Originally Posted by
NiTrO bOiE
I'll do the best I can, this is how I made my direct cord for my Escort 8500.
Balou, find a phone cord. Cut one end of the cord off and strip about 1 inch of the sheilding off of it. There will most likely be four wires, you only need the inner two (green and red). Strip about 1/4 off of the green and red wires and tin them with solder. Stripping them can be difficult as they're very thin, yet the sheilding surrounding them is very tough. Don't worry, if you don't get it right the first time, keep trying, but don't try to strip too much at a time, as once you make a mistake you have to cut the wire, making it shorter and shorter.
Tin the two wires with solder. Plug the other end (the side with the jack) of the cord into your detector and then take the other two wires and connect them to a 9V battery. This way, you can determine which is the "hot" wire and which is the "ground", without risking your detector, 9V should be enough to get it started (without risking frying it) although it most likely won't like it. You only need to connect the wires long enough for the detector to "beep" or whatever start-up sequence the Sti has.
Once you've determined which is the "hot" wire (green or red), solder a quick-connect onto the hot wire and a ring terminal to the ground (optional, I just screwed the bare wire under a screw, which is why I told you to tin it so it doesn't fray).
Next, either use an add-a-ciruit, plug it into your fuse box, tap into the red wire on the add-a-circuit, connect the hot wire with the quick connect, ground the ground wire using a nearby screw. Optional: turn the ignition on to make sure your detector powers up. (no use going thru all of the work to hide the wire if you've made a mistake)
Once you've confirmed that the detector is getting power, you can hide the wire and enjoy.
This isn't the best guide, but let me know if you have any further questions.
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