Printer Friendly Forum Posts - Best Method for Terminating Unused Wires?

General question... what is the best method to terminate the multitude of unused wires in a typical RS/Alarm install? Want to achieve a clean professonal looking results and also provide proper issolation.

I am kicking around these ideas and would like to know what others are doing.

1) Depopulate the unused wires from the header/connectors? Pro: very clean, Con: makes it more difficult to reuse or pick up new features at a later date. Run the risk of placing the wrong color wire into the wrong location in the future.

2) Trim all the wires to slightly different lengths so that there is no chance of the ends shorting to each other. Than simply tape/heat shrink the entire unused set together. Pro: keeps every thing connected to the unit, Con: Adds bulk to the finished harness because you are retaining all the unused wires.

I use the area designed for non-insulated crimps of my crimpers, grip the wire with that section and slide the crimpers to the end of the wire several times. This extends the insulation well beyond the end of the wire. Nothing to get in the way of anything.

I go with smoketest, method 2

This is me personally! Take a small flat head to the pin and remove the wire from the harness entirely! Totally neat, makes the bunlde lots smaller and neater! Only con to this is if you have to use those wires later, they can be a bit tricky to re-insert, but i've gotten accustomed to doing that after so long!

Cheers, just droppin in my two cents!

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COMMIT YOUR WAY TO JEHOVAH AND HE WILL ACT IN YOUR BEHALF. PSALMS 37:5

I usually do smoketest option 2 in adjacent groups, with heatshrink.

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Soldering is fun!

Great dialog guys... keep it comming.

Just for grins...I am going to experiment with the suggested method of elongating the existing insulation. It's a concept I hadn't considered until it was suggested. Have you inspected the elongation at a much later date? Is there any elastic pull back over time?

I cut all wires about 6-8" from the brain then wrap one long piece of Scotch 33 around each wire individually. This leaves you with one circular bundle of insulated wire where each wire has one wrap of a high quality electrical tape around it. The "cool" thing about this method is if you ever need a wire you give it a good tug and it pulls right out of the bundle without disturbing the other wires.

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Kevin Pierson

Here's a picture of what it looks like:

posted_image

It's the bundle right in the middle above the red harness. Nice and close to the brain to keep it clean, all the wires are still there in case the needs of the customer change (which in this picture I am the customer), and it only takes a second to do while prepping the brain on the bench.

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Kevin Pierson

i leave about 3 inches of wire and cut the rest, in my 25 years of installing, i have come where a custumer wants an upgrade all i do is get the wire and upgrade according, some isntallers take out the wire and its a bitch to do what the custumer wants or when u have to repair an alarm and the wire is not there to fix the problem this is where i go crazy and call out names, but hey we all have diffrent ways of doing our work, peace.

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rocker

Man you got to love the pictures, they really make a concept come alive.

Kevin... just so I am clear. It sounds like you make an intial wrap around 1 wire than lay the next wire alone side and make a wrap around it, than lay the 3rd wire along side and wrap it, and repeat until all unused wires have been merged into the bundle. How many wires do you typically fold into this? seems like the tape knob would get rather bulky?

Thats exactly how I do it - kind of hard to explain.

I don't have a set limit of how many wires to include. I think in the installation pictured above I had one group of spares from the main harness taped together and then a second group from the auxilary harnesses taped together (I think the second group is just north of the thick red wire (and north of the thicker black antenna wire).

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Kevin Pierson

i do the same thing as KP, leave all wires a few incheas away from the plug, wrap then up incase i need them later on. and its true, if you need a wire, a slight pull and it comes out perfectly.

I always do smoketest option 2, at a length of about 6 to 8 inches like others on here, but do like KPierson's idea. I think I'll give that a shot next alarm I get....

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...half of the truth can be worse than a lie. <----Roger Russell said that..

I use different methods depending what is most convenient at the time and what I think the customer will need in the future. If there are wires that will never be used, I remove them and put it in a box I use for my collection of wire. This way I always have the color I need if I have to extend a wire on another car.
If I think that the customer needs a feature in the future, I leave the wire in place and trim it back to about 6 inches. To insulate I will either strip and crimp a butt connector on so that it is ready to be extended or I turn back about a 1/4 inch over and heatshrink it so the heatshrink can't slip off.

i am an idiot wrote:

I use the area designed for non-insulated crimps of my crimpers, grip the wire with that section and slide the crimpers to the end of the wire several times. This extends the insulation well beyond the end of the wire. Nothing to get in the way of anything.

X2

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Installer, IT support, and FFL. I need less hobbies.

Bend the end of the wire over.
Slide a piece of heat shrink over the wire, but not all the way down. You want to leave the heat shrink sticking up past the wire.
Shrink the tubing.
Immediately after shrinking the tubing(while it's still warm and flexible) moisten your fingers and pinch the end shut.

This will completely insulate the end of the wire and the heat shrink locked in place so it won't fall off. I can post pics if anyone would like.

^ I would actually like to see pics if you don't mind?

I just depinned the wires that that I didn't use. You have diagrams available if you need to add a wire you removed before and all you have to do is plug the pin back in if/when needed.

Bend the end of the wire over.

posted_image

Slide a piece of heat shrink over the wire, but not all the way down. You want to leave the heat shrink sticking up past the wire.

posted_image

Shrink the tubing.
Immediately after shrinking the tubing(while it's still warm and flexible) moisten your fingers and pinch the end shut.

posted_image

This will completely insulate the end of the wire and the heat shrink locked in place so it won't fall off.

I really like Shafferny's technique. But I carefully depin the harness and save the wires in case I'll use them later. I like the fact that I have less bulk to deal with and loom.

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monty862 wrote:

I really like Shafferny's technique. But I carefully depin the harness and save the wires in case I'll use them later. I like the fact that I have less bulk to deal with and loom.

I hate de-pinners lol. Especially if I'm trying to add onto or troubleshoot an offbrand unit I can't locate a wire diagram for.

shaffery that idea seems cool. seems like it would take a bit tho doing that with every wire?

and I like kpiersons idea a lot. But idk. I don't have that many customers that bring the vehicle back to me to add on extras down the line.

I'll prolly continue to just cut and stagger my wires, then tape'em all up 100%

You guys must be on Salary. And not responsible for buying consumables.

I don't do this for a living. I only working on my own vehicles. Therefore cost in consumables doesn't really matter to me.

It is a bit more time consuming, but if I want to make a connection later on it will be much easier.

I always remove any wires from the plugs that definitely will not have a function for the specific vehicle I am working on. If there is a wire I think may potentially be used in the future for an added accessory or feature I run it to the drivers kick panel during installation and tape it up down there. If the customer ever needs an upgrade I can easily access that wire and make my connections.