Ok.. I have a love hate (ok, not hate, just frustrating) experience with the painless harnesses.
I installed an 18 circuit harness with a GM plug for the steering column about 12 years ago. They had a decent installation manual back then. A lil confusing because they didnt supply a schematic but more of a block diagram. Prolly trying to make it easier for the average Joe. And they had this meathod of identifying the wires by where they came from and where they go. It was kinda goofy. Hope they went away from that.
So Ill start with the likes. The first being (and it should be on the top of your list) is they wired up the GM column plug perfectly!!! It routed all the wires to the plug that needed to be there and the steering column was plug and play. They did thier research. And for you, mending the harness to the LS1/4L60E with all of its connectors I think it will be a breeze.
Another plus is they dont skimp on the wire. They give you plenty for the auxiliary systems. Length and gauge. You wont have to be creative trying to stretch a short wire. And the guage wire is good for the needs of the component.
Now, my only complaint.. Wire identification!!!! Errr!!! Dont know if they are still doing it. But they identified the wires by color and what section of the harness they were bundled in. So they would bundle a group of wires say from the fuse block and call it ACC+. And in the manual they would identify the wire by what group it was in, color, size, where it was coming from and what it was to be connected to. So you think. Heck, that sounds pretty good. It sounds good in writing, and prolly sounded good for the engineers (paper folks). But in the real world its not great.
In the real world you might have to fix something, or you might have to identify a wire that is not connected to anything. Ok, prolly more my problem than theirs. REALLY, my problem, not theirs.
For my problem I didnt get to wire up all the components. I fixed the fuse block up, routed all the wires to their areas, connected most of them. But some of them had to be left unconnected for a future finish. And I did mark the wire ends. With tape. Tape only lasts so long. So when Im trying to wire my dash I have a couple wires that are unknowns. And they are the same color and gauge.
One was two wires that were dash wires. After some figuring I figured out one was from the fuse block (+DC) and the other was routed to the engine compartment (dead wire) So that is for the A/C. Supposed to have a switch on the dash to turn on the A/C. Cool, I wont use that. The other was two large tan wires that terminated at the dash. One was for the cig lighter and the other was for the lighting switch to dim the dash lighting. Both terminated to the dash, and unless you properly label them you will never know unless you do the trace back to the block..
So, I dont EVEN mean to say the labeling is a major issue, or even an issue at all. It would just be cool if they had a better way to identify the individual wires. I know huh? Sounds petty and you say, dude, GM didnt even come close to identifying the wires like they do. Yer right, GM didnt. But GM didnt make the harness to be user friendly for Joe car builder. Painless is.
But I have to give their harness a thumbs up. If they still pay attention to detail when making up the various connectors and what is supposed to be on that connector then that is the harness for you. Should be plug and play. Umm. If you need some time to fix that one certain wire, that will be connected in the future. I suggest you label it as best as you can for future reference. NO, masking tape wont work LOL JR
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