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I'm going to mount the rear license plate to the rear bumper and bought these to light it. Soon will be making up a wire harness for all the rear lighting. I want to use some sort of connector for these but the wires are tiny. Anyone know of a source?
I was hoping to find some sort of quick connector. Otherwise they would have to be soldered after installation/ in place. Might not have a choice.
My buddy has the same lights, here is how he got around it. Strip wire twice as long then fold in half, at that point you have increased the "wire thickness" two fold. Used spade terminals with heat shrink so they can be removed when needed.
I agree with doubling back the wire strands with the spade terminals and heat shrink as a good solution. You could also use bullet contacts that you can get from Autozone or any automotive store and heat shrink them as well. Use a decent crimp tool with either. It is not recommended to solder a brass receptacle since you could anneal the contact if overheated. Regardless of what connector you use, they’re probably tin plated and that is notorious for forming non-conductive tin oxides that will cause problems eventually. I recommend a contact lubricant or even NoAlox grease to provide an optimal long-term electrical connection prior to heat shrink. As a closing note, dielectric grease or anything with silicone in it is not a good contact lubricant.
Thanks for the help. I will use fully insulated spade connectors with the smaller spade width so the male end will pass through the mounting hole. Would have preferred a weather pack type connector but even the smallest housing is too big.
I was hoping to find some sort of quick connector. Otherwise they would have to be soldered after installation/ in place. Might not have a choice.
It going to be difficult if not impossible to find connectors that'll fit through the mounting nut. I have these lights on two trucks and my Harley, all are soldered and heat shrink wrapped.
It going to be difficult if not impossible to find connectors that'll fit through the mounting nut. I have these lights on two trucks and my Harley, all are soldered and heat shrink wrapped.
I have a metripack assortment. You can always crimp the pins on the wires, and insert the pins into the connector shell after feeding them through the mounting nut. Metripack stuff is much smaller than weatherpack.
Another option is to make it a permanent splice but leave extra wire to make another splice in case you ever need to replace the lamp. Since they’re led lights, it is highly unlikely you’d ever have to touch them unless they get damaged but leaving some extra wire length won’t hurt. A couple of solder splice butt splices would do the job and eliminate the need for shrink tubing. Here’s a set I found on Amazon but I know others make and offer them as well.
I'm going to try one of these. It's 3" long x 1" diameter. I attached a piece of aluminum 1.5"x1.5" angle under the bumper as a bracket for the number plate. Will tuck this up under the backside of the angle and transition to the tail light wiring. It will need a dab of silicone on the gland washers because they won't squeeze small enough.
I have the exact same leds for my license plate mounting project. My plan was to just go to the junkyard and find a weather tight connector, depin it, and then crimp onto the led wires. Not that I expect to need to change the plate (running a YOM plate), I did want an idea that would allow the wire/pin to go back through the nut if I ever had to remove.
