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Best method for getting 16awg into doors

Benwilj

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Does anyone out there have any experience getting two strands of 16awg speaker wire into the doors? A how to and or images would be helpful. I've inspected the rubber boot and found the two connections within.
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Brian V

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You sure do like pain ! You need to run a solid wire through from the inside of the door and then attach the 16 guage to said wire and carefully draw it through to the inside of the door .
 
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Benwilj

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How do you get past the solid plastic connection that clips on the dash side of the boot. I would have asked the question if the boot was hollow all the way from door to dash. Fishing wire is the easy part, getting by the connections is what's stumping me.
Thanks for your help though
 

CenCalS550

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It is pretty simple, once you remove the rubber boot from door jamb there is 2 plugs. Find an empty slot and drill a small 1/8 or 3/16 hole with a drill on each end of the connectors so the cable can pass thru. I did it to my car to swap out for premium mirrors, removing mirror harness from inside is a PITA, but since you won't be doing that it should be fairly simple.
 

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Benwilj

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Update on the project:
I ended up just having a shop do it. They quoted 2 hr job at a $60 rate. It ended up taking them 4.5 hrs and I paid $160. The guy explained how he had to do it. He split the two wire pairs into 4 strands and had to drill four small holes in each door connector. The connectors where just to filled to not split up the wires. Even with the small hole size, the drill bit still caught a pin and bent it a bit. He straightened the pin back out and everything seams to still work.
Glad I outsourced the job
 

CenCalS550

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Update on the project:
I ended up just having a shop do it. They quoted 2 hr job at a $60 rate. It ended up taking them 4.5 hrs and I paid $160. The guy explained how he had to do it. He split the two wire pairs into 4 strands and had to drill four small holes in each door connector. The connectors where just to filled to not split up the wires. Even with the small hole size, the drill bit still caught a pin and bent it a bit. He straightened the pin back out and everything seams to still work.
Glad I outsourced the job
Honestly you could have done that yourself, the hardest part is "drilling" the holes on the connectors so they come out both of the plugs, you can do that by pulling off the rubber boot and getting a long drill bit, but glad you got it done.
 

Falk03

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I added missing terminals to the connectors for additional speakers, BLIS, puddle lights, turn signals and mirror heating.
I bought some old door wire harnesses, ripped them apart and used the wires to enhance my harnesses. Was a lot of work but looks like OEM.
 

Canoman

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I added missing terminals to the connectors for additional speakers, BLIS, puddle lights, turn signals and mirror heating.
I bought some old door wire harnesses, ripped them apart and used the wires to enhance my harnesses. Was a lot of work but looks like OEM.

Has anyone seen a writeup on how to do this?
 

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wildcatgoal

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I drill a new hole in the door and the car body, rust treat it, and create my own stock-looking tubing and grommet dealy to bridge the divide along the stock wire bundle tube. Gotta use an 90* angle hole saw setup and bravery, but I hate drilling through the plastic things. Now-adays I usually just use the stock wiring that goes into the door. The difference is negligible up to 100 watts of power anyway since stock wiring is good copper wire.
 

99Zeus99

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How about getting the part number off the OEM connector, look it up online, order the pins/sockets, terminate your own wiring, continuity check it and then hook everything up like it's supposed to be? To me that's easier than drilling out stuff and destroying half a perfectly good connector. Could probably order extra connectors in case you screw up something in the process for minimal cost. Maybe I'm just weird :)
 

wildcatgoal

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The pinning toolset is actually very expensive. The cheap ones don't work.
 

Falk03

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I just used a regular very thin screw driver. I practiced before a little with a spare used door wire harness. I did not get any of the expensive tools and it worked for all of the connectors just fine.
 

Falk03

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How about getting the part number off the OEM connector, look it up online, order the pins/sockets, terminate your own wiring, continuity check it and then hook everything up like it's supposed to be? To me that's easier than drilling out stuff and destroying half a perfectly good connector. Could probably order extra connectors in case you screw up something in the process for minimal cost. Maybe I'm just weird :)
I think for the door connector only the small terminals are available as spare parts (if you know the part number, which I don't).
And I agree that drilling is a not so perfect solution. I added all missing wires exactly as it would be in the OEM wire harness. Only the color coding of the wires is almost impossible to match.
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