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