spedracer
spedracer New Reader
4/29/22 1:01 a.m.

I'm getting my Miata ready for w2w after doing TT for a while. Farmed out getting it caged, but left the fire extinguisher install to myself to do. Not something I've done before, but I've followed all the manufacturer recommendations and instructions thus far. It's an electronic Lifeline zero 360 system. I'm almost done, just have to wire everything up. The interior/exterior buttons (1 shown below) need connected, in parallel, from the control box/battery unit to the bottle itself.

I'm stuck on an extremely dumb question though - what type of connector do I need to attach the wires to the back of this button? There's nothing in the instructions about it, and an email to Lifeline went unanswered. As you can see from my second picture, a "normal" 18-22 gauge female connector is way too big. I could just wrap bare wire around the hole in each male end and heat shrink it, but I know solder is generally not the way to go in a car, so there's gotta be something I'm missing. Frighteningly, if these come loose and touch each other, the damn thing goes off. Oddly, the CarTek kill switch exterior button (also in picture) came with a few inches of wire already connected to it and looks to use the same connector, but that doesn't really help. Anyone have any search terms I should be using? I looked on McMaster-Carr but haven't been able to find any "mini" female crimp on connectors, they are all way too big.

EvanB
EvanB GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
4/29/22 7:31 a.m.

What is the width of the male tabs? Female quick-slides are available in .110 or .187 tab width also, the most common is the 1/4" you have shown. 

0.110 (2.79mm)

Molex 19019-0001 Female Disconnect (waytekwire.com)

.187

Molex 19019-0008 Female Disconnect | Waytek (waytekwire.com)

APEowner
APEowner GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
4/29/22 1:15 p.m.

Those are solder lug terminals and are, as the name implies, intended for a soldered connection.  Solder solder the leads on, apply shrink tubing to the individual leads and then a larger tube over the pair to minimize motion.  Run the wires through a cable clamp and then add the connector of your choice.  Or, use a different button with screw or quick connect terminals.

spedracer
spedracer New Reader
4/30/22 10:47 a.m.
EvanB said:

What is the width of the male tabs? Female quick-slides are available in .110 or .187 tab width also, the most common is the 1/4" you have shown. 

0.110 (2.79mm)

Molex 19019-0001 Female Disconnect (waytekwire.com)

.187

Molex 19019-0008 Female Disconnect | Waytek (waytekwire.com)

Thanks for the links, I believe these are .110 but I bought both just to be sure, as the shipping outweighs the cost of materials by quite a bit. Eventually I'll have to give in and just mass order a bunch of common-ish electrical parts so I can just reach in the toolbox. Car is always evolving so I can't really do a ton of advance planning.

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