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Old January 2nd, 2014, 02:31 PM
Culver Adams Culver Adams is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Truck: 1961 3/4 ton 4x4 pickup
Posts: 50
Rep Power: 82
Culver Adams is on a distinguished road
Default Re: Power tie in - Questions

Hello Jake Groby and Ole GMC Truckers,

As I think about your request, it seems you may also be looking for tips on how to connect with those tiny wires.

Inside the cab I use crimp connectors and shrink tubing: (I see you are a shrink tubing fan yourself). (Outside the cab, I solder wires to connectors--so road salt has to work harder to make a mess of my work--and I also cover the soldered connections with shrink tubing.)

I think 18 ga. stranded copper angel hair (some call it truck wire) is a little too delicate for these trucks, so I don't add new wire finer than 14 ga. When I deal with existing 18 ga. as your instrument lamps likely have, I bundle them and/or double up the end of each, twist them and solder them together (with resin for flux) and treat the soldered wire bundle as a 14 ga. wire, connect it to my added 14 ga. wire, and continue the run to fuse panel, ground, or whatever. If a photo might make this more clear, let me know and I'll see what I can dig up.

May your night lights be bright lights, and Hope that helps,

Culver Adams
Minneapolis, MN
1961 K1500 with 478 V6
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