Re: 89 200 tqa - fuse box connectors + wire help

[Samir Shah <gofast1@home.com>]

Hi Huw. What a nightmare. The fuse box can barely come out 1 inch due to
the spaghetti below it, so its almost impossible to take out the female
connectors from the bottom. Also, I am having a hell of a time finding
female spade connectors greater than 10 AWG! This means that the one
wire that goes to the power mirrors, that's also tacked on to the power
wire at the bottom would not have a place to go, if I took the wires all
the way to the fuse box.

Here what I did: a) cut the existing 8 AWG wires below the steering
wheel. One had corrosion even at this point, the other was clean.
Spliced 2 10 AWG wires to these.
b) Got a run of 6 AWG wire. Got most of it into a 10 AWG female
connector. Crimped, and connected to the 1 remaining open contact on the
fuse box.
c) ran all 3 wires to the battery (still to be done - I'm working in the
car in the driveway with a torch - came in to take a break.)

Hopefully the combination of 1 6 AWG, 1 10 AWG, and 1 10 AWG with some
corroded 8 AWG will be enough to take care of the car's electrical
needs!

Now to replace the wire to the starter with 1 AWG! It'll be this
weekend's project.

Samir. 


Huw Powell wrote:
> 
> > - Does anyone know what kind of crimps I need to install on the new
> > wires, and if they are available at the dealer. Any part numbers?
> 
> the big red wires usually have large, about 1/2", female spades on them.
> 
> > - Do I need a special tool to get the wires out from the connector
> > block?
> 
> and those usually just pull off the fuse box.  Come to think of it, all
> the connectors do.
> 
> > - Should I leave the connector connected, and just splice the new wires
> > to the old wires?
> 
> you could do that, but wouldn;t it be nice to at least clean the
> connectors?
> 
> >
> > b) As mentioned above, I used 10 gauge wire, based on a piece of the old
> > wire I showed the guy at NAPA. Looking at the manual, it appears that
> > Audi's wire is an 8 gauge equivalent. Is this going to cause a problem?
> > Its not look late to change wires, (but so far I've not found 8 gauge at
> > any of the local stores - will need to hunt a bit, I guess). Or I could
> > run a third 10 gauge wire and join them.  As I mentioned in a previous
> > post, the Audi wire was getting hot, but the 6 inches or so of new 10
> > gauge wire was not, so at the very least, this should have less
> > resistance that the old wire.
> 
> 10 gauge... handles 30 amps. is this just your fuse box power wire,
> starter wire is separate?
> 
> for heavy wire try auto stereo install shops (circuit city) they usually
> have spools of fat stuff.
> 
> --
> Huw Powell
> 
> http://www.humanspeakers.com/audi/
> 
> 82 Audi Coupe; 84 4kq; 85 Coupe GT