Ok I am car stereo guy back from the day when my first car had an 8 Track in it. Over the years I have seen different ways of doing things, and have done them from everything from twisting the wires and putting black tape on them, to more recently using butt connectors on everything. However seeing that no matter what I do, it always ends up after a year or 2 that I start getting intermittent shorts, speakers cutting out, stereo's that cut out on bumps I decided to do it "Right" and solid.
I grabbed the harness from the deck, chopped and cleaned up all the wires. I went out and bought a proper OE GM adapter harness. I sat down and went to town on it.
Each wire got a length of heat shrink slid over it, then an AT&T style twist, then soldered, then shrink wrap heated around the solder joint. Then taped over the shrink tube, then carefully everything after about 4 layers of insulation got bundled and tapped off.
This bugger should never short out or come apart. If it does I will toss my hands in the air and take it to a pro to have them install it. This is going into a car that won't see an amp or anything, probably will just stay with the stock speakers. But the car had a tape deck that was on the fritz.
It may be overkill, but shorts be damned it should hold up.
------------------ 85GT 5spd ,93 Eldorado 4.9 Dual O2 Custom Chip, Archie Clutch. Custom Exhaust. MSD Everything 245/50/16's Not Your Average 4.9 Capt Fiero Com --- My Over View Cadero Pics Yellow 88GT 5spd Stock.
[This message has been edited by Capt Fiero (edited 09-16-2006).]
There is alot of power running through these suckers, and it is also sensitive to interferance. I did one with butt/crimp connectors, but only because that was all I had in my car when I went over there. He hasnt had problems, but it took just as long as my soldered ones, I think the quality will lack in the longrun though.
Good work not crapping one together with electral tape!
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02:03 AM
Riceburner98 Member
Posts: 2179 From: Natick, Ma, USA Registered: Apr 2002
Last stereo I took apart ('cause half the speakes were dead!) had been assembled with the screw-on home wiring wire nuts. Cheap black tape over some of the twisted joints (had come off), wire nuts on the rest. Some had fallen apart. Niiiiice. The guy had his stereo stolen, and he was definitely not a car guy so I'll give him credit for actually hooking one back up, but damn. The harness plug he used had about 3/8" of wire left sticking out of it, which didn't help with the wire-nuts. At least butt-splices would have stayed on! I broke down and bought a $70 butane iron and it's all I'll ever use now. (same as the one that Snap-on sells for more, but the maker's brand is cheaper) Amazing how much you end up using one if working on cars alot. Oh, when I briefly worked for a GM dealer, the accepted method that GM uses to repair broken wires is hot-glue filled heat shrinkable butt-splices. They use a crimper that'd probably cost $300 to buy, but I was surprised to see the butt-splices. The heat melts the glue and then shrinks the tubing, which makes a tight seal. First time I saw them was on a new-ish Impala that mice had eaten through about 20 wires in a bundle. The resulting splice was about 3" in diameter with all those butt-splices and tape! I offered to solder and heat shrink them all, but that's thier method...
------------------ Bob Williams Working on the next 3800 swap.. Missing the one that worked!
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02:05 PM
jscott1 Member
Posts: 21676 From: Houston, TX , USA Registered: Dec 2001
For decades all I ever did was twist the wires and put cheap black tape over them. By the time the joints start failing that technology is obsolete anyway.
Nowadays I solder, and heatshrink, but your harness is massive. It's nice though. I would find myself wanting to add something soon and then have to cut into that harness after a year or two.
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03:47 PM
Capt Fiero Member
Posts: 7658 From: British Columbia, Canada Registered: Feb 2000
I don't plan on ever cutting up the harness. It will stay with the deck. New OEM ends are $10 or less and with every deck I buy it will get setup to work on the Fiero harness. Having a 4 Fiero family and a 5th maybe soon. I don't think I will run out of cars to install them into.
------------------ 85GT 5spd ,93 Eldorado 4.9 Dual O2 Custom Chip, Archie Clutch. Custom Exhaust. MSD Everything 245/50/16's Not Your Average 4.9 Capt Fiero Com --- My Over View Cadero Pics Yellow 88GT 5spd Stock.
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05:59 PM
Riceburner98 Member
Posts: 2179 From: Natick, Ma, USA Registered: Apr 2002
LOL, they just keep multiplying don't they! Edit: how long have you had the black notchback with the 3-spoke wheels? Wondering if it's the same one that really got me liking Fieros all those years ago... If not, it looks to be its twin! (saw a picture of it back then) That would be back in '95 / '96 or so, before I got into Fieros. Ironically, after my 1st car's engine blew and my parents were helping me get my 2nd car (Dodge Omni, woo!) there was a bright red Fiero sitting next to it for sale. Unfortunately they wouldn't let me get it...
[This message has been edited by Riceburner98 (edited 09-17-2006).]
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06:44 PM
Sep 18th, 2006
fiero_silva Member
Posts: 1493 From: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Registered: Jun 2003
LOL, they just keep multiplying don't they! Edit: how long have you had the black notchback with the 3-spoke wheels? Wondering if it's the same one that really got me liking Fiero's all those years ago... If not, it looks to be its twin! (saw a picture of it back then) That would be back in '95 / '96 or so, before I got into Fiero's. Ironically, after my 1st car's engine blew and my parents were helping me get my 2nd car (Dodge Omni, woo!) there was a bright red Fiero sitting next to it for sale. Unfortunately they wouldn't let me get it...
Probably the same pic I basically fell in love with back in the day. I saw it on a link posted to the original Fiero.org mailing list and decided that is exactly the way I wanted my car to look. I bought my car back in 94, but I was not even on the internet until 98 and don't think I had pics up until almost 2000 when I joined PFF. There is something about an 85GT with 3 spokes that I always loved.
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01:44 AM
Capt Fiero Member
Posts: 7658 From: British Columbia, Canada Registered: Feb 2000
The only problem with that now is that when the deck install gets "tight" that harness will not want to bend at all to fit in the dash....
Actully I did not even have to knock out that stupid metal brace. The harness is stiff but bendable. So I just tweaked it exactly the way I wanted and everything just slid into place. I was amazed at how much room there was back there when you did not have a snarl of wires running every which way.
The guy had his stereo stolen, and he was definitely not a car guy so I'll give him credit for actually hooking one back up, but damn. The harness plug he used had about 3/8" of wire left sticking out of it, which didn't help with the wire-nuts. At least butt-splices would have stayed on! 
Edit: how long have you had the black notchback with the 3-spoke wheels? Wondering if it's the same one that really got me liking Fieros all those years ago... 
