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Rebel Wire

6K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  Keyser Sose 
#1 ·
This is my review on Rebel wire http://www.rebelwire.com/ . Following the advice of a few ECC members and my bank account I decided on the 21 Circuit American Muscle Car Harness. As luck would have it, there was a distributor(Jim Whittenburg) just a few miles away from me who had one on the shelf. He brought to my work and dropped it off. He told me to call or stop by anytime I needed help.
I contacted Bob at Rebel when I began my project and over the course of 2 months I emailed him 18 times. I’ve saved them all. He replied on weekends and evenings. I can’t thank him enough for all his help other than brag on him and his product and support. Support after the sale is what we crave and he provides it. Many times I answered my own questions just as I typed out the e-mail and hit send.
On a side note, I doubt it would take two months to do this job but I have a lot going on family wise and only got to work on it for a few hours after work and on weekends. Plus it’s winter time so the cold and dark got in my way.
One of the biggest insights Bob gave me was that I was trying to duplicate the factory wiring, which was really confusing me. With the new kit, everyone gets their own wire now. Perfect example was the power for the heater had a pink wire attached to it from the factory and that pink wire doubled back and was the power for the dash. With the kit, the heater has it’s own circuit and the dash power has it’s own circuit. Often times I looked at my factory fuse box just to see what was run with what, who shared a fuse.
The 21 circuit kit took all the guess work out. Every wire is clearly labeled every 6 inches. As luck would have it, many of the wires were the same color as my factory wires. Especially under the hood Oil, temp, horn, coil all matched up.
Under the dash and at the steering column, one wire went to a turn signal on the dash and one went to the turn signal switch. Factory had two wires for that on the steering column harness. I got confused there too. The rebel wire kit is so easy to use even though I like to make things as difficult as possible.

Another helpful feature is that all the wires are bundled in groups like front lights, engine compartment, dash, ignition, tail, and accessories. Eliminating even more guess work.
My 77 does not have power windows, locks, seats, cruise or fans, but the harness has wires for those features should I decided to install them.
Bob also sells connectors and plugs and terminals if any of your old ones need replacing. I bought a new headlight switch connection. Not the switch, just the connection. I didn’t know any better and less scrupulous vendor would have let me spend more for the whole switch, but Bob let me know all I needed was the connector.
I have learned so much about my El Camino and have had a lot of fun taking on this job, thanks to Bob and his product and service for keeping it simple. One unusally warm night in January I was bare foot. I had just completed the engine wire harness and started the engine. I’m sure my neighbors thought I had lost my mind when they engine fired up and I took off down the block on foot hooting and hollering. All Bob could say was “neat”. LOL Perspectives are funny.
Many thanks to Bob and Rebel Wire.
And many thanks to the many members at ECC who helped via e-mail or PM. Gilby took the brunt of it.
If I had the $700 i might have gone with a different kit with the 2 piece bulk head and all the connections, but I enjoyed learning so solder and make things come to life.

This is one of those things I can look back on and say "I did that." I come away with a healthy sense of pride and a great deal of knowledge and leave behind a lot of fear.
Thank God it's over. LOL:nanawrench:
Scott
 
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#3 ·
Good write up. Will be sure to look them up for my wiring needs in the future. I like this part, taken from their website:

Rebel Wire - “American Made for Real Rods”

Every Rebel Wire kit is hand-built from heavy duty, flame proof, SXL wire in our shop in Tennessee, USA. See below for more information about Rebel Wire products, becoming a dealer, or finding a dealer in your area.

:patriot:
 
#4 ·
Hey Scott,
Congrats on that job! It sounds like you took your time and did it right. Old wiring can be a nightmare and it must feel good to know nothing is going to fry itself or shut down while your driving down the road. Also I know the "I did that" feels real good.
:beer: Ang.
 
#5 ·
always good to hear of customer service,especially after the check was cashed. sell a good product and you might tell a friend sell a bad product and you will tell everyone
 
#7 ·
I replaced the light switch connector because of two things. The new harness has a new wire for the turn signals and when I tried soldering & heat shrinking tube with the heat gun the old wires instantly bubbled up and turned brown. Also, the copper wire itself was a blackish brown instead of shiny coppers I I went for new terminals. Did the. Same with new headlight plugs weak stiff wiring and the plastic on the plugs crumbled to the touch.

During my rebuild someone posted about their beautiful elky burning up because of an old ac wire http://www.elcaminocentral.com/showthread.php?p=460228
 
#8 ·
Wiring can be a very intimidating thing and it's also one of the more common problems in our cars. I couldn't count the cars I've seen that have (all red wires) under the hood and spliced 3 times from start to finish!!:let_it_all_out:
Sounds like you did a great job and Rebel wire is a great product!!
You should feel proud and thanks for sharing!!:beer:
Donny
 
#11 ·
Thanks everyone. I plan on doing a write up on wiring for dummies. Believe me I made plenty of goofy mistakes that kept me laughing and sometimes swearing. I got so excited under the dash, I made a spiders web of wires under the steering column. Forgot to connect a few grounds but only blew one fuse. I replaced the old faded and cracked lenses for the gauges with new plexiglass but forgot to drill a hole for the clock time adjuster knob. Forgot to reinstall the gear shift indicator. It's always something. My car did not have a tachometer but since there are wires in the kit, I easily added an aftermarket tach.
There is a gentleman in my neighborhood I've never met before. He takes walks every night and would stop to check on my progress.
We also have kids that wander around at night walking off with anything that's not bolted down. I lost one 20 LED work light to their sticky fingers.
Like I said though, the kit made the job easy. If you have a basic understanding of cars, know your colors and can read and know your left and right, this is an easy job. I've been sober for two years also, I'm sure that helped a lot too.
 
#12 ·
Thanks everyone. I plan on doing a write up on wiring for dummies. Believe me I made plenty of goofy mistakes that kept me laughing and sometimes swearing. I got so excited under the dash, I made a spiders web of wires under the steering column. Forgot to connect a few grounds but only blew one fuse. I replaced the old faded and cracked lenses for the gauges with new plexiglass but forgot to drill a hole for the clock time adjuster knob. Forgot to reinstall the gear shift indicator. It's always something. My car did not have a tachometer but since there are wires in the kit, I easily added an aftermarket tach.
There is a gentleman in my neighborhood I've never met before. He takes walks every night and would stop to check on my progress.
We also have kids that wander around at night walking off with anything that's not bolted down. I lost one 20 LED work light to their sticky fingers.
Like I said though, the kit made the job easy. If you have a basic understanding of cars, know your colors and can read and know your left and right, this is an easy job. I've been sober for two years also, I'm sure that helped a lot too.
Congrats on that Scott. :texas: One of the things I have tried to tell the younger guys in all my tech/how-to posts is that if you look at it, think, and take your time, you can do any of this stuff. None of us were born knowing these things! However, at age 50, you automatically know all this stuff, if you can limp thru until then.

:nanawrench:
 
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