Complete Engine Harness, Ford or Painless?

Harrison_Bergeron · Aug 13, 2010

I just bought my '88 2wd Ranger with an '89 Mustang 5.0 in it already. The wiring on the whole truck is atrocious. I am thinking the easiest and cleanest route will be to just re-wire the whole truck with pre-made harnesses. There seem to be two options for the engine harness, Ford Motorsports and Painless. Are there any pros and cons to either of these? Are there any other harnesses I should research?

Thanks

Teddyzee · Aug 13, 2010

Buy a used Mustang harness, '87-'93, for $100 or less- If you care about budget and doing something yourself. It's quite easy.

5.0B2 · Aug 13, 2010

Painless, EZ Wire, Russ Francis can all build you a harness specifically for your setup. Plus wires are all labeled every foot or so. Don't know if Ford Motorsports does that.

Boggin · Aug 13, 2010

i had some painless wiring on my first 86 ranger, only cause i got a good price on it though but i got painless stickers with it so thats the main thing lol

fordmike1 · Aug 13, 2010

Scrap that Painless wiring and get yourself one of these http://rjminjectiontech.com/?p=4 or just use a 89 Mustang 5.0 wiring harness.
RJM harness are cheaper and need only three wires hooked up to make your engine run.

Harrison_Bergeron · Aug 13, 2010

fordmike1 said:
Scrap that Painless wiring and get yourself one of these http://rjminjectiontech.com/?p=4 or just use a 89 Mustang 5.0 wiring harness.
RJM harness are cheaper and need only three wires hooked up to make your engine run.

That's a cool link, the product looks nice, and the critiques of the Painless and Ford setups are nice. I'll have to see how much their emissions compliant setup is.

Harrison_Bergeron · Aug 13, 2010

Teddyzee said:
Buy a used Mustang harness, '87-'93, for $100 or less- If you care about budget and doing something yourself. It's quite easy.

How hard is it to find a good condition harness? I'd imagine that any junkyard will have them stripped out before the car is even up on its blocks.

cammeddrz · Aug 13, 2010

"painless" :icon_rofl:

they assume their customers don't have pain receptors in their wallets. they wanted $700+ for a harness to run my vortec engine :annoyed:

what a joke

Harrison_Bergeron · Aug 13, 2010

For the Ford harness their price is right with the competition at $550.

cammeddrz · Aug 13, 2010

Harrison_Bergeron said:
For the Ford harness their price is right with the competition at $550.

near $600 and you still need an engine, computer, and all the sensors (map, maf, both o2, tps etc) bought seperately (even from a j/y) will easily cost at least $200

$550 will buy you a donor vehicle to rob all needed parts from, and then you can scrap it and get $200 back

but some of us have pain receptors in our skill-areas of our brains and need to pay an outrageous amount of money to make the job marginally more "painless"

and some of us have pain receptors in our wallets and are willing to be what the other guys consider to be an outrageous amount of work to make the job less expensive

i am part of the second group. but not everyone is

Teddyzee · Aug 14, 2010

Harrison_Bergeron said:
How hard is it to find a good condition harness? I'd imagine that any junkyard will have them stripped out before the car is even up on its blocks.

Going rate is $75-$100 on the corral (www.corral.net)

There's no denying that the aftermarket harnesses are probably good, but most of us don't really "need" them.

All the sensors are really cheap, and don't really wear out.

Harrison_Bergeron · Aug 14, 2010

I don't need an engine and all that stuff, my Ranger already has a "running" 5.0, the wiring is just in such poor shape that I cannot tell if my battery is dead because of my fried alternator or a short somewhere else. I bought this truck because it ran, so I want it to be running again as simply as possible, so I can get to the fun projects that I actually bought it for.

I will check the corral to see if I can find a clean enough stock harness to make me happy.

cammeddrz said:
near $600 and you still need an engine, computer, and all the sensors (map, maf, both o2, tps etc) bought seperately (even from a j/y) will easily cost at least $200

$550 will buy you a donor vehicle to rob all needed parts from, and then you can scrap it and get $200 back

but some of us have pain receptors in our skill-areas of our brains and need to pay an outrageous amount of money to make the job marginally more "painless"

and some of us have pain receptors in our wallets and are willing to be what the other guys consider to be an outrageous amount of work to make the job less expensive

i am part of the second group. but not everyone is

In case anyone is curious, my Ranger was $1350 with full fiberglass, decent extended beams, Bronco II tank, a refereed 5.0 swap(CA paperwork), and a C4 with a B&M shifter. Even with the poor wiring, chained on coil springs, and crumpled core support I still think I got a really good deal.

Ranger44 · Aug 14, 2010

If you have the money, go with a new wiring harness. Especially if you want a simple clean setup.....just enough to run the engine.

An OEM Ford harness will be old, unkown condition, and have extra circuits.

If you really know wiring and have a couple harnesses around, one could be made rather easily. Just need wiring diagrams and a pinout of a 5.0 PCM.

Harrison_Bergeron · Aug 14, 2010

Ranger44 said:
If you have the money, go with a new wiring harness. Especially if you want a simple clean setup.....just enough to run the engine.

That is why I would prefer a new harness, but after looking on the corral I am thinking that if I start with a good condition OE harness removing the unnecessary circuits should be well within my skillset. The extra work would be well worth the $400 savings, plus that savings will help me have the truck ready for a run I want to go on in October. It's not a done deal, but I think I've been convinced to run an OE harness.

My next question is, will any '88-'93 harness work just as well as any other, or should I shoot for any certain year? Again, I have an '89 motor.

fordmike1 · Aug 14, 2010

Harrison_Bergeron said:
That is why I would prefer a new harness, but after looking on the corral I am thinking that if I start with a good condition OE harness removing the unnecessary circuits should be well within my skillset. The extra work would be well worth the $400 savings, plus that savings will help me have the truck ready for a run I want to go on in October. It's not a done deal, but I think I've been convinced to run an OE harness.

My next question is, will any '88-'93 harness work just as well as any other, or should I shoot for any certain year? Again, I have an '89 motor.

I would shoot for the 89 wiring harness as it has the newer round plug on it (for MAFS) vs. the 88 Cali harnesses square plug and the 90 and up ones have the air bag sensors run in the harness so that is just more work to do to use it. Any of the 88-93 will work though just go with the best condition you that you can find for the best price or in your price range. :icon_thumby:

Complete Engine Harness, Ford or Painless?

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