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Electrical Wiring Factory - Truck Tech Articles - Four Wheeler Magazine

Wiring Zen - Electrical Sean P. Holman Contributor Painless Manufacturing Facility front Building Photo 9221592

To some, the very thought of re-wiring a rig conjures up images akin to climbing Potato Salad Hill at full throttle in a TJ on 37s. We'll admit it, some of us are afraid to do any of our own electrical work-so very afraid-but thanks to companies such as Painless Performance Products, the guesswork and the voodoo has been removed from the equation, making any wiring job a whole lot more palatable. Painless offers products such as complete conversion engine harnesses, with or without computers, for those of you who want to put an LS1 crate motor in your K-5 Blazer, for example. Painless also makes a direct-replacement Jeep CJ-7 harness, which also happens to be one of its best sellers, in addition to its universal harnesses and miscellaneous electrical hardware that can be used to rewire any project.

Painless invited us to its headquarters in Forth Worth, Texas, to take a look at how it puts together the most user-friendly wiring systems in the business. Painless employs about 71 employees and has been around since 1990. Dennis Overholser, Executive Vice President and co-founder of Painless Performance Products, graciously opened his doors to us and took us on a guided tour of the Painless manufacturing facility.

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PhotosView Slideshow Painless produces high-quality, vehicle-specific, and universal electrical components for the automotive enthusiast. Dennis Overholser takes the time to explain the different facets of the Prototype Room, where new products are researched and developed, and production layout boards are created. From concept to production, a new harness takes about 12 months. Painless creates comprehensive manuals in-house to maintain highly accurate instructions. Being tested in the recently completed, state-of-the-art dyno room during our visit was a prototype bolt-on EFI/intake system that Painless is currently developing. This new system promises to be a great alternative to many of the other hard-to-tune EFI systems on the market. The "Cage" is where Painless inventories between four and five million individual parts at any one time. Each of these barrels of wires holds between 10,000 and 50,000 feet of raw wire that will be processed before becoming part of a harness. Painless goes through 11 to 12 million feet of wire per year. PhotosView Slideshow From the barrels, the wire is measured and placed on more manageable spools. From the spools, the wires are run through a machine that labels each wire, and adds a stripe, if needed. Next, the wire goes through another machine that cuts the wire to a predetermined length and strips the ends. Once the wires are labeled, cut, and stripped, they are hung on these trees until they are needed for assembly. The wire trees are one of the most important tools at Painless, because they neatly store wires and harnesses at different stages of production. Small parts, such as headlight switches and flashers, are preassembled before joining the main harnesses. The wires are then removed from the trees and placed together on hangers prior to being joined at the main harness. All Painless wiring harnesses are skillfully assembled by hand, utilizing layout boards, in batches of 200 to 300 at a time, over the course of 30 to 45 days. Before they are packaged, each harness goes through a thorough quality check on a test board designed to check that every connection is working properly. When completed, harnesses are hung, ready for packaging. Each completed package is inventoried in the warehouse until it is time to be shipped out to an awaiting customer. 129 0610 19 z+Painless manufacturing facility+EFI intake system computers 129 0610 20 z+Painless manufacturing facility+pipes

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