Re-wiring Boot Cables, Keeping The Cable Girth Down

[gerlewislewis 0]

Im after some advice, I have fitted a new bootlid, and need to wire the 5 calbles I cut up to the 5 hanging out of the new bootlid, the join is going to be inside the rubber concertina bit that goes from the shell to the bootlid. As a result the 5 joins need to be kept slimline. Soldering is out of the question as its too 'fat', so too is cable connectors.

 

Any ideas? I was thinking of some heat-shrink plastic pipes to stick the cable together - would this be the best solution? If so where can you get them.

 

Cheers

 

Ger

[sonofsam 5]

use crimps and heatwrap, but stagger all the joins you make, so they dont bunch up.

[GLPoomobile 958]

If you've got enough play in the cable at either side, then the joint doesn't need to lie inside the rubber conduit, just tuck it back inside the tailgate or roof. And if you don't have enough play you could splice some extra wire in there to make it up, but that means double the joints.

 

You're going to find it difficult to keep the girth down whatever method you use, if you have to join all the wires at the same spot. Soldering would be the slimmest solution IMO. Heat shrink would work in theory, but with the wiring being stressed every time you open and close the boot, I wouldn't trust the longevity of the joint.

[Paintguy 0]

I'm sure you must have had a good reason for not simply unplugging the cables rather than cutting them, but the most 'slimline' solution I know of for rejoining cables are Solder Shrink connectors. You'll find something similar at the bottom of this page. The wires are simply inserted either end, and the connector heated up to both solder and seal them together.

 

As GLP says though, joining wires inside a flexible conduit isn't really a good idea as they'll be constantly under stress, so extending them to either side of it is a much better idea.

Edited April 22, 2008 by Paintguy

[gerlewislewis 0]

Thanks all.

[Atari Boy 11]

I fitted a replacement tailgate recently and had a similar dilemma, I pulled the original cables from the tailgate and fixed them the cut ends of the new tailgate and fed them back through. I now have no joints and I would call it a ‘two spanner job’ in Haynes talk, not that tricky at all.

[GLPoomobile 958]

Just for reference, when I swapped tailgates on my last 205 I cut the cables (don't ask me why. laziness probably). I just made sure I left enough free cable at the car end so that when I rejoined them I was able to feed the joints back down inside the tailgate. I only used crappy butt connectors and it was quite a bodge job (lack of time, resources and knowledge ) but it did the trick. No idea how long it lasted as I flogged the car a while after (sorry Si ).

 

I would have used the solder joints that Paintguy mentioned (love those things, and the heat seal terminals) had I known about them. But as great as they are, IF you're restricted to joining all the cables at the same spot and keeping them in the rubber conduit then they probably will be no good, as they will still be too thick a mass when bunched together.

Edited April 22, 2008 by GLPoomobile