Ok Hive,
I'm in the market for a wiring harness connector between my boat motor (4.3GM block) and the rest of the boat.
Last fall I had to cut the harness to pull the engine.
Who knows of a water-resistant wiring harness connector that is roughly 16 wires? I'd love to keep the connections from the engine to boat to a minimum.
Waytek Wire will have what you need. I source a lot of my connectors and wire from them.
Can't go wrong with Weather Pack
Weatherpack is great, but don't they only do small gauge stuff? His marine wiring harness includes an 8ga for alternator. A marine junkyard probably has the Mercruiser/Volvo/OMC type that you could use. The other thing you could do is Weatherpack for all the little things; ignition, choke, water temp, etc, then get one Anderson type connector for ground and alternator.
How water resistant? Just the shells or the body too?
I would split this up into a couple different connectors. Weatherpacks are nice but very bulky for the amount of circuits and only rated at 10amps or so.
For the small diameter/low amperage wires you could go with something like a Metripack 150.
https://www.waytekwire.com/item/38221/Delphi-15492542-Metri-Pack-150-Series-Sealed/
For your larger wires you need a connector that can handle the current.
I like Metri-pack 630's. These are rated for marine applications and can handle 46 amps continuous.
https://www.waytekwire.com/item/46010/Delphi-12033769-Metri-Pack-2-Way-630-Series/
Amphenol makes nice rugged connectors. Lemo, ODU, and Deutsch are options, but may be pricey.
But I like the suggestion for the boat salvage yard or eBay. Some manufacturers used a large round weather tight connector for the engine harness.
It's been several years, but I'm certain at least in 1988 the OMC version of the 4.3 I/O had a connector for the engine harness. I didn't need to cut any wires when removing it from a Four Winns 210 Sundowner.
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to have to look around a bit
This is pertinent to my interests.
Not the cheap way through, but high quality and easy installation:
Skip to 6ish minutes if you're in a hurry.
In reply to wheelsmithy :
I'm a big fan of those milspec cannon plugs. Lots of years working on airplanes does that, but they're easy to get on and off, weatherproof, and really easy to troubleshoot.
I'm also that shiny happy person that will wire everything with the same color wire. If you have a wiring diagram, labeled connectors, and labeled wires; why not?
In the theater biz, we call those SOCAs from the trade name Socapex. They are a 19-pin waterproof aluminum. It was originally made for entertainment industries by Amphenol back in the 60s but now several companies make them. If you search LSC419 you'll find more brands.
The nice thing is, you can get them up to 50A per pin, although you'll pay through the nose for it. 25A is more common.
You'll need to log in to post.
