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    Default Project drag car - simplified under hood wiring

    So my sons 85 came with AC and all the bells and whistles from the factory. In the last 35 years, all that is left is the bare essentials. Lights, signals, some gauges and it starts and runs, but the factory wiring harness, or what is left of it, remains held together with electrical tape and household wire nuts.

    as this will be a strictly drag car and only bare essentials to drive on street, I want remove the fire hazard chopped harness and simplify it to essentials only.

    my thoughts was to get a painless race car wiring kit to run the essentials only and a MSD ignition with the duraspark distributor for ignition needs.

    anyone done this have any advice?

  2. #2
    FEP Power Member Broncojunkie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ccgetz View Post
    So my sons 85 came with AC and all the bells and whistles from the factory. In the last 35 years, all that is left is the bare essentials. Lights, signals, some gauges and it starts and runs, but the factory wiring harness, or what is left of it, remains held together with electrical tape and household wire nuts.

    as this will be a strictly drag car and only bare essentials to drive on street, I want remove the fire hazard chopped harness and simplify it to essentials only.

    my thoughts was to get a painless race car wiring kit to run the essentials only and a MSD ignition with the duraspark distributor for ignition needs.

    anyone done this have any advice?
    For what little you need, I'm not really sure you'll need the aftermarket harness. My pace car was a 4 cyl turbo, but I installed a bare-bones v8 setup. I even went to manual steering. I originally had an MSD 6AL digital, but switched to a Pertronix HD digital. It's about half the size and has more programmable features.

    I left the main engine harness intact, except for the particular wires I needed to tap into. That was basically just a starter trigger wire, a 12v switched power source, and wires going to the oil pressure sensor and coolant temp. I am currently planning on installing an aftermarket tach, but may eventually try and figure out how to make the 4 cyl tach work.

    I did a 3G alternator swap (a must, imo) and used the adapter that LMR sells (the one that looks like the original external regulator). I wired in an electric fan & electric fuel pump using switches and relays. The fan switch is a controller from Summit (comes pre-set at 185 degrees on, 175 off iirc) and has a threaded sensor.

    All of the wiring is very simple, but I wish I had planned ahead. I would have mounted a simple power distribution block to make things look a little neater.
    79 Pace Car - 331, t5
    79 Pace Car- 302, 4 spd
    79 Cobra - working on 351w, t5
    82 Capri- working on 302, t5
    82gt - working on 408w, c4

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