Clean wiring job - how to:

[Tacoboy]

Hey guys - this may not be new to any of you, but I feel its important to contribute to the site and tonight’s job was to neatly assemble my wiring harness for my Alpine deck in the S14. The one that was in there before for the Panasonic was done with electrical tape. If you think this is fine, please read on.

The Victim - my '95 Nissan 240sx

The tools you need - Wire cutters, wire strippers, soldering iron, solder, heat shrink tube, lighter.

And Very important - FLUX - needed for clean and strong connections.

All of these tools are available at your local hardware store - rona, home depot, even the source.

Shop computer - super handy for wiring diagram info.

The Rats nest

One connection made with heat shrink tube ready to be shrunk

Close up before heating

During heating

Done - Vary Nice!

One by one, take your time. No rush! I spent 2 hours on this at half speed.

Thank you flux! Excellent, strong connection

More progress is made.

Old harness cut off - I was using it as a guide for some of the wiring code.

Almost done soldering and heat shrinking

4 solid connections - no need to strip a tonne of wire, half a cm to a cm is fine, but make sure the solder is in contact with all of the wires (this is what flux really helps with)

The tedious part is done. Start cleaning up the harness.

This one is for Brendan aka simplemind7.

Fresh and clean

In the back of the deck. So easy to work with.

Another angle

Much more manageble

And we have power! Great success!

Mocked up.

I plan on finishing the install off in the morning - to tired for now. I feel as though taking the proper time to do a job, however small it may be, is always worth it in the end.

Cheers,

Dave

[S13counterpart]

just a lttle FYI…

not ALL types of solder require flux. Some types of solder have flux inside it. Adding more flux will only ruin it.
there a many different types of solder for different types of applications.
In other words… Don’t try using plumming sodler for electrical connections…

Just a little FYI for the people who may not know, and think solder is solder…

Oh… and you should have picked up some cable wrap… Makes everything much cleaner

[_RSTuning.ca]

good job, Black zip ties are your friend. Yellow not so much.

[Dj-Infinit]

Just wondering, say you wanted to change your cd deck and it had a different harness… you would have to cut all that crap out right?

[Tacoboy]

hahaha - yellow zip ties will be hidden obviously - its all just personal preference andw hat you have lying around.

Dj-infinit - If i had to change my head unit, i would carfully slice the heat shrink tube in a horizontal manner, then heat up my soldering gun and touch each connection to disconnect it. - quick and easy and no cutting involved.

[spynn56]

yea, thats nice, but, i prefer electrical tape to zipties + whatever heat shrink stuff you were using, makes everything tighter when taped together and its cheap. just my 2 cents, been doing these for a long time now, yours looks good as well, no wires everywhere. also, flux core solder is the easiest there as well, like 3.99 at ct?

• also to infinite, cutting would make it easier, and faaar less work then Tacoboys method, although his method works perfectly fine 100% of the time. if you cut the wire directly at the end of the join, then you have a fresh lead to work with when wiring together your new harness, and dont have to deal with hard ends that have already been soldered. again my $0.02

edit:

+1 for having pictures to show exactly how things are done

[Dj-Infinit]

Ye… true. I’ve been using splice and tape method,and no problems as of yet… Being a guy that change car audio quite frequently i find it very easy to remove and old harness and exchange it with the new one with this method… Nice write up though. We do need more of these.

Dj-infinit

[Tacoboy]

In my opinion - electrical tape is a bitch. Sure, its easy, fast, whatever, but after time it gets old and sticky, and when you have to take it apart it becomes a big sticky issue.

Also, cutting inst “FAR” less work - think about it. If you take your time, yet again, you will have one side of the harness ALREADY tinned and ready to be soldered. If you just start cutting you will have to cut, strip, flux, and tin all over again. Sure, the instant reward of less time is there, but in the end it will only cost you more.

I use flux core solder - but the advantage to using flux as well is that it makes the job SO much faster, and so much easier. If you haven’t tried it, you should - it grabs instantly and makes the connection thorough.

Splice and tape - if that falls off the power lead, you’re liable to have a dash fire.

[rex_thugs]

i spent 5 hours wiring my sr redtop harness for my s14 , i think its was around 60 connectsion to make. anyways its well worth it doing wiring the proper way and not just using tape. i havnt ran into any problems wiring wise with the sr.

[_RSTuning.ca]

Electrical tape sucks balls,

especially when its been on for a while it gets all slippery and when you remove it all the glue stays on the wire.

Solder + Heat shrink is the best way.

Bunching wires together, Hockey tape.

[Dj-Infinit]

Don’t get me wrong heatshrink and soldering is the way to go. But for quick changes in car audio decks etc i find tape quicker.

I was actually thinking a while back about making connectors on each harness so its plug and play.

[spanks]

that looks like plumbing flux i hope that isnt acid based cus you will eventually have porbs other then that job look great

[Tacoboy]

@spanks

that looks like plumbing flux i hope that isnt acid based cus you will eventually have porbs other then that job look great

No sir electrical petroleum based.