I have a 1962 Austin Mini and the wireing is starting to fail all over do to it being old and the crappy repair work done by previous owners. I was wondering if anyone has knows about any really good new wireing harnesses. I know that Mini mania sells some but all the pictures are the same and there are no descriptions. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

You can always call Don from Minimania. They are great folks and I am sure that they would be able to help you find the right harness.

 

Chris, if you want, I can see what a harness would cost in Aus if you can wait till September for it.

 

first thing to do is to make sure you have a real 62 so you can get the right harness. Call Doug at www.heritagegarage.com and he'll help you ID it.
original style harnesses are a bit pricy, but they are the easiest to install.
If you are good with elecrical systems, you can get an aftermarket harness from your local hotRod shop under 200 bucks and DIY.

 

His car is certainly a real 62. It's had a few changes made to it (5-speed gearbox springs to mind) but it is a beautiful car. Sliding windows and all.

 

Get a Painless kit like this one. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/EZ2Wi...spagenameZWDVW
Get rid of the Prince of Darkness and all your problem will go away

 

22 CIRCUITS IS too big for a mini. 13 circuit harnesses have less wires.

 

That was just to give you an idea. the guy that makes those can make custom ones too if you contact him.

 

Save the grief. Buy a correct replacement original (esp for a 62 Mk1 Mini). Changing the harness will devalue your Mini somewhat. I say this only cuz it is an early Mini. If it were a Mk3 on, who cares...

The "Prince of Darkness" stuff is much overrated...

 

I agree, Heritage is where I get nearly all my parts. Exceptional customer service. Better to get a replacement factory harness or you'll spend hours and hours trying to figure out odd little things.

 

Since the car appears to have been modified, I would go with a hot-rod type harness. Painless sells a dizzying array of harness options.

I am in the middle of replacing the wiring harness in our '79 Spitfire. We went with a aftermarket harness specifically designed for the car, which has it's positives and negatives.

On one side, the wiring colors mimic the OEM design, so connections have been relatively easy.

On the downside, the fuse/relay block is huge and fitting it in the car was very difficult. For this reason alone, I've wondered if we should have bought a hot-rod harness (available in "compact" models) instead...

The guy is apparently a retired electrical engineer who builds the harnesses in his spare time for a number of British cars. Unfortunately, he seems to have sized the wiring per NEC which while fine for a house, is massively over-engineered for an automotive application. As a result, routing the wires through space originally designed for wires half the size has proved at times... challenging...

 

IF you go EZ wiring route, get the one with the least circuits and is labeled every five inches. YOu'll save time and frustration by not referring to the diagram as much.

 

That would be awesome agro and thanks everyone for the help. I am thinking of converting it to a negitive ground so that will help with the wireing. Again thanks everyone for the help