiring jobs I have ever seen. Best I can tell the 1994 Suburban harness was grafted over the stock 1986 Dash harness in an attempt to use the original 454 TBI. I assume they were unsuccessful so, they bought a Edelbrock carb and intake and went that route. The truck runs very well now but there is now so much unnecessary wiring with the 1994 454 TBI harness in there. Everything was butchered badly and the only way to go is a complete harness replacement.

So, I am trying to determine the best harness for my purposes:

1986 Chevy pickup with carbureted 454
Factory A/C, Power Windows, and Locks

I have extensive automotive wiring experience and although I have never worked on a C/K pickup pre - 88 I have rewired many, many Corvettes from the 70's through the 90's, many '88+ chevy pickups as well as other GM vehicles from the 80's. Everything in the truck looks very familiar (GM column connectors, fuse box, etc).

I'm sure I can get just about any of the harnesses out there to work but I am looking for the best harness that will be as close to plug and play as I can find as I'm doing this as a favor and would like to spend as little time on this as possible.

From the research I've done so far it appears either Painless or, AAW is the way to go. AAW lists their harness up to 1982. Are the harnesses from a carbed '82 to a carbed '86 that much different? I assume it's mainly connector differences and maybe power windows and locks weren't available in '82?

The Painless has provisions for Power Locks and Windows but does not appear to include many factory connecters (from the pic's I've found). Does Painless expect you to re-use your original connectors?

many thanks for any help or advice on which harness available would most easily fill my needs 
« Last Edit: February 24, 2015, 12:22:23 AM by vtvette »

Offline 78BIG-TEN

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Re: Advice please - new harness for 1986 Pickup
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2015, 03:16:11 PM »
If it were me and staying with a carb I would find a good salvage truck and pull the harness from it,that way all connectors would be there.To me that soulds like the easiest and quickest way with everything just plugging in.Only mods I can think of are maybe o\p,temp,a\c,and possibly alt wires,they may be too short.

Offline vtvette

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Re: Advice please - new harness for 1986 Pickup
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2015, 05:45:05 PM »
78BIG-TEN yes the plan is to stay with the Carb.

I mentioned a salvage yard harness and even searched Ebay, Craigslist etc but have not seen anything yet. He's happy to pay for a quality harness and as we're going through the trouble to rewire the entire truck it seems a new harness with new, quality wire would be worth the extra effort. As mentioned the truck is otherwise very nice and he tends to hold on to things for a long time. My biggest concern with an original harness that is sourced locally is dry rotting/cracking of the insulation (we're in Las Vegas, very dry desert conditions).

Thanks,




Offline 78BIG-TEN

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Re: Advice please - new harness for 1986 Pickup
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2015, 07:36:16 PM »
Then Painless or AAW would be the way to go.You could salve the connectors off the old harness and acquire new terminals and the proper w-crimp tool and that would make for nice installation.I just finished a FJ40 that way and it turned out really nice-like factory,but is very time consuming and some of the crimp tools a expensive.Good luck with your project.
David

Offline vtvette

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Re: Advice please - new harness for 1986 Pickup
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2015, 09:09:13 PM »
Thanks, I suppose I really can't go wrong with either harness Painless or AAW. I guess my real question was if anyone here had any experience installing either in a later carbed C/K (1986) truck. AAW states their harness fits up to 1982 I believe Painless states theirs fits up to 1986 but, as it doesn't come with connectors that's not really a surprise.

Anyone know the major differences between the early (70's to early 80's) to mid 80's harnesses? Is it mainly the connectors? I can't imagine Chevy changed the harness *that* much as the trucks seem relatively unchanged until 1987 with the introduction of TBI.

Thanks again,

Offline vtvette

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Re: Advice please - new harness for 1986 Pickup
« Reply #5 on: March 06, 2015, 08:29:07 PM »
Update: Found a very nice all original harness in a 1985 pickup at the pick and pull today. Right down to the factory radio. Factory A/C and Power Window/Lock truck just like the one I'm rewiring. Removed the entire harness headlight to taillight. Nice how options like radio, A/C and Power Windows/Locks were overlay harnesses.

Offline LTZ C20

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Re: Advice please - new harness for 1986 Pickup
« Reply #6 on: March 06, 2015, 09:12:05 PM »
Congrats. I love it when you make sweet scores like that.
LTZ Cheyenne C20

Offline jetmech

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Re: Advice please - new harness for 1986 Pickup
« Reply #7 on: March 06, 2015, 10:11:41 PM »
Glad you found a good harness. Rare to find one that is not cut or burned somewhere. I have had to remove bad wires from a harness and replace those wires with ones from another harness. Gettting harder to find because the wrecking yards around here just yank the engine out and pull the wires apart when they do. They also cut the harness for copper scrap. Just a shame we can't save 'em all.
'86 Sub and '86 SWB C-10
1990 454 SS