Help with electrical connection?
 

Does anyone have a good source for what I believe is called a "piggyback splice?"

For whatever reason when trying to hook up a Tsunami 4 Ch. LOC in my wife's xB I was having a hell of a time trying to get standard wire splices to work. I've seen the piggy back splices in the past, and even saw that the Toyota Techs used them when they installed my wife's alarm.

However, I have been to several hardware stores, several auto parts stores, as well as Radioshack and no one carries them. Can these really be that much of a specialty item? Can anyone direct me to a store, or type of store that should have these in stock?

And in case I am calling these things by the wrong name I guess I can try and describe them. Essentially they crimp over an existing wire and have a male spade terminal. You then crimp a female spade terminal to the wire you wish to splice in. Then simply connect the spade terminals.

If I can't find these anywhere soon I am going to have to go back to the regular splice terminals. And I really don't want to have to do that.

One thing that you could do so that there is no permanent modification to the factory harnesses would be to buy a forward and reverse radio wiring harness from your local audio shop. That way the reverse harness can plug in to the radio and you can plug the forward harness in to the factory plugs and the wiring that is attached to either end can be wired however you'd like with no need for splicing. Plus, when you sell the car or whatever there's been no modification to the harness. Mark

Thanks Mark. But I think I am already a bit past that. I already partially stripped two of the wires on the factory harness. Those standard splices were being a total PITA, even after I carefully stripped away some of the insulation with a razor blade.
At this point I am getting desparate enough to call the Toyota dealer and ask them if they have the splices I need. I don't even like thinking about what they would charge. Or I can just take the car to a stereo shop with the dash and head unit already pulled and just pay them to hook up the LOC. But I really don't want to do this. Especially when I am doing the rest of the entire install myself.
In 5 hours of work on Saturday all I got done was the routing of the 8 awg power wire from the battery to the amp and the amp installed under the driver's seat. But I did probably spend over 2 hours running around and grabbing parts and borrowing tools I forgot I needed. Oh well. By the time I am done with this thing I'll be able to gut the interior of an xB in a matter of minutes.

This is what i use at work everday of my life. In 5 years ive gone thru 8 of these things. A must have if you ever do a lot of wiring. I have bought them from Matco Tools( they come to my work), Kmart and Home Depot. Im not sure if this was what you were looking for, but it works for me and if you need any more help please let me know, it would be my pleasure to help yeah.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0...CLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

I beleive this is what your talking about, a scothlock or a T-tap.
http://www.crowbarelectricalparts.com/Scotchloks.htm

I have used them once or twice over the years, but not a big fan of them. Id rather just splice and solder and tape. I have seen them not make very good connection on wires before and rattle lose from the wire. They maybe a specialty order item and not found around locally.

^^^ T-Taps are it.

They are available at auto parts stores. When I asked for them by that name, the employees did not know what they were, but I found them in electrical. The word "T-Tap" is on the clamshell package.

Those are the type of splices I originally tried using and they sucked. Big time. Either they couldn't crimp down on the wires, or they wouldn't stay closed. And since I don't have a soldering iron, I was looking for a quick solution and one I knew was out there.

I ended up going by a local automotive electrical specialty shop and got what I needed. He called them "scotch locks," but they weren't the same as what was above. They are very similar to what Toyota dealerships use when splice into the factory harnesses for alarms, cruise control, etc. They clamp and lock onto the existing wire and have an insulated connection that you hook and insulated male spade to.

I actually got the dash pulled apart, splice hooked up, and LOC installed over a 2 hour span during commercials on TV. :) The new connections worked great. And they hold like nobody's business. I couldn't even get them back apart by hand, so vibration shouldn't be an issue. (The clamp, not the spade connection.)

Unfortunately I haven't completed my install so I don't know how good the connections are yet. I hope to get it finished after work tonight, but if not, then on Thursday before I install the new springs.

Thanks again everyone for all of your help and advice.

I was at walmart yesterday and saw them...about $4, I think.

Thanks for the post.

I am so close to being done now it isn't even funny. All I have left to do is slide the down firing enclosure under the passenger seat and run the speaker wires. It would have been done last night but I realized too late that I didn't have any spade connections to connect the speaker wire to the amp.

The install will be finished tonight though. I can't wait to hear it.

Somewhat related, where are you guys running your amp wire throught he firewall at?

There's a grommet on the drivers side. up left of the clutch pedal. It's up a bit from the floor, so you have to kind of contort yourself to get at it. It's a bit of a squeeze, but I ran my power cable thru by taping it onto a wire hanger and putting it thru from outside the car (under the hood).

I have a 4 AWG running through the same grommet described above, and yes, it is a pain to get up there.