Back to the drawing board...

**legmaker72** · 05-01-2006, 07:47 PM

Ok, so I stopped by two audio places and they said between $65 -$100 bucks do wire up my guages! Ok, no offense, but I had the whole car apart yesterday, found the wire and stripped it. I can't see that there would be much else to do...
So, I can't see spending this much to hook up a couple of wires...I'm going to attempt this again...I'll call around and see if anyone I know has any wiring experience to help. Save me some future modding money!
Anyone know what a "T" tap looks like?

**Magnum-RT-AWD** · 05-01-2006, 07:51 PM

lol----Audiotronics and Custom Auto Sounds both are rip offs if you ask me----you need to come over on May 13th and have MY installer(me) take a look at it----just a thought

**legmaker72** · 05-01-2006, 07:59 PM

Would you be willing to help? For say, beer?

**ASU_Magnum** · 05-01-2006, 08:10 PM

A believe a T tap is a peice of plastic that is shaped as a T. you put the two ends of a cut wire in the top part and then the new wire in the bottom. Probably a cleaner way to splice but since it is all crimp connectors, i would rather splice.

**Turf** · 05-01-2006, 09:02 PM

the T-taps ive seen actually use a metal clip that slices thru the insulation of both wires. the metal clip is the only connection between the 2 wires. stripping and soldering would be best, but a t-tap is better than twisting them together.....

**Cam** · 05-01-2006, 09:24 PM

Here, scroll down to page 9. type TV

http://www.tnb.com/contractor/docs/catamount.pdf

Zoom in. These are decent and will work OK. But I would suggest striping the insulation away and not cutting the wire. Wrap your tap wire around it the exposed copper and solder. Do not use flux or acid core solder. Buy silver solder. After this is competed insulate with 3M 33 tape. You can use the liquid insulation and then tape. But the tape will be fine.

**Super T** · 05-01-2006, 11:15 PM

legmaker - I can totally sympathize with being nervous as a auto-electronics virgin... But after sucking it up and tearing apart my cutlass multiple times, I learned real quick that it's no different than any other bowl of spaghetti. The jist of it is you need the wires to stick together so that they conduct electricity and don't fall apart. Solder is the best bet... if you've never done it before, pick up a $2 roll of wire at radio shack and practics a few times. It's not the kind of thing that takes forever to catch on to... and it's not like you're working on something that needs to look pretty, it just has to work. Basically, just trying to say you shouldn't be discouraged from giving it another go yourself if you have the time and desire. Else, I'm sure you can find a friend to help you out. As long as you know where to connect the wires, the rest just takes a little patience. Best of luck to you!

**American Muscle** · 05-02-2006, 12:31 AM

Originally Posted by Cam

Here, scroll down to page 9. type TV

http://www.tnb.com/contractor/docs/catamount.pdf

Zoom in. These are decent and will work OK. But I would suggest striping the insulation away and not cutting the wire. Wrap your tap wire around it the exposed copper and solder. Do not use flux or acid core solder. Buy silver solder. After this is competed insulate with 3M 33 tape. You can use the liquid insulation and then tape. But the tape will be fine.

Why no flux? I have always found flux the best to use when soldering.

Come on Leg you have already done the hard part. Throw some newspaper on the floor board and solder that baby up. No need for a T tap at this point, you've stripped the wire. I was just trying to save you some time with that and of course it is a lot easier to do.
Take the wire from the gauge, dip it in the flux wrap around the spliced part of the ignition wire, hit it with the solder iron till it's good and hot then apply the solder. You will feel much better if you do it on your own.