electrical contacts installed in trunk

[96Cab]

i replaced the wiring harness' along each side of the trunk to eliminate having to repair/splice them all the time due to cracking and breaking of the wires.

follow the link to see what i did

electrical contacts installed in truck

[Breaker]

Hey!

Nice idea

Looks good and its better than repairing the crappy cable

[hjhimm]

Wie heißen denn diese Kontakte, und wo kann man sie bekommen?

Hans-Jörg

[96Cab]

well my memory is shot but here goes

you will need
-dremmel
-wire cutters
-wire connectors
-some wire
-black silicone
-4 sets of contacts (i used these dakota digital magnum shooters - mgs-5)
dakota digital
-screwdriver
-drill



remove the black trim piece and all carpeting from trunk including the trunk floor covering (keeps it from getting metal shavings on it later on)

if you have previously spliced these wires just cut them again at the point where they usually break. The wires in the trunk side may need to be lengthed a bit by splicing on some extensions IIRC.

Pull the wiring harness out of the rubber seal that passes into the trunk lid, save the rubber seal to re-install in the hole, and fill the resulting hole in the middle of the grommet/seal with black silicone and re-install (both sides).

trace the wires in the trunk lid back and pull them out from behind the edge of the trunk lid back to the point where they connect, they will be re-fed to the area where the new contacts are to be installed.

now pull the wires in the trunk out of there grommet/seal and silicone and re-install the seal and pull the wiring harness out of therouting it is in and re-route it to the area of the trunk i have shown in the pic. You may have to splice on some extensions, be sure to leave a little slack in case you ever need to take these out again for some reason.

lay-out the contacts on the trunk and cut holes in metal to accept the contacts (refer to the specific manfg. details, mine came with hole and drill details that i got from their website) VERY IMPORTANT TO ALSO NOTE that the passenger side of the trunk lid has the locking mechanism on it, so position your contacts on that side accordingly (out of the way). Now cut a hole in the plastic cover at the same locations as the other holes in the trunk.

Now you can attach each wire to a connector and BE SURE TO KEEP A DIAGRAM OF WHAT COLOR WIRE IS CONNECTED TO EACH CONNECTOR, this will save you time from having to go back and re-check later. Also you will have to route wires through the holes you cut in the trunk and the plastic pieceand the to the connector (probably didn't need to write but who knows i'd hate to have someone connect the wires to the connector and then have to take it all apart because it wasn't fed through the openings)

the contacts i used have an attaching mechanism on the back that i did not care for, it did not seem to hold well so i bought aditional nuts to screw on the backs to lock the wire between two nuts, then i taped over each connection, you could use heat shrink sleeves for a neater job, but i don't intend on re-visiting these again.

Now temporarily install the plastic cover on the lower trunk and screw in the connectors, once you have the lower 4 contacts installed put a small dab of grease on each contact and close the trunk, that should leave marks on the trunk lid for you so you know where you have to cut next.

lay-out the contacts on the trunk lid and cut holes in metal and drill in holes to accept screw (refer to the specific manfg. details, mine came with hole and drill details that i got from their website)

now route the wires through the opening and connect them o the connectors. This is where you need to refer to the diagram you made previously, make sure you connect the correct color wire from the trunk to it's matching connector in the trunk lid.

When finished re-install carpet and your done.

That is what i can remember, prolly a few minor details left out but your all a smart bunch of guys, i'm sure you'll figure it out.