electrical

[beatupbronco]

if i want to replace starter switch, all cables etc. how much am i looking at and what all do i need.

i have new battery, new solenoid, new starter and new battery cables.

 

[S_bolt19]

Are you wanting a complete rewire? If you are, look at Centech or Painless harnesses. Both are fairly easy to install, but the Centech is a little less expensive. They both will rewire the entire vehicle. Cost is somewhere in the neighborhood of $400-700 depending on which one you go with. There is also a kit on ebay that is a "build-your-own" type of harness. It runs in the range of about $150-200 but you have to make all the connections yourself and do all the wiring. For ease factor, the Painless & Centech are the way to go. If you just want to replace some minimal things, then pull the dash harness down and trace out what you want. That is gonna cost you a lot less, but if you are having problems with the rest of the harness then it won't solve any problems you might be having.

 

[Bully Bob]

--OR--

Are you having starting issues..? sounds so with all the new parts purchased.

If you're just wanting to repl. the key/switch.., with Bat. disconnected, remove front benzel, drop the whole key/switch down fr. behind the dash & remove plug-on wires, (in some cases, screwed-on) note order, & re-install new switch with your key cylinder installed in it. Instructions come with the new switch, showing how to install key tumbler.

If wiring is bad...then see above......

HTH

B

 

[Broncobill78]

Depends on just how much to plan to rewire. IF just the ignition circuit it might be just a long afternoon or a long weekend depending on how good you are at it. If you're doing the whole truck the same applies. I agree with S Bolt about going with a kit but I have to throw in a plug for Ron Francis Wirewroks. I've completely rewired 4 of these so far & used 1 Painless kit & 2 from Wireworks. Getting the kit with each circuit broken down into it's own bag & having the info for *each* wire printed right on the insulation (Right headlight-positive, Left headlight Ground, etc) every 10" makes the whole deal much easier. You can actually stop halfway thru the job & NOT have a stroke when you come back to it 4 days later. Buy a kit, I've DONE the 10 big spools of wire thing and wouldn't wish in on anyone.

 

[mattnkc74]

Ron francis kinda sucks. I would stay away from them There kits good if you are going with a custom dash or aftermarket gauges or are planning to use new switches. but if your using the factory switches and guages dont bother. Go with centech or painless. With Ron Francis thats about what you get 10 spools of wire and a pretty general kit they dont custom make anything like they advertise. Then when it comes to stuff like wipers and guages all they give you are the hot leads. No wire for the motor to switch connections no extra ground wire, nothing to the squirter pump. There tech supports a little lacking one of those leave a message will call you back routines they kinda ****. Hopefully you dont get the guy with the personality traits of a water buffalo.They do use good hardware and have a nice panel though I will say that.

 

[Broncobill78]

/emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> Gotta thank you for a good giggle man, it's been a long day. However, I just have to ask (since you've pique'd my curiousity) just how many Wireworks kits you've installed ? The CenTech kit looks to be almost identical to Ron's and that makes it kinda look like someone's talking out their a$$. The kits I've installed lacked nothing, not a single wire and I've not heard from anyone else who had that problem either and the merits of all these kits have been discussed several times in the past few months. All these companies offer various kits at different price levels, you buy the bare-bones kit you can't whine that it didn't come with everything that someone else's kit did. Apples don't compare to oranges. I *called* Ron Francis the first time I put one in, got a guy right off the bat & he spent 30min on the phone walking me thru the first circuit while I sat in the truck w/a cordless, THEN the same guy called me back the next afternoon just to ask how I was doing. That's pretty good tech support in my book.

Centech:

http://www.centechwire.com/catalog/fords/k40f.shtml

WireWorks:

http://www.ronfrancis.com/wiringharness.htm

Painless:

http://www.painlessperformance.com/webcata...archField=10108

 

[mattnkc74]

I've done one and that will probably be the last one. I'm not sure how you say the centech kit is identical they look to me to be more of a plug and go kit. Where as the francis kit your terminating every connection. Least with centech your getting the wiper switch and dimmer switch and headlight switch the only thing I got with ron francis was the headlight switch and a dimmer harness that didnt even plug to the factory dimmer switch.

And before you start off with assuming you know what panel I used. It was there express panel thats far from there $250.00 bare bonez panel if I had went that way trust me I wouldnt be talking. The price i paid was right inline with what the centech kit goes for I would say thats apples for apples. The kit you get from ron francis is the same off the shelf kit they send to everyone they dont custom make anything as they advertise. I would think that as much as ron preaches about grounding that maybe they would throw in a little ground wire for guages ect. Maybe what you and I consider rewiring are 2 different things because to me if im gonna take the time to go through all that im not gonna do part of the job. They had one wire for the wipers the hot lead to the switch thats it. What about the wiper motor connections did they just forget about that or am i supposed to reuse all that old wire running down through the window frame. Stuff like that is what im talking about that was left out sure you have enough left over from other connections to make a harness but that kinda screws with the idea of having wires labeled doesnt it.

As far as there tech support goes it was so good I emailed ron with some questions which was kinda funny one of the things he metioned was not to look at factory wiring diagrams. which brings me to another point,when I called there tech support with questions regaurding the connections to the flashers on the factory hazzard switch the guy was clueless. I would think if there gonna advertise in a bronco specific magazine that maybe they would have a little knowledge on basic connections to factory switches. Sure I figured it out after I went back to the factory wiring diagrams that ron told me not to use. That I ended up having to use because his tech was to stupid to provide me with an answer to. Thats great tech support. Plus you know not everyone has time to sit on there a$$ and wait for 30 minutes for a tech to call them back.

Kinda funny as good as you make them sound. Makes me wonder why none of the early bronco venders dont push there products. You talk them up like rons your dad or something.

By the way, your welcome.

 

[Seabronc]

OK guys, everyone is allowed his opinion of what they have experienced, each vendor has strength and weaknesses, some use higher quality material than others and what one guy uses or likes may not suit another. Let's leave it at that. No arguments please /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> .

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[S_bolt19]

For what it is worth, I installed the Centech kit in mine. Every wire was had where it was supposed to go printed on it (i.e. hazard, Fuel tank, Aux Fuel Tank, Coil, etc.) I was extremely impressed with the Centech kit as far as that goes. Much more so than I was with the couple of Painless kits I have seen. I have never seen the RF kit, so I can't comment on it. But the big complaint I had and still have with the Centech kit is that...

#1 Their Tech support sucks. I called to get a page that was missing out of my instruction book to see if they would email or fax it to me and they wanted $10 for that page. Bullsh*t as far as I am concerned. Then instead of helping me out, they wanted to charge me for the tech call. I am sorry, but when you spend $4-500 on a wiring kit and it is missing a one cent page, you send it. They were absolutely useless. And because I bought my kit through a vendor (AutoKrafters, they had the best price at the time) I was told to get my tech support from them.

Complaint #2 I have, they don't use factory replacement switches or modules. I know that newer stuff is more reliable, but if you use new stuff, then let your customers know what parts they are in case they go bad. Case in point, my ignition switch went out and I assumed that it was a 72 Bronco ignition. WRONG!! Ends up that Centech uses/ed an 86 F-250 ignition switch. It would have been nice to know that in the first place. When I called them to ask them about it, I got the exact same run around and on top of it, I never found out what the switch was out of. Good thing I am friends with the manager at the local Checkers Auto. It took us 2 hours of looking through books and comparing ignitions to find the right one.

Complaint #3 is the fuse panel. I wish it was bigger and didn't have a metal face plate, if you have a ground or short somewhere, you have to take that plate off in order to put the fuses in.

Other than those three things, I liked the harness. Except for the 1 page missing, the harness was complete less the steering column/blinker harness. It went in over a weekend and other than minor things, I haven't had a problem in 8 years.

 

[Broncobill78]

OK guys, everyone is allowed his opinion of what they have experienced, each vendor has strength and weaknesses, some use higher quality material than others and what one guy uses or likes may not suit another. Let's leave it at that. No arguments please /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> .
>-

I can agree with that. However, at the same time I have to say that I think there's a significant difference between expressing an opinion such as "I purchased this product and I was unhappy with it because of X, y & z" and leaving it at that and saying "These guys **** and everyone should stay away from them because I wasn't happy with the kit I bought". A fair assessment is one thing, a rant is another. But fair enough. I offer an apology to anyone who was offended by my comments and will consider the issue to be closed.