Need Help wiring!

[Tamar]

Hi clever wiring guys, I recently purchased a 1968 spider, well as everyone says " there should be a law about who can buy these cars" the last "few" previous owners used house-hold wire and conectors to hold this poor girl together, When I first got her home I turned the key to the off position and she kept running, the cooling fan is wired directly to the bat., and the lights each had a mind and "tick" of its own,,,,enyway in a fit of fustration I ripped out the entire wiring loom without taking any notes whatso ever . ( I know,,bad move )I purchased a new wiring harness from powerplus, I am trying to follow the instructions but it will need modifying , I am not an electrical guy so here is my first of what will be many questions on this subject.
1. Altenator On the 1968 , The stud wire fine "got it" but should there be a heavy brown from the ignition switch accessory to the altenator?

P.s Thanks in advance

Tamar

[TX82FIAT]

Not sure about the 68'. the below link has the wiring diagram for the 69-73. I would imagine it will be close.

http://www.artigue.com/fiatcontent/Wiring_1969_1973.pdf

[Piccola]

I'm not sure neither becuase I purchased an '81 few weeks ago and I just finished to rewired.
I didn't took off all the wires but I just checked all and rewired the ignition coil and add relay for lights, key switch, radio and so on.
I can tell that is not really complicated but obviously you need some knowledgement on electric stuff.
If I can help you in some way, let me know.

[Tamar]

Thank you , Soooo helpfull here, cool fellows, I am an offshore mechanic, so any mech problems would be glad to "pay if forward" Diagram breakdowns were great" thanx

[Dragonspyder]

Thank you for finding the wireing diagram!!! I am just getting quotes to re wire my 73 sport spider. Does anyone have a ball park figure for normal cost and time fram. Its not something i have time to do myself.

[majicwrench]

"Re Wire"??? I would not rewire completely. Wiring simply needs to be fixed. And there is no real way to give an estimate, basicly, if you have to have an estimate, you can't afford it.
I repair wiring on old stuff in the shop often, and it can run from a couple hundred into the thousand dollar range.
Keith

[aj81spider]

I'm with Kieth. To rewire means pulling all the old wiring out. That will involve stripping a good deal of the interior (dash, consoles, carpet). I'm not sure how long it would take, but thinking through the things I know at the speed I go (which is a lot slower than a shop - or that shop is going out of business) I'd start at 40-80 hours. At $100/hour that's $4,000 - $8,000 dollars. Halve that because you will hopefully have someone competent do it and it's still a lot of money that could be better spent on other things.

I would work through the existing wiring, fixing what's broken. That's what I'm doing on my car. Generally the wires are fine, it's the connectors and "upgrades" that are the problem. Fix a broken circuit and move to the next one. At the end you'll have a perfectly good electrical system.

[westy64]

I'm with Kieth. To rewire means pulling all the old wiring out. That will involve stripping a good deal of the interior (dash, consoles, carpet). I'm not sure how long it would take, but thinking through the things I know at the speed I go (which is a lot slower than a shop - or that shop is going out of business) I'd start at 40-80 hours. At $100/hour that's $4,000 - $8,000 dollars. Halve that because you will hopefully have someone competent do it and it's still a lot of money that could be better spent on other things.

I would work through the existing wiring, fixing what's broken. That's what I'm doing on my car. Generally the wires are fine, it's the connectors and "upgrades" that are the problem. Fix a broken circuit and move to the next one. At the end you'll have a perfectly good electrical system.

I would say the same.
check and rework the existing loop, where it has to be done.

[Dragonspyder]

Thank you for the advice...I will just start with putting new connectors in various obvious problem areas, needing water proofing etc and spend the money elsewhere.
I am sure the garage just wants money for nothing!

[TX82FIAT]

I've fixed a few wiring issues and have installed a few relays and other upgrades like LED's/independant radio circuit. Some people on this forum have rewired the entire car. I take my hat off to those folks that re-wired everything, it truly is the best overall solution with better wire, grounds and wire routing options. However, paying someone else to rewire the car is not practical. If I were going to break the car down completely doing a custom resoration from the ground up touching every nut and bolt a new wiring harness would be a real consideration to bring the car to "better than new" condition.

I'll need to wait a few years until full retirement before giving a new harness consideration. Some of these cars have sold for big money. Unless you can do the work yourself, you would not get the frame up restore cost back even on a perfect concorse car.

[Flatspyder]

I basically re wired my car.. everything. lights, signals, alternator, radio, ignition, new horn you name it.

I was so happy until.. it sprinkled last week.. my windshield wipers wont work.. it worked the day i bought it. but after fixing everything else.. wipers stop working.. no power to the motor.. don't know how it could be possible. didn't even mess with it.. no broken connection, fuse ok. So i just bring a towel with me in case it rains and i can wipe the windshield down.

just saying you can never get all the bugs out on these cars. i figure ill get to it when i can.

[baltobernie]

Does anyone have a ball park figure for normal cost and time frame. Its not something i have time to do myself.

If you have a car with wiring that has been butchered, bypassed and otherwise trashed, I'd say you have two good options. First would be to find a pristine harness from a salvage dealer. Second (and of course I'd say "better") is to install a modern harness like this one: http://www.dcfiats.org/tech/Installing% ... less-C.pdf

I would estimate 40 hrs. to do the conversion, which makes it impractical for all but DIY, unless you plan on keeping the car a very long time.