I made a LOC diagram...

[draarong2004 10+ year member]

most useful thing you'll ever need when splicing a loc into place is a "wire tap in" commonly found at radioshack, or any electronics store that deals with alot of crimp on connectors

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[ravendarat 10+ year member]

most useful thing you'll ever need when splicing a loc into place is a "wire tap in" commonly found at radioshack, or any electronics store that deals with alot of crimp on connectors

I would never use those things in my life, and all my guys know that if they use them in my bay for anything it will be the last connection they make before I boot their *** out the door. Those connectors, I believe your refering to T-Taps, quite often compromise the integrety of the wire. As the guide says, strip and solder, thats your best way of doing the job IMO. BTW the guide is quite good, nice post.

 

[draarong2004 10+ year member]

I would never use those things in my life, and all my guys know that if they use them in my bay for anything it will be the last connection they make before I boot their *** out the door. Those connectors, I believe your refering to T-Taps, quite often compromise the integrety of the wire. As the guide says, strip and solder, thats your best way of doing the job IMO. BTW the guide is quite good, nice post.

only if you use the wrong ones, i normally use the ones that strick a pin through the middle of the wire, very hard to find though, but yea, if you have the room to work, solder is the best connection, but if you wanna keep the vehicle stock and plan on selling it with putting oem equipment back in, they are the only option.

 

[draarong2004 10+ year member]

and about the only thing i don't agree with on that guide, is the use of electical tape, thats a last resort, i always use shrink tubing.

 

[draarong2004 10+ year member]

we use e-tape on every connection at CC... if you use the good stuff, you wont have any problems.

as do i, but nothing beats shrink tubing, and this is why i will never let best buy or circuit city do any electrical work in my vehicle, i've seen some real nightmares come out of those shops, might not be the case for yours, but i do all my own electrical work.

and nothing beats 3M electrical //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[ravendarat 10+ year member]

only if you use the wrong ones, i normally use the ones that strick a pin through the middle of the wire, very hard to find though, but yea, if you have the room to work, solder is the best connection, but if you wanna keep the vehicle stock and plan on selling it with putting oem equipment back in, they are the only option.

If you plan on putting it back to stck just simply strip a section of wire and leave the plugs attached. If you are using the amp for subs anyways than your not disconecting the rear speakers so there really isnt anything to put back to stock. But yes, the ones with the pins are better than the others, I still refuse to let them enter or leave my shop but they are better

 

[ravendarat 10+ year member]

as do i, but nothing beats shrink tubing, and this is why i will never let best buy or circuit city do any electrical work in my vehicle, i've seen some real nightmares come out of those shops, might not be the case for yours, but i do all my own electrical work.
and nothing beats 3M electrical //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

Out of intrest, What do you do for RS and Alarms then? I agree that shrink tube on decks is a better choice than E Tape but when Tapping into wires I always use tape, Im just wondering what you do?

 

[draarong2004 10+ year member]

If you plan on putting it back to stck just simply strip a section of wire and leave the plugs attached. If you are using the amp for subs anyways than your not disconecting the rear speakers so there really isnt anything to put back to stock. But yes, the ones with the pins are better than the others, I still refuse to let them enter or leave my shop but they are better

i'll only use the tap ins at a customers request, otherwise they get a solder'd joint with no return to stock, I do alot of installs on the side, and i've done all the electrical work in my truck up to this point(fog lights, pdl, etc....)

 

[draarong2004 10+ year member]

Out of intrest, What do you do for RS and Alarms then? I agree that shrink tube on decks is a better choice than E Tape but when Tapping into wires I always use tape, Im just wondering what you do?

either shrink tubing, OR, if there's no possible way to get the tubing where i need it on the continuing wire, i'll use black silicone, something that won't "unravel" that easy, and lasts forever.

 

[ravendarat 10+ year member]

Never thought to use silicone. But as for the unraveling thing, in the 6 years Ive been doing this I have never seen one of my joints unravel. I dont think they will with good quality tape

 

[draarong2004 10+ year member]

Never thought to use silicone. But as for the unraveling thing, in the 6 years Ive been doing this I have never seen one of my joints unravel. I dont think they will with good quality tape

i've been doing the silicone thing for bout 3 years now, and by far its thee easiest thing to do. true on the unraveling, but i've seen some "bad" rolls of "good" tape that didn't wanna stick well, which is why i use silicone whenever i can.

 

[amartin_72]

why does Digital Designs have wires coming directly from the coils- they say a twisted and soldered electrical connection is the strongest possible.

 

[amartin_72]

why does Digital Designs have wires coming directly from the coils- they say a twisted and soldered electrical connection is the strongest possible. This would mean that the soldering, or a wire nut even, is a better connection than the pin method or taping - often done with noobs.

 

[draarong2004 10+ year member]

why does Digital Designs have wires coming directly from the coils- they say a twisted and soldered electrical connection is the strongest possible. This would mean that the soldering, or a wire nut even, is a better connection than the pin method or taping - often done with noobs.

you completely read over the whole returning to stock idea didn't you....must've been the brightest in your class eh?

 

[ravendarat 10+ year member]

Ok, first off when I was talking about taping I was talking about taping over top of a solder joint, the other guy was talking about heat shrinking over a solder joint. Both ways are better than the pin deal, but where did you get the wire nut idea from. Those things are a disaster waiting to happen when used ina vehicle as the vibration from a moving running vehicle is enough to shake them right off