How Best to Join Multiple Wires?

[JT42]

So I am wiring up my new Auto Meter gauges and it shows to draw every gauges power from the same wire source. However, there are six gauges and I am not sure the best way to bring the six power wires to the one power wire source. If I twist them and solder the joint it will be a really large joint and I am not sure how tight I could twist together a joint that large. Any suggestions and pics?

[TomM]

How about two pair of three wires to two wires, two together into one wire. Solder everyting and use shrink tube...should be fine.....

Or 3 pair of two into 3 into one......

Or how about .................well you get the idea........

T,

[JT42]

Would it work/be safe to put ring terminals on the ends and just use a 1/4 bolt nut to tie together all the power wires or is there a downfall to that?

[walkerjay]

Originally Posted by JT42

Would it work/be safe to put ring terminals on the ends and just use a 1/4 bolt nut to tie together all the power wires or is there a downfall to that?

Seems like a good idea. Especially if you have to remove something down the road.

[72Orange]

Originally Posted by JT42

Would it work/be safe to put ring terminals on the ends and just use a 1/4 bolt nut to tie together all the power wires or is there a downfall to that?

No, don't do that. Try one of these Mad terminal blocks.

http://www.madelectrical.com/catalog/cn-1.shtml

[tnblkc230wz]

You can use an open barrel crip and heat shrink as described in a previous thread. You could also daisy chain them. It requires crimping two wires to each connector.

I'm looking at using Delphi 56 series connectors for my fuel, volt, oil and temp gauge. I got the three pin connector and it fits the guage. I've got the terminals on order for it to make sure it will work. They have 56 series terminals designed to crimp 2 18 gauge wires.

[Custom Jim]

Let's see if I can explain a method without pictures (Dang old computer).

I'm assuming the gauges have wires coming out of them and not terminal studs on them for the electrical connections.

Will the power and ground wire from one gauge reach to the power and ground of the gauge next to it and be a little bit long ?.

If not, extend these two wires from the first gauge with a running soldered splice and then cover the connections with shrunk down heat shrink tubing.

Now with these two wires long enough to reach the second gauge next to it go out about 3" or so on the wire out of the second gauge and carefully strip the insulation back on it to where you can connect and then solder the wire from the first gauge to this spot. Now slide some heat shrink over the wire connection and on one end you will have two wires exiting (one going to the first gauge and one to the second gauge) and then on the other end just one end of the wire which now needs to reach about 3" past the third gauge. Now you do the same setup with peeling back the insulation on the third gauges wire, make a running splice, sliding and shrinking tubing over it and then continuing on through the rest of the gauges. Eventually at the end you will be left with one power and ground for the gauges (and maybe a third if you do a lighting circuit the same way).

The only problem you will have is if a gauge or bulb shorts it will be harder to troubleshoot as they are all daisy chained so to speak and you cannot seperately troubleshoot each individual gauge.

Another option is if you have access to fully insulated male and female terminals you could do the same thing with daisy chaining and by making up connections seperately on each gauge you could replace a gauge later if needed or be able to more easily disconnect the other ones for troubleshooting. Use the female end on wires going to positive sources and the male ends to ground sources. Normally the female ends are more unsulated to where if the do become unplug they are harder to short out and blow a fuse while if the males going to a ground source become unplugged and hit metal behind the dash, nothing will become shorted and blow a fuse (it just keeps the part it was attached to from working).

Jim

[JT42]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I spoke to Painless customer service and they suggested just making one large soldered joint but my concern is ease of changing out the wiring/gauges when needed. I didnt want to have to cut and re-solder if I needed to make a change.

I love the terminal block you linked 72Orange but I hate to hold up my project for a week waiting for such a small item to arrive ordered online. I went to local auto parts stores and Radio Shack and didnt see anything like that there.

I did however see this terminal strip which says it can handle up to 15Amps so it should be ok. Would this work ok in you guys opinion?

[Custom Jim]

Radio Shack used to handle those type of barrier strips and they also sold jumper strips to connect multiples of them together (they looked like a bunch of forked terminals on a strip that you could trim down to two jumpers, three, four or more depending on your needs).
Do you have any electrical parts suppliers in your area ?. Maybe they have something you could get real quick.
If you do get one of those style barrier/terminal strips I would suggest using ring terminals over forked style terminals. Either would work though.
I've also seen optional tabs for use on those style barrier/terminal strips and they give you two or three 1/4" male terminal to where you can crimp on 1/4" females on your wire ends and then you don't need a phillips screw driver to change connections or to disconnect the wires.

Jim

[63AKDN]

I picked up a couple terminal blocks at a wreckers.