Electrical Stuff

[PiercedE30]

Anybody ever use the Amphenol circular connectors?
Like these:





I would LOVE to get my hands on some and rewire my engine harness with them. I don't know why, but they just look bad ass, that and they are Mil-Spec.

[george graves]

OK - I'll bit. No I've never used mil-spec connectors.

But WHY? It's not a nuke, it's a m20.

Can I interest you in some space shuttle toggle switches as well?

[PiercedE30]

The M20 is now dead to me.

edit: No, but I just think they are cool, very, very cool.

[Justin B]

Got a link to their catalog or where you buy them? I haven't used them either obviously, but I'm open to ideas for all sorts of different connectors to look into to rewire my entire 2002.

[george graves]

digikey.com - the printed catalog is about 4 inches thick - of course they carry about 10 times that online.

Have fun.

[PiercedE30]

https://www.alliedelec.com/

Prices aren't too bad.

[Draccent]

Thats an aircraft connector. Damn great stuff, and fully modular. Hell, you can customize it any way you want, simply wire to it what you want, and ground with the rest. I might consider this for my stereo...sure would clean up things a lot!


Aircraftspruce.com should have them.

[Justin B]

Yah, cool links. I know about dikikey, mouser, etc.. shoulda thought of that. Anyway, I notice that they were formerly known as Bendix, which sounds familiar. A friend of mine is working on wiring his 02 as well and is using something very similar, and they have a great crimping terminal, where it grabs the wire from four sides or something somehow rather than the usual fold over from the top. Maybe the same stuff.

[Draccent]

Yah, cool links. I know about dikikey, mouser, etc.. shoulda thought of that. Anyway, I notice that they were formerly known as Bendix, which sounds familiar. A friend of mine is working on wiring his 02 as well and is using something very similar, and they have a great crimping terminal, where it grabs the wire from four sides or something somehow rather than the usual fold over from the top. Maybe the same stuff.

Bendix is a all-around aircraft radio and navigation aid manufacturer. Damn good stuff.

[george graves]

I kinda understand why you think that it would be cool to convert a BMW to some exotic, aircraft, all aluminum, 0.00001% failure rate connector. But...

In the grand scheme of things - BMW did a great job on sourcing connectors, like the C101 (the main plug on 88+? under the hood). Even the OBC plug is just a molded piece of plastic surrounded my a .1" spacing "IDE" cable. (don't ask me how I know that)

They all work PERFECTLY even after 20 years. Why re-invent the wheel? You'll gain nothing. NOTHING...

IF your are building a SEMA show car, I could see how that would be cool. Some old Mustang tricked out to the gills - but, really.

You don't drive a British car - be glad you don't. It's a BMW - they did the math, so you don't have to.

I LOVE the thought you had - but it's just not needed, it provides no new benefits, and would only drop the resale value of your car.

[SamE30e]

I can get them at work.

[PiercedE30]

Well, I just bought like 30 of them for like 65 bucks. eBay FTW.

[SamE30e]

haha, you're going to kick yourself in the ass and wished I got them for you when you find out how much I get them for.

cough .48$ each cough

[uofom3]

Gustave was in the process of doing this to his m3 before he sold it - he was going to convert the entire wiring harness to military-grade mil-spec wiring. There is a pic somewhere of his wiring harness completely out of the car so he could get started with the Mil-spec change. Kinda sad it was never finished.

[e30sd]

i was gonna mention gustav's build. ralph warren, a so cal club racer/car nut, bought the car and will continue it on it's path of m3 domination.