Club Cobra - Dash Wiring Harness Suggestion

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Dash Wiring Harness Suggestion

Hi Everyone,

I am looking to re-do the wiring harness for the dash. I have gone thru a couple of iterations but am still not satisfied. Thus far I have used serial connections where I have inserted two wires into each connector, one from input source and the other running to the next guage. I have also tried Y connectors which allowed for better connection of the wire for each guage but takes up a lot of room.

I have thought about running individiual power and ground wires for each guage back to a central source. While that would allow me to isolate each connection, I am concerned that the size of the wiring harness may end up being to bulky to route effective thru the dash. Also, for the power, having a central connection point may be difficult to achieve safely.

Any thoughts or ideas on what has worked well for you and allow the finished product to be neat and clean.

Thanks.

Mike

I used several Male/Female Bullet connectors throughout my underdash wiring. I had seen them illustrated and thought they were a viable option to be able to have the ability to disconnect a circuit if necessary. I did not want to use the crimp on male/female spade connectors as they seemed bulky and I'm not a fan of crimp only connectors. Some circuits are single wire connections with shrink tubing over the actual connectors. I suggest soldering and shrink tubing at every terminal regardless of its design. On circuits that were to have common sources I used a small block of aluminum 3/16 X 5/8 x 1" long with 2 holes drilled length wise and then was able to plug 4 bullet connectors into it (2 in each end) and cover the entire block and protruding wire ends with shrink tubing. I looked at various options and this basic design was used on British cars and has worked well. Afterward I found the OEM (British) parts available through Moss Motors.
http://mossmotors.com/Shop/ViewProdu...dexID=28931#20
The entire rewiring project has had no problems or issues, it was actually sort of enjoyable at the time.

I did serial connections for the power and ground for all the guages with a butt connector before the first guage for easy dash removal. Soldered and shrink wrapped each connection. I did use the spade connectors to the actual guage.
Matt

Thanks for the suggestions. I crimped the both attempts thus far and will probably look at the solder connectors for this go around. It will certainly make me feel a lot more confident in the reliability of the connections.

Mike

I’ll also suggest investing in a proper crimping tool and using connectors that are NOT the usual pieces you can purchase from a local hardware store. Those are the ones with the color coded plastic insulators on the crimping ends. (Red/Yellow/Blue by wire gauge)
Open Barrel connectors and the proper crimping tool make a big difference in the quality of the connection. Open Barrel connectors crimp the wire and the insulator/wire with 2 different crimps, the one on the wire is smaller then the one on the wire/insulator. The crimping tool is not cheap. They range from $40 to $250 and the less expensive ones work just fine for non-commercial applications. A stiff shrink tubing over the male crimp end and a soft shrink tube over the entire female end make for a factory look. Most of the crimping tools have a position for different gauge wires and connectors (usually 3 different positions) A great tool for the toobox - Christmas is coming...