Better Quality Phone Cord for hardwiring?

[nomore55]

I purchased some black telephone line from Home Depot (or wherever), a bunch of RJ11 connectors and the crimping tool so I can do my own custom length cables for my detectors. However, I find this cable is so frail that it tends to break and/or lose connectivity after a while. The stuff I purchased has only a couple of copper strands and has a soft fibre twisted around it. The stuff is just too delicate and is a PIA to solder and work with - - it's driving me crazy.

The problem is not with the crimped connection at the RJ11, but at the other end where I go into the fuse panel with these tiny little wires.

Can anyone make a suggestion on a more durable arrangement?


Thanks.

[TeamSpeed]

I have made about 600 cords for folks and have this problem periodically, but only on about 1% of the cords I make. I don't buy much from Radio Shack, but try buying the 25ft black cord from them ( $8 ) and be very careful when you take off the insulation. There are alot of strands in each wire, and this should give you something to work with. I put special ends on my cords so that you can just plug into the mirror without worrying about the stands themselves.

I don't know what vehicle you are working with, but if you need any ideas or help with installation, please check my install page:

http://www.invisicord.com/install.html

[nomore55]

I put special ends on my cords so that you can just plug into the mirror without worrying about the stands themselves.

I suspect this part of the problem I am having.

Can you tell me what you mean by "special ends"?

Thanks.

[TeamSpeed]

These are the "quick connects" I am putting on the ends of the wires that allow me to make better contact with various wiring components and harnesses so that I don't just have bare wire showing. They are a very small crimped pin connector, per the pics at the top of my webpage.

[laserblaster]

its funny how thin phone wire is, the wire from the socket to the pc is pretty thin....

its funny how many phone line problems are caused by thin phone wire, which gives more resistance and lower quality of connection!

get thicker wire problem solved, if you can find some that it!

[Gregor]

I purchased some black telephone line from Home Depot (or wherever), a bunch of RJ11 connectors

Get an RJ11 female connector for the fuse box end. There's alot of options there. You could also cord with solid wiring. I have some cat 5 I use for ethernet around the house. I've used to build a couple rj11 cables for the house phone system. Its 8 conductor so it'll thicker than you need. It shouldn't too hard to find some 4 conductor solid copper wire around.

[nomore55]

Get an RJ11 female connector for the fuse box end.

This is basically what I did yesterday:



I picked up this surface mount phone jack (mine is 4 conductor) at Ace for $3. I re-installed an RJ11at the problem end of the phone cord (fuse box end) and got some flex lead to feed into the phone jack. Not terribly elegant but quite effective and I know I won't be repairing it again.

Did I say how much I hate working on wiring under car dashboards? ops:

Thanks to all for the suggestions!