alright, im ready to wire my harness to the stereo, but how should i splice them together? I have seen 3 ways, soldering, crimping and twisting together and then electrical tapeing them up? im not sure what way i should do, i dont have the crimps, so i would have to get them.

 

Soldering with heatshrink to cover the connections is the best way. Crimping is second best. Twisting together then taping is the worst.

 

ok ill solder, ill have to buy some heatshrink, thanks for the advice

 

I would just go with the Crimping. Heat shink takes a little longer if you dont know what your doing. after crimping, Get some electrical tape and tape all the wires together for a clean look.

 

crimping is probably the easiest in the small space provided

 

im not going to solder in the car, i have a harness adapter that allows u to solder all the wires to the stero harness adapter, and then all u have to do is plug it into the console, so its actually quite easy to solder and heat shrink, although i have thought twice about crimping, are there any benefits or downsides to crimping compared to soldering? And for any of u guys that have installed your own head unit, what method did u use?

 

I used to solder all the time, and then cover with heatshrink, or electrical tape, because Solder offers a 100% positive connection that you don't have to wonder about after you do your install.

"Damn, did I remember to tighten that ground?", or "Man, that speaker is cutting out a little, I wonder if its my connection"

Crimping's major downside is just that, the connection, but only if your not paying attention. If you go out and get good quality gold plated audio butt connectors, you will get a pretty strong connection, but you need to make sure you crimp the wire correctly, and very tight. I usualy cut my leads longer, like 3/4", then double them over on eachother, making a stronger, tighter fit in the connector, then squeeze the heck out of it with a quality crimping tool. As long as you pay attention to what your doing, crimping is easy, and it looks very clean if done just right.

 

thanks for that advice, hmmm, crimping is easy, can i get gold plated crimps at a hardware store? I do like the idea of soldering and heat shrink though, I know it would be more secure

 

you can usualy find the gold plated crimp ends at auto parts stores like Advanced or AutoZone.

Hardware stores might have them.

 

i just used butt connectors and that seemed to work pretty well but then again im not as talented as stumasters...lol