Wiring harness

[Javelin360]

I'm currantly working on putting my 74 Javelin back together. The wiring ia a real mess. 30+ years have really made the wires brittle and previous owners have hacked stuff up a bit. I've been looking for an original harness but so far have only found reproduced harnesses for 72 Javelins. Things changed significantly between these model years so I don't really want to retro the 72 harness into my 74.

I'm leaning to getting a painless harness and installing it. Has anyone used one of the Painless harnesses. Painless has a GM setup that I think will work. Is the column set up in our AMC about the same as the GM stuff? I know that the aftermarket steering wheel hubs FOR AMC and GM are interchangeable.

My other option is to rebuild the currant harness. Has anyone tried this?

Any constructive help is appreciated.

[sstlover666]

i responded to a similar thread in the 69 and earlier section, i believe the painless wiring harness will work. i plan on getting one unless informed that they wont work. if it works for me ill be sure to write about it because it seems like a common problem. be sure to make sure that you are ordering the column or the dash ignition. MY javelin's ignition is on the dash

[MrRogers]

I have also been trying to find the wiring harness for my 74 javelin amx.
I would like to know from anyone who may have tried the painless harness if it was successful, or any other options available.
Thanks alot, fellow amc lovers!

[Jav_in_WA]

If any of you guys want an original harness, I have some. I was told they were from a 73, but they look like maybe a couple of different years. They are all pretty close to each other, with some minor differences in how the solenoid/starter wires are configured. The funny part is...I have a 73 Javelin, three extra harnesses and a wiring diagram from the AMC tech service manual...and none of them match each other... as in, the diagram doesn't match any of the harnesses and no two of the harnesses match each other. I have no idea how that happens, but it's true. Anyway, I am an electrical idiot...so if I can figure out how to match things up when the colors of the wires are different...anybody can. If you think they would be usable and are willing to pay the shipping, you can have them.

[Javelin360]

Well I went with an EZ harness with the GM style stuff. It has been a real learning experiance. I'm really glad I have an original wiring diagram. It has been very helpful in where to put certain tiems. After about 8 hrs I got all the head, tail, blinker, flasher and parking lights working as they should. Most of it was fairly straight forward but some of the stuff was a pain to figure out. The EZ instruction are ambiguous on certain things. I haven't figured out how to hook up the switch for dimming the panel lights yet but I'll get it eventually.

If you decide to go this route save everything from the old harness until you are completely finished. I was able to use most of the original connectors. I clipped them and where possible dissasembled them and soldered on the connector to the new wire and re-inserted it into the plastic housing and plugged it in. Some of the wires had the appropriate connector ends but an incorrect housing. I just unpluged the connector from the housing and plugged them into the original housing. I also deleted all of the old seatbelt interlock crap. I may create some sort of timer device that lights up the seatbelt lights and then goes out. I also lost the light buzzer and may add something later for this function.

I'll update you when I get the rest of it done. I'm curious to see how the wiper and heater fan stuff work out.

[glennrock]

Possibly the reason you only see a 72 harness listed is because that may have been mine that was fabricated and marketed. As they told me at the time, that no one made a Javelin harness. A California based company, M&H Electric Fabricators Inc., 13537 Alondra Blvd, Santa Fe , Cali, 90670, (562) 926-9572. About a year and a half ago, I sent them a wiring diagram, and answered several questions regarding my accessories, several weeks later and a little over $500 and I had a brand new wiring harness, beautiful work, and the confidence and piece of mind that I will have no wiring gremlins to deal with. I'm sure that they will make 73-74 harness' or whatever you need. I just installed it 2 weeks ago with only one small glitch, the high beam lead was several inches too short, no problem.