Rewiring 86 F150 Lariat 4x4

Seriously thinking of rewiring the entire truck.  I don't have any experience doing this type of work.  I purchased a wiring harness off of LMC.  Other than printing off schematics, are there any other tips, tricks or things I need to watch out for before attempting?

You should tell us more about your truck so we can answer the questions better.  Please create a signature and tell us things like the engine, carburetor or EFI, transmission, etc.

For instance, if the truck has the 351HO then it'll have a carb and DS-II ignition, which is a fairly simple wiring setup.  But if it has the EFI'd 302 then it'll be much more complex.

But I seriously doubt that any harness from an aftermarket company will be complete enough to make a full-rewire easy.  That's because there were so many different setups in these trucks that it is unlikely anyone will offer that many options.  For instance, the California trucks had some emissions equipment the 49-State trucks didn't have, and some of those are electrically controlled.

So, enlighten us?  What do you have and what did you buy?

I would make sure to have quality tools for the job. I worked for a company that built high-end electrical panels and we used recessed wire strippers to get the same strip length on hundreds of wires. They also don't fatigue you like conventional strippers. You may want conventional strippers as well for general utility, and I would recommend these Klein Kurve strippers. They are cheap enough that it won't hurt and will last a lifetime for home use. If the wire kit doesn't come with crimpers for the terminal pins, make sure to buy one. You can get by with regular crimpers but it's not pretty and it's easy to mess up. For managing zip ties you can either get a zip tie gun that tensions and cuts flush with one trigger pull, or use a pair of miniature diagonal cutters which are useful for many things, especially cutting off zip ties without gouging wires. These things will prevent much frustration.

Making an edit because there are some points I didn't have time to add earlier.

Use good quality zip ties that are UV rated for the finishing touches, but get a big bag of super cheap ones too. Use the cheap ones to form branches in your wire harness so you can lay it out before taping or affixing wire loom. If you forget a wire, cut one zip tie and attach one zip tie at a time so your branches stay fully formed as you run the single wire. Whenever I do plugs, I like to draw the pinouts so I have a smaller chance of screwing up. Never cut a wire to exact length, always leave more slack than you think you need. In general just be methodical and take it slow. Wiring can be a lot of fun when you get in the groove.

Gary, I wonder if some of these guys are having issues replying like I did yesterday. You'd think he would have replied back with his truck stats by now.

Shouldn't be having issues as we got SSL re-enabled.  As it turned out even I was having trouble posting and had to go to Firefox to post an alert about the problem.  Then Nabble turned SSL back on and I did the same on Weebly and I was then able to post with Chrome.

I think it is just the weekend.  Things slow down as people get busy doing other things.