Adding Puddles to Bed Lamp circuit

Assemble a Y harness to mate to the bed lamps connector and get added Puddle. Bed lamp switch would control them. Or run the negative to the added puddles to a on/off switch.

@daveeasa
@Puppypunter
@kmorgan3
@memario1214

 

Example:

 

I want to do this same thing, but have it control the side lamps on my roof rack. I hadn't considered putting it on the bed side of the circuit. Where are you getting the connectors to make the wye?

 

https://www.corsa-technic.com/item.php?item_id=1795
https://www.corsa-technic.com/item.php?item_id=1964


Get those sizes so you can crimp dual 18 awg wires.

https://www.corsa-technic.com/item.php?item_id=983
https://www.corsa-technic.com/item.php?item_id=663

 

Thanks for this, parts and tools ordered. Looking forward to making some more harnesses.

 

@rchrds, any progress?

 

Alright, I've done some electrical for my motorcycle, and piddled quite a bit with marine and some limited experimental aviation stuff. Every proprietary connector set is different, and I'm glad I bought a few connectors just to fiddle around with before I got into this for real.

First was assembling the proprietary crimping tool. I've done all these connectors the hard way (pliers) and the right tool makes this waaaay more reliable in the long run. Vibration is hard on connectors. Soldering is prone to cracking and breaking, so a good crimped connection is the best way to manage vibration. You'll spend more on the stupid tool than you ever will in connectors, and if you only have to do it once or twice, find one to borrow. I like tools, I buy them.

Since these are sealed connectors, you have the little wire boot to worry about. I'm torn on if it's easier to push it over the bare wire, or just the sheathing. Going forward, I wont strip the wire before I put the boot on. I'm using crappy 18ga autocraft wire here, the real harnesses will be made of tefzel so they last a little longer, but this is cheap for experimentation.

Trim your wire so the smaller (right here) crimp will be completely over wire. Trim the sheath so that it ends before the pin/socket necks down. Push your boot up so that it will be captured under the larger (left here) crimp.

On these fancy crimp tools, I like to set the pin/socket in the notch, and close the crimpers to the first ratchet. This holds the pin in place, and lets you align the wire correctly without worrying about the pin/socket falling out. Set your wire against the wire stop, and make sure the boot is far enough in to be captured by the larger crimp.
Here's the finished crimp- solid connection on the wire and the boot.

On @caribe makaira's suggestion, I got the pins for the wye connector larger to take both wires for one connector. Another poster below assured me that the dual wire crimp will work, But I still have my doubts, and nowhere in the sumimoto documentation does it document this use. The dual wires compromises the waterproof boot by letting water wick up between the wires into the boot (installed backwards in this photo.) In addition to not fitting very well into the actual connector. I'll instead use an aviation reducing butt splice, and then cover them with interior glued aviation grade heat shrink. Even with the boots installed backwards, you can see the dual wire with the boot isn't going to fit in the plastic connector.

Here's a picture of the wire and boot installed the correct direction, and how they look after installation.

Below is the finished practice wye. The ball of fuck in the middle is the missing butt splice I have to order. All of the boots in this lower pic were installed backwards on my first try. Good Practice. I'll practice my next try when my next bag of connectors and tools arrive.

@daveeasa and @caribe makaira thanks for the pointers!

 

Your seals are backwards.

that crimper is awesome, isn’t it? Pricey AF but really great. It won’t do 14 gauge though, die maxes at 16.

double crimping works perfectly fine with 18 TXL, not sure how it fares with your wire but I think most of your problem is the orientation of the seal.

 

No more pricey than the deutsch tools, and I haven't found the depinning tool yet. Thanks on the seal orientation. I've got a couple more connectors, I'll give it a shot with two wires reversing the boot and see how it works. The tefzel/32 has a thinner insulation, so that will also help as well.

How do you get around the 14ga limitation? Back to the pliers? It snapped off the wire crimp arms when I tried it in the 16 gage crimp....

hmmm now that I've said this, I have to go back down an look at my deutsch crimp tool- they're somewhat similar...might have a 14ga size.

 

I use an IWiss crimping tool for 14 gauge double crimps. But I don’t love it. Wish the Rennsteig die had a 14 gauge option.

I also like my Aptiv crimper a lot and my weatherpack non ratcheting I use all the time for cleanup.

I strip single wires then add seals. For doubles I do the seal first then strip. More time but less finger sticks with doubles. I love my knipex strippers.

oh and for Deutsch I prefer my $40 cheapo to the $200 official tool. That was surprising. The cheapo works great. But I don’t do a ton of those, just for flanges.

 

Interesting- I wouldn't have thought of capturing the seal in the crimp as well, but that makes sense, and makes it easier to insert into the block- thanks for the pic!

Yep- I'm gonna use the stepdown crimps from Molex, but in this flavor.

 

Two crimps...

 

yea the tool makes both crimps at the same time. I just hadn't considered getting the boot caught up in the outer one. Where did this picture come from?

 

GoogleFoo...

 

I made some updates to my post to reflect input and not make me look quite so stupid.

 

I was impressed @rchrds, you went all in.

 

I'm going to use this technique in a few different places- including adding additional switches in the cabin, so I want to get good at it. I don't like coming back after a few years and having to replace corroded or falling apart connectors.