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Alright, I tried asking MegaHurtz over AIM, but he's always away without message, so I thought I'd ask the forum.

When installing a headunit, I know that you have to purchase a wiring harness/adapter so that you can splice the wires from your headunit to the adapter, then use your stock wiring harness without cutting that, thus ruining it. My question, however, is what should I use to connect the headunit's wiring harness to the adapter harness?

I stopped by Myer Emco today, and the nice guy who helped me told me that I could get away with twisting the stripped wires and taping them up, or I could twist and solder them, then tape it. I don't want to do this because I have had previous bad experience with solder and wiring, so I want something that is more secure and final. Thus, my idea of butt connectors comes into question. The Myer Emco guy said that it's kind of useless to use butt connectors, but I could if I really wanted to. I just want a really solid connection, though, so I asked him if Myer Emco carried GOLD PLATED butt connectors, but he said no.

So my question stands, what should I use? Butt connectors or twist and solder?

Thanks,

your new lighting mod

 
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and just for my own personal reference

link1
link2

 
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do the same thing i did....strip, twist, and tape... been like this for a year and a half with no problems.

 
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obviously solder is the best, but i just used the connecter where it was like a pipe , put one wire in each way then crimp it down together, and that worked perfectly for my alpine 9831, it was just the generic 16 gauge connecter and kragen or some place like that the gold plated isnt htat necessarily

 
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The connector that looks like a pipe = butt connector. That's what I'm going to do, then.

 
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That's what I just did this past Saturday and I've done it in the past. Soldering is best, but crimping works great as well. No need to spend $6 on 10 freakin connectors. Go to Walmart and pick up a whole crimping kit and crimper tool for like $3.

 
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tape costs like $.02... is there a disadvantage to just taping it?

 
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They make connectors that you put on and then you twist the wirestogether, slide the connector back ovet the twist then heat the connector with a high heat gun (or a lighter if all else fails) there is soder in the connector and it shrink wraps them all in one step. works nice thats how i did mine

 
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so in other words, gold plating is not necessary. I can safely use aluminum butt connectors? That seems like a nice alternative, and cheaper, too! thanks for the help everyone

 
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gold plateing is over kill as long as the wires are twisted together well

 
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or bring it to me and i'll solder the harness for you for free..lifetime warranty too

 
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This quote from White Rabbit in the thread Diskreet wrote:

"Theres no way I can advocate solder ot make connections. the name of the game in a car is "preserve the value of the vehicle", not "make the best connection thats humanly possible". theres a reason that the vast VAST majority of high end shops out there use t-taps rather than solder, and its not entirely speed! Its far more important to have a high resale value on the car five years from now than a connection that will last forty years rather than twenty years! if your taps are falling off after two weeks, its not a sign you need to solder, its a sign you should be working harder on making a solid tap"


Personally, I'd just buy some closed end connectors, butt connectors, crimp on connectors of my choice(I like butt connectors, they're easy, and require the least effort). You could get some of the one's with heat shrink tubing on them and shrink the wrap around the wire, but even that's unnecessary, unless your dash sweats really bad and gets wet and stuff.

 
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solder is okay on such a thing because when returning it to stock you just unplug the adaptor you bought so soldering these connections is alright, and its not like your going to be using your HU in 8 different cars so if you do take it out you snip off the adaptor as long as you want and just solder it to the new adaptor.

 
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i used tape when im lazy, but the easy way is to twist and put the cap on them. i think its safer than tape becuase tape looses adhesion if it gets really really really super duper hott.

 
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^not if youre using quality tape. Some tapes are good to like 120 degrees or something like that.

 
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Whatever you do don't use tape, one my homegurls 99 galant i had installed my old JVC HU and used tape. After 2 weeks It didn't wanna play. I loaned her my ish for a day went to best buy and my homeboy gave me those twist thingys, haven't seen a problem since Dec 03. Go with twist over the tape I do alot of installs heed my advice.

 
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Alright so I have the headunit and the wiring harness (and everything else except for the spacers for the front). For the headunit, what should I do about leftover wires? Just tape them up and put them aside? I don't need to put anything in there, right? Things like the Audio Interrupt wire and the Dimming wire are left over.

Thanks

 
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What I did with the extra wires was folded em in half and taped em up on the side of the other wires. I taped all the wires up like it was one thick wire. Make any sense? Its early.

 
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I've used butt connectors in almost all of the installs that I've done. You can also use those little caps too. Just twist the wires together and then crimp on the cap. They work really good too. You could also use quick disconnects. I wouldn't really recommend it though. Lollipops may work too, but they may be too tiny to accept the bigger gauge of stereo wires. If all else fails, wire nut them bitches together. Make sure that whatever you use is insulated.

Closed-end connectors:


Lollipops:

 
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yep. i'm stopping by radioshack to pick up more butt connectors. some of the wires, though, already have a "built in" butt connector, so should i just cut and close those?

 
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The guy at myer is a retard.

Tape is a really half-assed way of doing things. They melt and lose adhesiveness. Tape makes a ridiculous mess after a while and ruins the wires. Plus, it's just plain ghetto. Use butt conectors OR The best thing to use:

My personal favorite


Crimp caps allow you to crimp the wires together, but unlike butt connectors, you twist the wires together first, so theres no way they'll ever come undone. BRILLIANT!

 
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I've always used butt connectors, and I've never had any problems at all. I usually zip-tie all my finished wires together to make a nice, neat bundle...

 
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zip tie plus tape will make for a good, secure wiring harness, i guess

 
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dude use wire nuts, they're like 30 cents a piece and make for an awesome connection, tape is kinda tacky and not a good install

 
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Wire nuts are just as bad. They fall off and don't make real solid contact, they are loose screws. They were designed for house electrical because houses are stationary.

 
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dont use tape dont use wire nuts most of the time when customers come in to pro shops complaining of their deck cutting off we would find wire nuts and tape. wire nuts are for houses and electrical tape is for cleanin up the wires that have already been properly connected.

 
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woot! finished HU install just now. there was WAY too much work involved. i had to drill some new mounting holes on the headunit bracket cause the alpine's holes are a lot closer to the front than stock. i had a problem with my presets getting reset after i turned the car on/off. figured out that i didn't properly ground the cables so i fixed that and all is well

i used butt connectors and crimp caps (to close off the unused wires).

the console looks butt ugly now, but the better sound quality! oh the sound quality

 
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I had my buddy soldier mine, and than wrap with tape. Its clean.

 
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i still have to figure out this headunit.

 
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you made the install seem harder than it was, with your questions. that's good that you got it working though, first headunit install? i'd be a bit scared to fry a headunit, so i guess its only natural to ask.

what headunit is that? which alpine model?