Steering Wheel Spacer / increase Telescoping

[sgray944t]

Status report:

• I've ordered the physical spacer from Italy, once that gets here I'll give it a test fit. I've messaged back and forth with the owner of spacershop quite a bit. He's been very helpful and is confident this will fit. I'll take plenty of photos of the assembly process once it arrives.
• Wiring: I've ordered 3 or 4 connectors (male and female), and ultimately spoke to both the distributor and manufacturer of the Yellow steering wheel connector, and their office in Dearborn, MI. Good news is that I 100% have found and purchased the same yellow connector. Bad news is that there is no stand alone male connector that fits the "key" type of the yellow connector. It's manufactured exclusively to marry with the clock spring. There is a Gray connector that is also identical to the yellow, but has a different "key" type, so unfortunately its of no use. Further than that, even the male connector that fits the grey plug is made to be soldered directly to a motherboard, so the male pins are not removable/adjustable and aren't mean to have wires crimped to them.

So from a wiring adapter standpoint, my goal to extend the stock harness ~3 inches, with as minimal modification, minimal cuts and splicing, leaving it as OEM possible. My plan there is:

• Re-use the oem female terminals that are crimped onto the wire.
• Rather than use my OEM harness, I'll buy a brand new one (they are not expensive), and modify that. This way I always have the stock harness to revert back to.
• I will test the resistance through the harness, comparing both OEM and my extended version.

The process will basically be:

1. From the new OEM harness - de-pin the yellow connector by removing the female terminals. This is super easy, having done it on my test harness and the new yellow connectors I bought.
2. For each wire, I will cut the female terminal off right at the end.
3. From my donor harness, I will also de-pin the yellow connector and cut the wire, but this time I'll cut the wire about 2-3inches back from the female terminal. This will act as the "extension" that will be added to the new OEM harness.
4. I've been researching crimp vs. solder and the best way to splice the extension wire onto the new OEM harness. It appears Mercedes sells a splice that has solder inside and it shrinks up to make a watertight seal. That is actually the repair that they authorize on their own SRS systems, so I'm leaning this direction. That said, this is the only piece of the puzzle I'm still researching. My goal is to have a splice that adds the least amount of resistance to the circuit as possible.
5. From there its pretty straightforward, I'll be able to simply re-insert the female terminals from the extension part of the harness into the OEM harness yellow connector.
6. The only other unknown is what the physical pass-through of the hub adapter is like, if I need to secure the harness inside the adapter at all, etc. TBD once I receive that.

Totally open to any feedback / suggestions. Especially around the type of splice to use, but from initial reading that seems to be like religion to people (solder vs. splice).

I'll update again once I receive the physical adapter and get the splicing figured out.

 

[TheGBKid]

Saw your latest response and I've used these in car audio (high end) and they seem to be of very high quality. I'm not seeing any additional resistance after using them. Not a reseller or shill, just a guy that's used them. This sounds like a really cool project - good luck in finishing it up!

Solder Stick

 

[sgray944t]

Saw your latest response and I've used these in car audio (high end) and they seem to be of very high quality. I'm not seeing any additional resistance after using them. Not a reseller or shill, just a guy that's used them. This sounds like a really cool project - good luck in finishing it up!

Solder Stick

Thank you for the link!

Those are extremely similar to the Mercedes style. Glad to hear positive feedback from someone who has used them before.

 

[nordique14]

Fantastic work so far. Your follow up with the suppliers is wonderful.

I think you are on the right track with buying an extra harness and using that. As long as the splicing is good then it will be fine to use with or without the spacer. This assumes that the connector can fit through the spacer.

Please let us know as soon as you determine the spacer fits. I will then also order one along with a spare harness. I think the wiring problem is solvable. It just depends on how easily it can be put back to stock afterwards.