Installing connectors for your wiring: Difference between revisions

[[Category:Electrical & Lighting]]

Let's say that your bike's previous owner mangled the turn signals connections due to his inept electrical skills. Or, perhaps you want to add some electrical accessories, but don't want the permanence of [[Soldering 101|soldering]]. Electrical connectors are your answer.  

[[Image: molex2_02.jpg|150px]]

Here is the replacement: 3 pin Molex connectors. Any electronics store should stock these. 0.62" connectors were chosen for several reasons:  

The wires are twisted, and a significant amount of the insulation has been stripped away. Since it was shortened to begin with, we don't want to trim this wire.

Here you see that the crimp-on connector still leaves exposed wire. This needs to be covered, or else it is going to short on something.

[[Image: molex2_06.jpg|150px]]

After crimping the bottom crimp, the terminals are installed into the Molex sheaths. The ones in these pictures are the "barrel" type receiving connectors. The barrel connectors are put into the "male" Molex connectors. The spear-type connectors are put into the "female" Molex connector. You'll notice that one of the connectors only has 2 wires. The turn signal has 3 wires, and the bike only has two, so a three-terminal connector was used to avoid dangling wires.