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Whelen strobes/nav lights and JPI fuel sensors use AMP (now Tyco/AMP) connectors. I encountered a lot of difficulty finding the mating connectors/pins/sockets to hook up my strobes, so I thought I'd share what I discovered with the community here.
They're called "Commercial Mate-N-Lok soft shell connectors". Both Digi-Key (?) and Newark carry them, but you have to know the magic part numbers, and the photos of the connectors aren't provided. They come in male and female connector halves, and you also have to buy the pins, sockets, a crimper, and pin installation/removal tools if you want to make up your own connectors.
(See attached photo)
The natural nylon connector half in the photo holds the sockets, and the black connector half hold the pins. These particular connectors are three-pin for the strobe lights, but you will need two-pin as well for the nav lights.
The socket half is stamped "AMP CPS-3", which as near as I can tell is a totally useless number since nobody references that number in any catalog that I could find.
The Newark SKU number for the three-pin socket half is 87F2956, and 93B1854 for the pin half. The mfgr. part number is 1-480303-0 for the socket half, and 1-480387-0 for the pin half. You can type any of those numbers into the search box at http://newark.com and get to the information page on them. These particular connectors are "free hanging".
The connector halves, sockets, pins, and insertion/extraction tools you'll need are shown on Newark Catalog Page 853 (Catalog 126). The tin-plated pins and sockets are about .15 each, but you can get them gold plated for $1.08 each. The connector halves are cheap as well.
Rather than the high-dollar controlled-cycle crimpers, I've been using an "Amp Service Tool I", which seems to do a fine job. I can't seem to find that at either Newark or Digi-Key, but they're for sale on e-Bay. That tool is good for crimping PIDG terminals as well. I think the price is about $30...
I've been very pleased in dealing with Newark, FWIW. Aircraft Spruce should carry these.
John, LNC2 N10CF, Rosman, NC
Amp connectors.jpg
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