BritishV8 Forum

i have built a lot of street rods been dismantling my new mgb for a week i,m not going to run a/c ,removing heater just wondering if anyone has just replaced with ez wire or painless.  it would eliminate all relays  etc changing out to holly red fuel pump simple 7 amp fuse no radio thanks seems like a lot of wiring can be eliminated any down sides feel free to tell me as this is my first mgb just picked up a gt complete body also so i will be facing same situation with it retired doing both cars at once thanks barry

I recently finished installing an EZwire harness in a friends B GT. He had a lot more circuits than what you're considering as he was using a heater, A/C, electric windows, radio, and a Ididit steering column with different switches. For that type of car it works great. For basically a stock MG with the original column and switches I'd stick with a standard type harness, much easier to work with as it's basically plug and play with your original components and lamps. If getting the weight of the car down as low as possible isn't a consideration (wiring doesn't weigh much) then I wouldn't worry about any unused circits and just stick with the original style harness. One thing we did find, the Ezwire harness like the Painless is designed for the fuse block to be mounted on the driver's side of the car and the wiring is shorter in some areas if you mount the fuse block on the passenger side as we did, so be prepared to lengthen some wires if you chose to mount it on the right side.

Hey Barry
I've used EZ-Wire in several hot rods and my V8 TD. My Willys and TD have mini 12 circuit EZ kits and I'm very pleased with them. Niether car has radio or heater, but I kept the wires just in case. I also use a very small gel-cell battery mounted in the stock tool box of the TD(see attached pic). Hot Rod batteries sells a small gel-cell fo $185 plus shipping, but I bought a more powerful one from a local battery shop, that measures 7"x3"x6 3/4". It will crank my 300hp 350 all day. By the way, Hot Rod battery is part of TPI Gauge & It's a Snap wire kits. I don't recomand It's a Snap kits, little or no instructions and I've found wires mixed up in thier kits.

Give Advance Auto-Wire a look. These kits are made specifically for your car. I'm biased, but I think they are the best kits available for your MGB, and the instructions are much better than those found with Painless, EZ Wire, etc.

http://www.advanceautowire.com

As far as kits go, the Advance Auto-Wire kit is hard to beat. Top quality cable and components, and tech support with personal knowledge and deep experience with modified BRITISH sports cars.

If you're using any of the original MGB switches, relays are a good idea. If you're using cheap Chinese copies of the original switches, relays should be considered absolutely mandatory because the contacts in those devices are of questionable quality. Relays obviously spare your switches from having to carry high current. (Headlights, brake lights and radiator fan circuits are most likely to benefit from relays.)

Way back in the day, I replaced my wiring with a made-from-scratch harness... it was a lot of work, but I got exactly what I wanted from it. I used SXL (thick crosslinked polyurethane insulated) cables, and if I had it to do over I'd probably use TXL (thin-wall crosslink)  instead because the extra insulation thickness makes bundle size uncomfortably large in a few spots. (My harness routing is well protected. I preferred to route the harness though-the-cabin, driver's side.) I wouldn't use PVC-insulated cable. No regrets about using Packard Metri-Pac connectors throughout. Use a high quality terminal crimping tool (like the OEM's make available to their dealers). If in doubt, back up the crimp with carefully applied solder. Dual wall heat shrink (with an adhesive lining that melts and squeezes out) is called for in especially wet locations.

There are several articles in the archives that relate to this topic. Start with these:
http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/Rewiring-the-MGB.htm
http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/2007-TechSession4.htm
http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/Installing-a-Wiring-Kit.htm
http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/Headlamp-Circuit-Protection.htm

AAW all the way!

George

I used a GM/Hotrod kit called "It's a Snap" on my MGB, my buddy is an electrician so he did most of the work, well worth the time and money, especially considering the orignal wiring was 35 years old!

Brad

Advance Auto-Wire kit is what's going in my car!

Wiring weighs more than you think - I've pulled 20 lbs of wire out of a Miata wiring harness in the past. It's usually expensive to drop 20 lbs from a car.

My MG has a custom harness that uses some of the original wiring. There aren't any off-the-shelf options available that do what I need to do.

AAW.

JB

An AAW wiring kit weighs a lot less than 20 pounds, wire, relays, connecters and all.