Rewiring from Scratch (Page 1 of 2)

I wired the Sunbeam with one of those Painless Wiring kits.  It was a bit odd because the kit wasn't for a rear engine car plus I had to do the rough wiring setup outside the car.  Because of time constraints I had to do it while the car was getting caged.  On a single non-EFI, uncomplicated ignition car I could see going that route again.

Is this your #1 race Ranger or your DD [#2 eventually race] Ranger?
/kill switch(es)

I'd consider a Painless harness to do what you're after. I'm looking into how to get rid of MILES of wiring in my early 90s german beast... Been reading a lo about this...

I've rewired our VW CE2 from scratch, but used a heavily modified stock ECU engine harness.
I personally prefer circuit breakers instead of fuses, you can reset them yourself on the track if they pop.
They're not expensive, only a few dollars each.  I also like to isolate each system for easier trouble diagnostics.
I've got separate breakers for fuel pump, injectors, ignition, coil, lights, fans, ECU, etc.  If one pops, you know exactly what thing is causing the problem.

buy a pre-done kit from Painless or like company. They come in as many circuits as you need. My 67 GTX drag car has a 12 wire kit. Everything is pre-marked.

I just don't like the bill the first time you have to buy all the rolls of wire.

where are you located? I have a job for you...lol It is the last thing I need to finish up on my drag car. I HATE wiring.

It sounds like you're an HEI and 1 wire alternator away from my KISS setup.

My car will run with 3 hots.  4 if you count the fans.  And I have an electric fuel pump.

All power comes from circuit breakers/ master disconnect.

Wow, thank you everyone for the advice and food for thought.  Those of you following along at home, this is all in regards to the primary race vehicle, not the backup/daily driver. 

So I've been window shopping Amazon for wire and supplies and I'm formulating something like a plan.  I wanted to run this past the group for some feedback:

I think I can do this whole thing with 4 wire sizes (possibly 3):

1/0 or 1 AWG from battery to kill switch to starter relay to starter, and another (same size, different color?) from the starter ground terminal directly to the neg battery terminal.

4 awg from kill switch (switched side) to main electrical panel to feed multiple circuits (not sure on this one, seems like overkill. I went by the awg amp-distance chart and this is good to carry 90 amps 10 feet.  Maybe 6 awg makes more sense)

10 awg for all individual components where I expect the amperage could exceed 15 amps.  All of these would be on relays so these wires would run from the main hot terminal on the panel, through the relay, and to a component.  basically just the radiator fan, wiper motor, cabin fan, and starter relay trigger.

14 awg for everything else: other relay trigger circuits, components not expected to exceed 15 amps (really I don't expect any of the components in this list to even exceed 5 amps, except maybe LED headlights IF i even have headlights)

The one place where I have a hard time believing my research is the ignition coil circuit.  From what I've read, my conventional canister-type ignition coil and distributor "primary" circuit should only pull 4-6 amps?  meaning I could wire the coil with 14 awg and a 10 amp fuse and it would be fine? 

Opinions?  I feel like all of these could probably go a size smaller and everything would work fine but I want everything beefy.  I would probably use 30-amp fuses on all the 10awg circuits and 5 or 10 amp fuses on all the 14 awg circuits depending on the component.  possibly a fusible link in the 4awg feed line?

14 Gauge might be overkill, but it is nicer to work with.  GXL wire is designed for use in the engine compartment.  I purchased a GXL 14g multi-color pack from wirebarn.com and was satisfied with the product. I used weatherpack connectors and really don't like them.

I also used generic heat shrink butt and terminal connectors from Amazon.  They all seemed about the same to me, blue worked good with 14g.

I used standard Bosch type automotive relays for high current items like fuel pumps, wipers, etc.  There are some nice boxes that you can get that will hold relays and fuses.

A nice stripper tool helps a lot.  I like this stipper tool:
https://www.irwin.com/tools/pliers-adju … e-stripper

I went through several different crimper tools and ended up with a non-ratcheting tool that I like best. YMMV.

If the stuff you are connecting to has special plugs, you might be able to find them on rockauto.  I found connectors with pigtails for many of the items I needed to connect to.  You can also find connectors where you can terminate with the correct terminal and insert into the connector, but those will often require special crimpers and I did not have as good of luck with that route.

I've been looking into this, starting with wondering why my current alternator doesn't have a big fat +BAT terminal like every other alternator.  Turns out I have a Ford "G2" alternator with the affectionately named "flame thrower" connector.  For exactly the reason you'd expect.

So I'll be replacing that with a "G3" that has a standard +BAT terminal.  Wiring it with a 4 gauge wire from alternator +BAT to the hot side of the starter relay (probably with a 100A mega fuse between).  The rest of it with 14 gauge.  It only needs two other wires that go anywhere; one to ignition power and one to battery power.

Thanks for the tip!  This is a good site that appears to sell a quality product at a good price. I ordered from them yesterday!  I opted for two 100' rolls of #14 GXL rather than the multi pack since I'm a cheapass and it was a better deal.  Also got two 25' rolls of #10 GXL, and ten feet each of #4,#2, and #0 battery cable.  The #2 is for the starter ground to battery.  figured that doesn't need to be quite so fat, and #2 is still bigger than what Ford used for that.