need some wiring assistance..
 

What I am doing is throwing the away the merc wiring harness from my motor, cause they are crude. I will be rewiring the motor from scratch. I want to use a plugs or terminal blocks so I can just unplug and pull the motor. I have looked into weatherpack sealed connecters, they come in 1 pin connecters to a 6 pin connecters. But these connecters are only made for 14-16 gauge wire. I have looked into terminal blocks too. Its looks like most of them don't except larger wire. I would like to find a connecter of some sort to use.


I have about 8 or 9 wires that are 14-16 gauge, then I have two wires ( ground and power) that are 8 gauge, coming from the front of the boat.

I would like some opinons on what to use conneceter wise. I know there is some nice stuff out there i can use But i just need help finding it.

How have you wired your motors? with plugs or just hard wired into the boat?



Thanks

Travis

I used the stock harness. Because I was doing a custom install, I now feel that it was a mistake. CP sell a blank harness with the stock plug that would have worked alot better. I still ended up using a weather pak connection for some of the additional gauges. Sorry, but I can't think of a single connection that will accomidate all of our needs.

Traviss: For the lighter gauge wires, try MSD. They have very nice harnesses and weathertight connectors. You also want to use a good crimping tool. I don't think you will find proper connectors for the #8 cables, nor should you.

These are high amperage cables that absolutely need to be bolted down - tight

Yup i believe the MSD weatherpack connecters should work for the smaller wires. but like you said the bigger wires need to have good solid connectoins. I am going to keep looking around.


headed up north for the weekend talk to guys later..


Thanks

Travis

Actually, msd is just a retailer. The weatherpak is a GM invention. Try getting them at Napa

Speaking of Napa. I just found out you can get a 10% discount at Napa with your AAA membership.

Try pacer marine, they may have a cannon plug to accomodate all your wires.
If not you can use some of the stereo amp connectors. They quick disconnect and carry high amp loads like 8 guage.
Pacer # is 954-462-0902.
Most of us builders use the Mercury cannon plug for the entire dash.
Accessories can be run through a seperate simular harness and sistered with the heavy guage wire very neatly.:)

The good thing is daddy is a generous motors man and we have weatherpaks to last us the rest of our life :D :D



Its nice I am up north using my aunt's computer... damm it is cold up here :D

I think the main plug you are talking bout has more wires and terminals than what my idea is, well any way how about one of those black 7 way trailer connectors, they will take up to 10 gauge wire but not 8 gauge because ive tried, it will go in but some of the strands dont get pinched so you end up with almost a 10 gauge connection anyway, you could do somthing seperate with the big ones and that would get you close to back down to your 7 wires for the connector, they are cheap, about 7 bucks each just about anywhere, (k mart, walmart, auto zone), with a little dielectric grease they wont corrode, the only thing I dont know if your trying to make it look perfict, but it may look a bit rigged up to someone with a trained eye, if you want a aluminum housing with steel pins again a 7 way conn i could send you one free if you cover shipping, its the same thing that would be on a semi truck, again not the best looking though, and traviss, up north? where about? its 1 degree here in NW Indiana Chicogo area, thats without the wind chill, winter sucks!

wow.. thanks for the ideas. I am probably going to end up putting the smaller wires into a weatherpak of some sort. Dad said he had a few terminal blocks for 8 gauge in the barn.. I'll look at those and see.



rough water.... I am up here in oscoda michigan, about 2 hrs north of flint michigan. , same place i spend the summer weekends at, our summer home is about a mile down the lake. My uncle is retired so I stay at his nice warm house. :D :D Right now its windy as hell. Just came in from the ice shanty and caught a some nice perch.

later