A connector or just spades? A non-BMW wiring question in my M635...

[e24mpwr]

When my car was federalized, it got sidemarkers. The gaskets have crumbled, and replacing them with the same Toyota parts that are currently on there.

The bad news is EVERYTHING was crumbled and terrible when I took it off, and the bulb had dropped back into the chassis.

Everything just crumbled apart...


The wiring seems...hacked and is toast...


Spliced in with not a lot of slack upstream...


The new assebmly looks like it might take a male (weather-resistant?) connector...


...or is it just two spades?

I'd like to do this the right way, and if I'm going to splice wires I'd really like to add back a few inches back to make putting in new bulbs/etc. easier.

These were in early-80's Supra/Celica/etc. and 80's Land Cruisers. I sorta think this was made like this for the Land Cruiser with some sort of water-resistant/proof housing for the off-roader and compatible with spades for the older stuff. My thinking is as long as I'm splicing I might as well make it better.

Any thoughts/leads?

I might just wander into my local Toyota parts dept., but...


[EDIT - I'm also planning to clean and seal the metal to make sure it doesn't become a hidden spot for rust - any suggestions on that score are also welcome!]

[EuroGeorge]

If Toyota has the proper female connector, that would be the way to go. I suspect it's part if the harness though. I would use a couple blade connector and some extra wire soldered and wrapped with heatshrink. You can buy liquid tape and fill in the cavity for the connector making it virtually waterproof. Heck, some silcone or RTV would work to seal the connector.

[roger hanley]

An option is to use https://www.posi-products.com/positite.html these were recommend by Daniel Stern Lighting when I upgrade all my lighting on the car, worked quite well. Posi Tape products offer many solution too many of the electric wiring problems we have on the vintage BMW's, has save me a lot of time.

Another option is to purchase matching male/female connectors, visit Digikey who sells Molex connectors.

Roger

[Bert Poliakoff]

For an almost undetectable splice, get a small piece of brass tubing at your local hobby store about the same O.D. as the wire you are splicing. Strip the wire , stick the ends in the tube and solder. Have a piece of shrink tube slid up one of the wires. When done soldering, slide it down over the splice and shrink. The splice will be close to un noticeable.

[e24mpwr]

If Toyota has the proper female connector, that would be the way to go. I suspect it's part if the harness though. I would use a couple blade connector and some extra wire soldered and wrapped with heatshrink. You can buy liquid tape and fill in the cavity for the connector making it virtually waterproof. Heck, some silcone or RTV would work to seal the connector.

I called a vintage Land Cruiser supply joint to see if I could get the other side, and after a good laugh at the story of why I was calling he said the connector was part of the harness and not available separately. He said he was pretty sure they weren't made any more . It's possible there are vintage restoration loom builders that have them, but they'll want a lot of $$ to sell the connectors individually (if they'll sell them at all - there's no sense in selling them outside of a loom if they're NLA). Frankly, swapping in easier, more standard and more weather-proof connectors is all I care about - there's not an originality aspect going on here since these weren't part of the car to begin with. At some point I'll see about BMW connectors...

My wires go back to the harness somewhere (haven't had the chance to try to follow it back), though since it didn't have sidemarkers from the factor I have to assume there's some kind of join somewhere (or maybe they reused the city lights?). No idea how this thing was wired during Federalization/etc., other than I did have one of the connectors melt way back. I recently picked up what I need to covert it back to Euro with wipers (currently US buckets with Hella lamps), so I'm thinking I'll sort this either at the same time if I work the "sooner" scenario or do something simple for now and fully later if I can't manage to carve out the time fairly promptly.

An option is to use https://www.posi-products.com/positite.html these were recommend by Daniel Stern Lighting when I upgrade all my lighting on the car, worked quite well. Posi Tape products offer many solution too many of the electric wiring problems we have on the vintage BMW's, has save me a lot of time.

Another option is to purchase matching male/female connectors, visit Digikey who sells Molex connectors.

Roger

Much appreciated! That's exactly the kind of things I'm looking for. I'll go have a look.

I found these:



The rears are also vintage Toyota (in decent shape), but I'm going to do the same wiring there at the same time, and want to do something fairly weather-proof/corrosion-resistant. (not that this car sees a lot of contrary weather, and doubt it has ever seen a salted road).

For an almost undetectable splice, get a small piece of brass tubing at your local hobby store about the same O.D. as the wire you are splicing. Strip the wire , stick the ends in the tube and solder. Have a piece of shrink tube slid up one of the wires. When done soldering, slide it down over the splice and shrink. The splice will be close to un noticeable.

Good advice - I haven't done any soldering, but I'm sure I could figure it out. I really like the idea of something that looks less...hacked...