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Soldering Components In-Line

Okay… we do our best to not take things for granted.  In all of our blog posts, we always try to give you as much fundamental information on the material that we are presenting.  Every once in a while, we get called out by our customers for not explaining something thoroughly.  This post is intended to fix this.  In a lot of our blog posts and wiring diagrams, we show components installed in-line with a MASTERCELL input or a connection to ground.

In our last blog post, we showed wiring a 10K pull up resistor on a brake-pedal switch.  You can see that blog post here.  In other blog posts, we’ve shown wiring diodes in-line between a trigger on an ECU and a MASTERCELL input.  You can click here to see a recent example blog post.  Someone just asked us an obvious question on our last blog post.  “How do I install the diode or the resistor in the wire”.  We’ll show you how.  This isn’t the only way to do this but it is our recommended way to do this.

There are three important factors to consider when installing an in-line component in a wire.  First, you need to have good electrical connection.  Second, you need to protect it mechanically.  Lastly, you need to protect the joint from the environment.

These steps will show you how to solder an axial, leaded component in-line with a wire.  A leaded part has metal terminals coming off its ends.  An axial part has the leads running along the axis of the component.  This picture shows you a good example of an axial, leaded diode.

Example of a simple diode

Example of a simple diode

 

Speaking of diodes, remember that they have a direction to them.  Check our wiring diagram for proper orientation of the diodes.  Resistors do not have a direction so you can install them either way in your wiring harness.

The first step is to strip back the insulation on the wire you’re connecting to your component.

Next, you want to twist the strands of the copper wire together.  This will make the next steps easier by keeping the strands together.

Next, twist the strands of the wire with the lead coming from your component.  We recommend leaving some length of the lead at the end as shown in this picture.

The next step is to make a good electrical connection between your wire and the lead on your component.  This needs to be soldered.  A good soldering iron and electrical solder will make this job easy.  You want to make sure that you are heating the joint thoroughly and that the solder is flowing between the copper wire and the lead on your component.  When you’re finished, the joint should be shiny.  If your joint looks grey or dull, you need to apply more heat and solder.  We also recommend keeping the solder on the joint between the copper wire and the lead on the component.  You do not want the solder to wick up the copper wire under the insulation.  This will make the joint inflexible and it could fail over time.

Once you have the joint soldered, clip off the extra length of lead on the component.

Repeat this process for the other side of your component.

Now you have a good electrical connection between your wires and your component.  The next step is to protect the component mechanically and from the environment.  To do this, we recommend a good quality heat shrink tubing.  Heat shrink tubing does what its name suggests.  It shrinks around a joint when you heat it.  Cut a length of heat shrink tubing that is slightly larger in diameter than the component that you soldered in line.  You want the length of this tubing to extend past the exposed area of your joint by about 1/2″ on both sides.

Use a hot air gun to heat the tubing and shrink it over the component and the joints.  We know that a lot of guys like to use lighters or torches to do this but we really recommend a hot air gun for better control and safety.

The heat shrink tubing is going to do two important things.  First, it is going to mechanically strain relieve your joints.  This will keep the joints from failing due to vibration of mechanical stress.  We recommend that you zip tie these components in the harness to minimize any bending or movement as an added precaution.  Secondly, the heat shrink tubing is going to protect the joints from exposure to moisture, dirt and other chemicals in your car.

Soldering in-line components in your harness is a simple thing to do.  If you have any additional questions about this, please click on this link to contact our technical support team.

 

 

Jeep CJ7 Wiring Series- MASTERCELL Location

Over the next few videos, we’re going to continue our theme on good planning.  Specifically, we’re going to talk about picking the best locations for the major components that come with your Infinitybox system.  We’re installing our 20-Circuit Kit with inLINK and inRESERVE in our 1979 CJ7.  To get the most out of our install, we want to pick the best locations for the MASTERCELL, the front & rear POWERCELLs, the MEGA fuse holder and the inRESERVE solenoid.  We’ve broken this up into 5 different videos, talking about what you need to consider for each part.  This video covers picking the best location for your MASTERCELL.

The Infinitybox MASTERCELL

The Infinitybox MASTERCELL

The MASTERCELL is the brain of your 20-Circuit Kit.  It connects to all of your switches.  These include your ignition switch, turn signal stalk, brake pedal switch, headlight switch, fuel pump & cooling fan trigger and any other accessory switches that you may have in your car or truck.  The MASTERCELL sends commands to the POWERCELLs when you turn a switch on or off.  You can learn more about the MASTERCELL and what it does by clicking this link.

There are two important things to consider when you’re picking the location for your MASTERCELL.  First, you want the MASTERCELL as close to your switches as possible.  This keeps the wiring short and makes it easy to install.  Second, you want to have easy access to the MASTERCELL for troubleshooting and diagnostics.  There are tons of diagnostic features built into the MASTERCELL.  You can learn about them at this link.  To access these features, you need to be able to get to the MASTERCELL, remove the protective cover, press the buttons and read the inSIGHT LCD screen.

In our 1979 Jeep CJ7, we’re going to mount the MASTERCELL in the glove compartment.  There is a convenient open pocket behind the door for the glove compartment.  This puts the MASTERCELL close to all of the switches on the dash.  That will make the dash wiring short and efficient.  With the door open, we can easily take off the MASTERCELL cover, press the buttons and read the inSIGHT screen.  When we close the door, the MASTERCELL disappears.

This picture will show the location of the MASTERCELL and POWERCELLs in the Jeep and how we routed the CAN cable between the cells.

Infinitybox Jeep CJ7 Wiring Diagram- CAN Cable Routing

Infinitybox Jeep CJ7 Wiring Diagram- CAN Cable Routing

Picking the best location for your MASTERCELL will make your switch wiring simple and efficient.  It will also make troubleshooting and diagnostics easier if you need them.  Keep watching for more in our 1979 Jeep CJ7 Install Series.

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and click the bell icon so you get notified when we post new videos in the series.

Click on this link to get to the main page for the 1979 Jeep CJ7 wiring project.  You can find all of the videos on one place there.  

You can also click here to contact our technical support team with any questions about your car or truck wiring project.  

Splice Saver Kit

There are lots of different places in your car’s harness where you need to take a single POWERCELL output and splice it to go to different outputs.  Our new Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit gives you a very easy way to create a robust and reliable junction point in your wiring harness. The Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit gives you an easy way to connect multiple accessories to a single POWERCELL output.  Examples include powering your ECU, gauge power, stereo power and A/C power from a single ignition output.  Other examples include lighting, locks and stereo power.  You can power 5 separate wires from a single input wire.  The internal buss bar can be split to create two separate circuits, each with a single input and two outputs.  We also include 3 cavity plugs to seal any unused outputs.

The Splice Saver uses the same sealed 280 Metripack terminals and cable seals that are used in the POWERCELL and inMOTION output harnesses.  The kit includes all the components needed to build a sealed junction point for your wiring harness.  It also includes a mounting clip for a clean install in your harness.

Here’s what you get with the Splice Saver Kit:

(1) 6-Position Splice Saver Connector

(1) Splice Saver Sealed Cover

(1) 6-Position Terminal Position Assurance (TPA) Clip

(1) 6-Position Buss Bar

(1) Mounting Clip

(6) 280 Metripack Terminals

(6) 280 Metripack Cable Seals

(3) 280 Metripack Cavity Plugs

You can download the instructions for the Splice Saver Kit by clicking this link.

Just like any other job on your car, you need the right tool for the job.  We recommend using the correct crimp tool to properly install the terminals on the end of the wires that are going into your Splice Saver Kit.

This tool can be purchased from Waytek wire by clicking this link. 

We put together a few good examples of how the Splice Saver Kit can help you simplify the splices that you need to make in your cars wiring harness.

The first example is wiring your Ignition power.  The Ignition output on your POWERCELL is going to power everything that needs key-on power in your car.  Primarily, this is going to power your coil, ignition box or ECU.  You may also need key-on power for things like your radio, heating & air-conditioning system, gauges and transmission controller.  The splice saver will take in your Ignition output and distribute it to these multiple electrical systems.  Check out this picture to see how you can use the Splice Saver to simplify your Ignition wiring.  You can down load this diagram as a PDF by clicking this link.

Wiring ignition key-on power with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wiring ignition key-on power with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wiring door locks is another great example of where the Splice Saver Kit can help clean up your wiring.  You have one set of outputs on your inMOTION cell that need to go to the door lock actuators on the driver and passenger side of your car.  You can split the buss bar of your Splice Saver Kit in half, which gives you two separate circuits for the lock and unlock outputs on inMOTION.  This picture shows the details.  You can download this diagram as a PDF by clicking this link.

Wiring door lock actuators with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wiring door lock actuators with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wiring the front parking lights in your car is another great place to use a Splice Saver Kit.  You first need to take the POWERCELL output for the parking lights and split that to go to the lights on the left & right side of the car.  You also need to tap into this parking light output to get power for your gauge illumination and for any other accent or trim lights you may have in your car.  This picture shows how you can easily do this.  You can download this diagram as a PDF by clicking this link.

Wire diagram showing how to wire front parking lights and illumination with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wire diagram showing how to wire front parking lights and illumination with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

You can do something similar for your high beam wiring.  You need to first get the output from your front POWERCELL split to go to the left and right high beam bulbs.  You also need to tap into this circuit to power the high beam indicator on your dash.  A Splice Saver Kit can make this very easy.  Wiring the high beam bulbs and the indicator on the dash doesn’t use all of the outputs on the Splice Saver Kit.  We include cavity plugs that you can use to seal the open circuits to keep water, dust and dirt out.  Check out this picture for more details.  You can download this diagram as a PDF by clicking this link.

Wiring diagram showing how to wire high-beams and dash indicator with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wiring diagram showing how to wire high-beams and dash indicator with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

The wiring for your turn signals in the front of the car is another great place for a Splice Saver Kit.  Just like the door locks, you can split the buss bar on the Splice Saver to get two separate circuits.  These two circuits can be used to easily get you access to the connections you need to get your turn signal indicators on your dash.  This picture shows you the details.  You can download this diagram as a PDF by clicking this link.

Wiring turn signals and dash indicators with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wiring turn signals and dash indicators with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Your rear parking lights and brake lights wiring are another good example.  You can split the buss bar to get two separate circuits.  Then you can use the Splice Saver Kit to connect the POWERCELL outputs for the rear parking lights and brake lights to the bulbs on the left and right side of the car.  This picture shows the details.  You can download this diagram as a PDF by clicking this link.

Wiring diagram showing how to wire parking lights and brake lights with an Infinitybox Splice Saver

Wiring diagram showing how to wire parking lights and brake lights with an Infinitybox Splice Saver

You can order the Splice Saver Kit by clicking this link.

Click here to get in touch with our technical support team with any questions.

 

 

Wiring Switches in Parallel

Our Infinitybox system is the most powerful and flexible wiring harness available in the market. Our MASTERCELL inputs are flexible and adaptable for practically any application. A customer just asked this question and we thought that it was a great way to show off the flexibility of the MASTERCELL inputs. The customer is wiring the power window switches in his car. He wanted to know if there was a way to wire a parallel switch that would control all 4 windows at the same time. The answer is “yes” and this blog post will show you how to do it.

Our MASTERCELL inputs work by getting connected to ground. This link will take you to an older blog post that goes through the details of how the inputs work and how to connect a switch to them. Since the inputs work by a ground trigger, this gives you a lot of flexibility with your switches.

This picture shows you how to wire in a parallel switch to control multiple inputs simultaneously.

Picture of a wiring diagram showing how to wire two Infinitybox MASTERCELL inputs in parallel

Picture of a wiring diagram showing how to wire two Infinitybox MASTERCELL inputs in parallel

In this example, we’re showing two switches that control the driver’s and passenger’s windows. For the sake of clarity, we’re only showing the front windows and we’re only showing the down action. These switches are labeled Driver Down and Passenger Down in the wiring diagram. You are going to follow the wire colors from your configuration sheet to wire the switches and the power wires that go to the window regulator motors.

To wire in the parallel “master” switch, you are going to connect the MASTERCELL inputs for the Driver’s and Passenger’s switch together and bring them to the parallel switch. The important thing here is that you need to put a diode on each of the wires from the Driver’s and Passenger’s switch. These diodes are electrical check valves. They only let current flow in one direction. They block the flow of current in the other direction. Without these diodes, both the MASTERCELL inputs would be connected together at the parallel switch. They would both turn on with either switch. The diodes electrically isolate the two MASTERCELL inputs so they are operate independently from the individual switches but work together from the parallel switch.

You can source these diodes anywhere. We recommend a 1N4001 diode. These can be purchased easily from Amazon or other on-line retailers. The orientation of the diodes critical. This will not work correctly if they are installed backwards. Note the orientation of the diode symbol in the wiring diagram above. The line on the diode symbol corresponds to the silver line on the case of the diode. Look at the picture below.

Example of a simple diode

Example of a simple diode

We only show the down action for the power windows in this diagram. We also only show 2 window switches. You can join all 4 inputs together through diodes if you want to control your front and rear windows from a single parallel switch. You can also repeat this for the up action of your power windows.

This same approach can be used for other switches like your lighting. We posted a wiring diagram a while ago showing you how to wire your head lights and parking lights from a single switch using a similar arrangement. You can view that blog post by clicking this link.

Click on this link to download a PDF version of this wiring diagram.

Click on this link to contact our technical support team with any additional questions about wiring your car or truck with our Infinitybox system.

 

Side shot of Player's LTD Camaro wired with Infinitybox Express Track Car Kit

Players LTD Camaro

For those who were following us early on in our history, we did a lot of work with James Shipka and his One Lap of America Camaro.  We really cut our teeth on this car and learned a lot about the business.

James and his team came back to us last year with another race car project.  This one is pretty unique.  James found a Camaro originally built for the Player’s LTD series.  General Motors built these cars specifically for this race series and were driven at tracks all across Canada.  The main tracks were Shannonville, Grand Prix Molson, Race City, Mosport, Moslon Indy, Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres, Westwood, Cayuga Speedway.  You can learn more about the cars and the race series by clicking this link.

Front shot of Player's LTD Camaro wired with Infinitybox Express Track Car Kit

Front shot of Player’s LTD Camaro wired with Infinitybox Express Track Car Kit

James was looking for a powerful but simple electrical system for his restoration of this Player’s Camaro.  We recommended our Express Track Car kit.  This gives our customers everything that they need to wire all of the electrical functions of a race car.  It comes pre-configured to control your ignition, starter solenoid, lights, fuel pump, water pump and cooling fans.  At its heart, this kit starts with one of our POWERCELLs.  The kit also includes a pre-engineered CAN switch panel that mounts in your dash.  A simple 4-wire harness connects the switch panel to the POWERCELL.  Lastly, the kit also includes one of our IOX input modules for wiring simple switches into the system.

This picture shows the POWERCELL mounted behind the passenger door in the car.

POWERCELL Mounted in Player's LTD Camaro

POWERCELL Mounted in Player’s LTD Camaro

Here you can see the switch panel mounted in the center console.

Infinitybox Express Racing Kit switch panel mounted in Player's LTD Camaro

Infinitybox Express Racing Kit switch panel mounted in Player’s LTD Camaro

This is a very simple but powerful application of our products.

Front end of Player's LTD Camaro wired with Infinitybox Express Track Car Kit

Front end of Player’s LTD Camaro wired with Infinitybox Express Track Car Kit

You can follow the entire build series for the Player’s Camaro on Facebook.  Thanks to James and his team for sharing the pictures.  We’re proud to be a part of your project.

If you’d like to learn more about how our Infinitybox products can help you wire your car or truck, click here to contact our team.

 

Picture of the Gen-IV Heating & A/C Unit from Vintage Air

Vintage Air Wiring

Here’s a quick follow up blog post to the one that we just did on trinary switches for air-condition systems.  A lot of guys want to know how they wire power to their Gen-IV heating & air-conditioning system from Vintage Air.  This post is going to his the basics about Vintage Air wiring with our Infinitybox system.

As with any electronic system that you’re going to install in your car, carefully read and thoroughly understand the instructions before you start.  Most of our customers are using the GEN-IV system from Vintage Air.  You can download a quick electrical diagram for this system by clicking this link.

There are two power connections that you need to make for the GEN-IV.  The first is a connection directly to the battery for constant +12-volts.  This is the large-gauge red wire in their harness.  It has a circuit breaker in-line to protect the wire from overloads.  Per their instructions, they recommend that this red power feed gets connected directly to the battery to minimize any voltage drop.

The second connection is for the ignition power for the system.  On most of their systems, this is a violet wire in their harness.  This ignition feed wire gets connected to the ignition output on your POWERCELL.  When the ignition is on, this wire has to have battery voltage on it to turn on the Vintage Air GEN-IV.  The majority of the current required to operate the GEN-IV is coming from the direct connection to the battery.  This ignition trigger wire requires very little current and can be spliced into the ignition output on the POWERCELL directly.  You do not need to add a relay for this.

You can splice this violet wire directly into the POWERCELL output wire.  You can also create a terminal block for your switched ignition feeds. The best option it to use our Splice Saver Kit to create a secure and sealed ignition bus.

Wiring ignition key-on power with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Wiring ignition key-on power with the Infinitybox Splice Saver Kit

Lastly, you need to make sure that you have the grounds properly connected for the Vintage Air harness.  In their wiring diagrams, these are the white wires.

These instructions are applicable for any version of the Infinitybox system, whether or not you’re using inTOUCH NET or inVIRONMENT.

Click here to contact our technical support team with any questions. 

 

Picture of MES 5-Wire Lock Actuators

Central Locking

We created our inMOTION cell about 6 years ago to handle things that need to change direction.  From any MASTERCELL input, you can control power windows, lock actuators, exhaust cut-outs and other linear actuators.  What makes inMOTION unique is the fact that it changes polarity from within the cell.  This means that you don’t need special relays to change the polarity of the current flowing to your window motors or lock actuators.  inMOTION does that for you.  You can also control any of the inMOTION outputs from our inLINK key fobs and any smart device through inTOUCH NET.  This post is going to show you how to wire lock actuators with Central Locking to the MASTERCELL and inMOTION cell.

There are lots of ways to control door lock actuators.  In most cases, our customers want to unlock their doors when they disable security from their inLINK key fobs.  That’s easy.  From the inside of the car, they usually want switches that lock and unlock the doors.  That’s easy.  Another way to handle this is to use the central locking feature built into the MES 5-Wire Door Lock Actuator.  Our good friends at Electric-Life sell these.  You can see them at this link.

These lock actuators do two things.  First, they lock and unlock the doors.  That’s pretty basic.  They also have switches built into them to control central locking.  When you pull up on the door lock knob, it pulls on the lock actuator mechanism and closes a switch internally.  This switch sends a signal to the Infinitybox MASTERCELL to pulse the lock output on inMOTION to unlock the rest of the doors.  Pushing down on this same door lock knob closes another switch inside the actuator that closes a second switch.  This second switch is connected to another MASTERCELL input that sends a signal to inMOTION to lock the doors.  Take a look at this wiring diagram.

Image of Infinitybox wiring diagram showing how to wire 5-wire lock actuators

Image of Infinitybox wiring diagram showing how to wire 5-wire lock actuators

There are a few things to consider when using these lock actuators.

  1. Check the wiring diagrams that come with the actuators to confirm the wire colors in our drawing.
  2. Depending on how you have the actuators oriented in the car, you may have to change the wiring for the inMOTION outputs and the central locking switches.  You want the up and down directions to be the same on all actuators and you want the lock switches all in the same direction.  Check to make sure everything is working correctly before you finalize you wiring connections.
  3. You must properly adjust the linkage for the lock mechanism so that you can get full range on the actuator plungers when you pull up and push down on the lock knob.
  4. Make sure that you train the inMOTION cell correctly.  Follow the instructions that came with your inMOTION kit.

You can download a PDF of this wiring diagram by clicking this link.

Click here to contact our technical support team with any questions about wiring central locking with our Infinitybox system.

 

Ignition and Starter

Here’s the next step in wiring this 1967 Mustang.  In previous posts, we described wiring the ignition and starter outputs from the front POWERCELL.  You can get the Ignition output post at this link.  This link will take you to the starter output post.  In this post, we are going to describe the process of wiring the ignition and starter switch to the MASTERCELL inputs.

Our customer is using a steering column from IDIDIT for this Mustang.  They chose the option to have the keyed ignition and starter switch built into the column.  When you order this option from IDIDIT, you get a separate harness to connect from the column.  This link will take you to the instructions for this switch from IDIDIT.  Essentially, there are 4 wires in this harness.  These will connect to the MASTERCELL input wires.

Remember how our MASTERCELL inputs work.  You connect the input wire to one side of your switch.  The other side of the switch connects to ground.  When you turn the switch on, the MASTERCELL input gets connected to ground.  The MASTERCELL sees the input go to ground and sends a command to one of the POWERCELLs to do something.  In most cases when you are wiring OEM switches to a MASTERCELL, you will ground the battery feed and connect the input wires correspondingly.  This IDIDIT switch is no exception.

Here’s what you are going to do with the 4 wires in the switch harness.

First, you are going to connect the red wire to ground.  You can use any of the black wires in the MASTERCELL input harness or you can connect this directly to the chassis.  We’ve said this over and over, make sure that you have a good metal-to-metal connection between the ground wire and the chassis.  No paint, powder coating, rust, oil, grease, etc.  You want a good clean connection.

Next, you are going to connect the purple wire in the IDIDIT harness to the MASTERCELL input wire for the starter.  Check your configuration sheet.  Different configurations may have different wire colors for the starter.  In our configuration, the starter input wire is the white wire with the yellow tracer on the MASTERCELL A harness.  This is input number 4.  You can crimp, splice, solder or use connectors to make this connection.  See our earlier blog posts about connection techniques.

Next, connect the pink wire in the IDIDIT harness to the MASTERCELL input wire for the Ignition.  Same warning as above.  Check your configuration sheet for the exact wire color.  In our configuration, this is the white wire with the blue tracer on the MASTERCELL A harness.  That is input 3.

You will notice that this ignition and starter switch has an accessory position.  Some customers will use the accessory position on their switch to control an output that is different from their ignition output.  They may want to have their stereo on without having their ignition on.  In most configurations, there is an OPEN output on the front POWERCELL designed for this accessory function.  In our configuration, this is output 8.  It is controlled by input 8 on the MASTERCELL A connector.  That is the blue wire with the light-blue tracer.  We’re going to connect this wire to the brown wire in the IDIDIT harness.

Here’s how the different positions on the switch work.  When the key is in the accessory position, your accessory output on your POWERCELL will be on.  In the ignition or ON position, the ignition output will turn on.  So will the accessory output.  When you turn the key to the start position, the accessory will turn off.  The ignition will remain on and the starter output will turn on.

That’s all that it takes to connect the IDIDIT ignition and starter switch to the MASTERCELL in this 1967 Mustang.  We have a large collection of different ignition and starter switch wiring diagrams in our reference library on our website.  Click this link to get there.

Contact us if you have questions about wiring your ignition and starter switch to your 20-Circuit Kit.  Click on this link to contact one of our technical support engineers.

Example of an IDIDIT steering column with turn signal stalk.

Steering Column

Let’s get to the steering column wiring.  This is the next installment the process of wiring our 20-Circuit Kit into a 1967 Mustang.  One of our customers sent us a great series of pictures showing their process of wiring their car.  It’s time to talk about turn-signal switches, horn switches and 4-way switches.

Our customer is using a steering column kit from IDIDIT.  The one they chose is for the 1967 to 1969 Mustang.  It is a tilt-style column designed for the shifter on the floor.  They choose the option to have the GM steering column connector on the harness.  This column also has the Tilt Lever Momentary Switch 510168 option.  We are going to use that to control the high-beams and will discuss that in the next blog post.  It also has the ignition key built into it.  We’ll talk about wiring that in future posts too.

The steering column in the car does a few obvious things.  It holds the steering wheel and lets you turn the car.  It also holds the switches for the turn-signals, the horn and the 4-way flasher.  All of those switches will wire to the inputs on your MASTERCELL.  The MASTERCELL will send commands to the different POWERCELLs in the car to turn lights on and off plus sound the horn.  Wiring the switches to the MASTERCELL is really easy.  There is a diagram on our website that shows how to do this.  You can see it here.

Image of wiring diagram showing how to connect MASTERCELL inputs to a GM-Style Steering Column Connector

Image of wiring diagram showing how to connect MASTERCELL inputs to a GM-Style Steering Column Connector

Note that most steering column manufacturers use the GM-style turn-signal switch.  These have been used in cars for years with very few changes.  Companies like IDIDIT and Flaming River use this exact same column switch.  The diagram above will work for any of these columns.

The wires colors for the steering column connector are shown on the left side of the wiring diagram above.  We also show the details of the connector.  Almost all of the wires in the column connector need to connect to MASTERCELL input wires.  The two that are unused are the yellow and green wires on the column connector.  Check the configuration sheet that came with your kit.  You want to match the wire function to the wires on the right of the diagram, not necessarily the wire color.  Wire colors may vary from different kits.  Always use your configuration sheet for the right wire colors.

The black wire on the column connector needs to connect to your MASTERCELL horn input wire.  In our configuration this is the blue wire with the yellow tracer on the A input harness.  This is input number 9.

The light blue wire on the column connector needs to connect to your MASTERCELL input for the left turn signal.  We’re using the inputs for mechanical steering column.  In our configuration this is the yellow wire with the black tracer on the A input harness.  This is input 11.

The dark blue wire on the column connector needs to connect to your MASTERCELL input for the right turn signal.  We’re using the inputs for mechanical steering column.  In our configuration this is the yellow wire with the red tracer on the A input harness.  This is input 12.

The brown wire on the column connector needs to connect to your MASTERCELL input for the 4-way slashers.  In our configuration this is the yellow wire with the blue tracer on the A input harness.  This is input 13.

Lastly, the purple and white wires on the column connector needs to be connected to ground.  You can use the black wires in the MASTERCELL harness as a ground reference.  Otherwise, you can connect these wires to the chassis at the column.

One more comment, you need to properly ground the column to the chassis.  Otherwise, you will have problems with your horn switch.  In most cases, the column will ground to the frame of the car through its mounts but you will not get a good ground if you have the column shaft painted or powder coated.  The same is true if you have a fiberglass body.  Run a ground wire from a stationary point on the column to the frame of the car.  Make sure that you have a metal-to-metal connection between your ground wire and the points where they connect to the column and the chassis.

You can splice the MASTERCELL input wires directly to the wires on the steering column connector.  Alternately, IDIDIT sells a connector kit with the terminals included to crimp onto the MASTERCELL input wires.  Using this connector makes it very easy to maintain and service your column in the future.

That’s about it for wiring the turn-signal switches, the 4-way switch and the horn switch.  This connection to your MASTERCELL is simple and easy.  You can download a PDF copy of the MASTERCELL input wiring diagram by clicking this link.

You can contact a member of our team with questions by clicking this link and filling out our contact form.  Stay tuned for more updates on the wiring of this 1967 Mustang.

 

Picture of a lost-travel brake switch. Commonly found in Ford Mustangs.

Brake Switch

In previous posts, we talked about how to wire the brake lights to the rear POWERCELL in our customer’s 1967 Mustang.  We’re going to talk about wiring the brake switch in this post.  This is a very easy MASTERCELL switch input to wire.  There are lots of different brake pedal switches out there.  Here are a few examples from the Summit Racing website.

 

Hydraulic pressure brake switch

Hydraulic pressure brake switch

MOPAR-style brake switch

MOPAR-style brake switch

Automotive brake pedal switch

Automotive brake pedal switch

Picture of a lost-travel brake switch. Commonly found in Ford Mustangs.

Picture of a lost-travel brake switch. Commonly found in Ford Mustangs.

This last brake switch is what our customer is using in the 1967 Mustang.  All of these switches have 2 terminals on them.  One will connect to the MASTERCELL input wire.  The other will connect to ground.  When the pedal is pressed, there is continuity between the MASTERCELL input wire and ground.  Refer back to this illustration again.

Simple diagram showing how to wire a switch to the Infinitybox MASTERCELL

Simple diagram showing how to wire a switch to the Infinitybox MASTERCELL

The brake pedal switch simply connects between the MASTERCELL input and ground.

Start by checking the configuration sheet that came with your kit.  This link will take you to an earlier post in this series about the importance of your configuration sheet.  This car is wired with separate brake light and turn signal outputs on the rear POWERCELL so we’re going to use the MASTERCELL input for Brake Lights with Multi-Filament Bulbs.  This post will get you more information on the different turn-signal and brake light options.

We checked our configuration sheet.  The MASTERCELL input for the brake switch for the configuration that we want is the Yellow-Green wire.  This is input 15 on the MASTERCELL A connector.  Remember that the MASTERCELL input wire needs to connect to one side of the switch.  The other side of the switch needs to connect to ground.  In the case of the brake switch, there is no polarity.  You can connect the MASTERCELL input to either of the terminals on the switch.

In the case of the Mustang switch, you can purchase the mating connector and harness that plugs onto the back of the switch.  This has the two wires that connect to the MASTERCELL input and ground.  You can splice or solder these wires in any way as described in previous posts in this series.

For the ground connection, you have two options.  You can make the ground connection directly to the chassis at the brake pedal.  Make sure that this connection is made on the body, not on the brake pedal mechanism.  You will not get good continuity to ground through the pedal linkage.  Put a ring terminal on the ground wire to connect to the chassis.  Make sure that you have a metal-to-metal connection for this ground.  The junction should be free of dirt, grease, oil, rust, paint, powder coating or any other contaminant.

You also have the option to use any of the black wires in the MASTERCELL harness as your ground connection.  There are 8 black, ground wires in the MASTERCELL A harness.  All 8 of these wires are electrically the same.  You can use any of them to be the ground connection for your brake switch.

Here’s how your brake light circuit will work when it is connected.  When you step on the brake pedal, the contacts in the brake switch close.  This connection takes the MASTERCELL brake input and connects it to ground.  The MASTERCELL detects that the input has been grounded and sends a command to the POWERCELL in the rear of the car.  The POWERCELL receives this signal and turns on the output for the brake lights.  When you take your foot off of the brake pedal, the contacts in the brake switch open.  This disconnects the MASTERCELL input from ground.  The MASTERCELL sees this input turn off and sends a command to the rear POWERCELL.  The rear POWERCELL gets this command and turns off the brake lights.  It seems complicated, but it isn’t.  All of this is automatically managed from within the Infinitybox system.

If you have questions about connecting your brake switch, you can click on this link to contact a member of our team.  Keep watching our blog for more updates on wiring switches in our customer’s 1967 Mustang.