Speed up the process

How can I cut the time down on doing a remote start install? I've installed two now, and they both took me about 10 hours to do (five hours split between two days). The professionals in my area say it takes about 4 hours to install one. This is the process I tried this time.

1. I pulled the siren, tach, trunk, and hood pin wires.
2. I put zip ties up where I thought I would run wires (just to temporarily hold the wires up.
3. I ran all the wiring to where they were going to be hooked up.
4. I soldered all the joints.
5. Mounted everything. Alarm brain, shock sensor, antenna, siren, hood pin, electric trunk popper, etc...
6. Program alarm and usually find a problem.

From the steps I described, it seems like I should have been able to do it faster. Is there a faster way to do things?

just practice

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how own your mind, control your life.
MECP certified. always use a DMM

Its taks pratice, my first insatll took a long tiem too. now i can get them down to under a few alos depends on my mood. Some days just have no movation.

i agree.. when im in the zone i can do them in like 2 hrs.. but sometimes im just in an i dont care mood and just take my sweet time... plus.. some cars are just easier than others..   most of the time the longest part for me is finding a good place to mount the damn unit..   the last 2 autopage units i did took me forever cause i couldnt find a place to mount the unit!

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Driving a Bagged, Caddied 02 s10

You will get faster with time,remember don't rush yourself,that's when mistakes happen!The first thing I do is find where I can mount the brain,then I start locating the wires I need,If you follow the instructions they usually give you a step by step procedure to follow.

Also depends on whos car it is. If it's your own you tend to take more time looking for better wire runs and what not. If it's some customer car (espically one whos an a$$) then you like some shops just throw everything in the fastest way possible.
Took apart a car from a local shop once and all the connections where T-taped and from the bottom with no tie wraps, tape, are routing. When you removed the lower dash the unit dropped out and was hanging there by all the wires like a parachute..
MOSTLY practice though.

Prep the units before you work on the car. If you know if requires a bypass module, make sure that you have the module prepped along with the rest of the wiring. Next study the wiring diagram and make sure that if you need relays for anything, you do it prior to the installation.... not during. It takes practice to know where to put the CPU, hood pin & extra wiring, but the more vehicles that you do the easier it gets. You should be able to cut your time in half after you do a couple more vehicles.

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Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA

Man, it can be tough to learn, esspecially if you dont have someone teaching you. I almost always take apart the car and locate and strip my wires first, then I prep the unit and do things like say tape all the wires together that go to the kick panel, and the under hood and what not. That way when I get in the car it is easier to run them all. The next step is something I dont nessasarily recomend for every person or every vehicle but If I think its safe I will make all my connections under the dash first then go back through and solder them all as it generally cuts down the time considerably more then what most people would think. If the ignition wires are tight then dont do this and make damn sure you dont forget to solder anything. Mounting the brain can definatly be tricky but I definatly recomend mounting it before running any wires. But as everyone else said, its all about practice, the more you have the faster you will get. Also did you have the tech diagams when you did these cars or did you have to search for the wires because that can definatly add on a ton of time.

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double-secret reverse-osmosis speaker-cone-induced high-level interference distortion, Its a killer

radkonn,

Don't worry about speed it will get you NO where. Concentrate on the quality of your work and you will be much further ahead in the long run. You have done two cars in ten hours with all those feature. I think that is a good start. Look at it this way. If you have a customer come back with a remote starter not working and you have to find out why because you didn't do it correctly the first time. Guess how long that will take you? Maybe twice as long and your reputation will go down the drain.   

Something to add amoung the comment made above is that if you have a good memory and want to speed up your install. Commit yourself to learning and memorizing your remote starter wire and programing procedure so that you don't have to flip through the install manual for reference. Hate to see my surgeon flip through his medical school notes for reference while he operates on me.               

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Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it.

I'm by no means an expert. We took forever putting a DEI alarm/RS in my son's Silverado. I then installed an essentially identical DEI alarm/RS in my Envoy (same alarm, both GM vehicles). I knew where I needed to place all the components in my Envoy so I did most of the soldering and looming on my kitchen table and placed the entire "harness" in the vehicle. I had worked under the dash enough times that I knew I would be able to put the bulky "harness" in place once it was put together. It would've really sucked if I had needed to take the harness apart because I couldn't put it into position once it was pre-assembled, though.