my fix for messy aux switch wires

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Badgerscab6.2

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So after the whole frustrating job of working behind the glove compartment trying to hook up one of the open circuits on the aux switches (pig-tails very short). I got to the under the hood part and noticed how short the pig-tails were on these too (dammit all to hell). Im one of those guys who likes to swap out stuff after a while, so I ponderd and thought Im gonna make a way that I can swap electronics on the switches and not lose wire every time I hook some thing up. This is what I came up with and it makes it look nice and clean under the hood. pics of the little "box" and then my air horns and compressor hooked up to switch 1 and 4
 

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Badgerscab6.2

Badgerscab6.2

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I made it! Used 4"x4" open square tubing 3/16 sidewalls. (have a wet band saw at work, and got the metal out of the scrap bin. Cut about an 1 1/2 piece all the way through, then layed it flat and cut about an inch off (small u-shape), basically big enough for the back of spade connectors and the wire to bend. cut a small chunk of 1/16" sheet metal to make the top (JB welded on after painted an installed). The bottom part is open for wires to come up. Got a set of male/female spade connectors for like $2 at autozone, drilled the holes in the plate just big enough to fit the spades through after crimping them. Also used butt-connectors and added bout 10in of wire to the pigtails to get them up to where they are now. Predrilled the holes on either end of the plade to srew it to the inner fender wall with 1 1/2 self tappers. Hope this helps you guys out. was like a 10-15 dollar project
 
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justvettn

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The wires under the hood may not be as short as you think, they have tape on them bundling them to the wiring harness. Ripe off the tape and they will be longer.
 

Blind1

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The wires under the hood may not be as short as you think, they have tape on them bundling them to the wiring harness. Ripe off the tape and they will be longer.

I can't get my hand in there to grab the tape. Do you have a secret on how to get the wires pulled up high enough to undo the tape? Though, I was able to loosen up the tape on the AUX wires behind the glove box and that was PITA as well.
 

FarFromStock

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I know this has been stated in every upfitter thread, but I'm going to say it too - why didn't Ford just add a few inches to each side of these wires? It's such a minor change that would have made a huge difference for their customers. :whymewhyme:
 
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Badgerscab6.2

Badgerscab6.2

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Yea, I saw the tape farther down too. Didnt want to basically climb up on the engine and stand on my head to get at the tape though. I just got the first bit of tape off to get pigtails loose enough to have a good amount to strip and put a butt-connector on, after I cut off the black crap from the factory
 

justvettn

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I can't get my hand in there to grab the tape. Do you have a secret on how to get the wires pulled up high enough to undo the tape? Though, I was able to loosen up the tape on the AUX wires behind the glove box and that was PITA as well.

Mine was taped right on top, when I tugged on the wire the tape broke loose.

Another trick for these wires is to heat up the black shrink tubes on the ends of the wires that Ford has caped off, and they will pull right off instead of cutting them and making the wire even shorter. Every little bit helps when your working with wires that are too short in the first place.:whymewhyme:
 
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