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PMA8000B Back Shell

Flying Canuck

Well Known Member
Patron
My question is somewhat rhetorical and this is mostly a rant.

Whoever thought the one piece back shell for the PMA audio panel was a good idea should have to do all of the harnesses themselves. The opening in the back is so small that you need to have at least 3" of single conductors past the shield terminations in order to be able to place the back shell on the wire bundle before setting the pins in the d-sub connector. And with the HD pins, it's already tight working conditions. Basically, all of your shield terminations - and there are a lot of them - need to be well outside of the back shell. This means you need long ground wire for those shield terminations and that all of the wire support that the back shell provides is for the light part of the wire, conductors only.

I've included a picture that shows the pieces involved in the back shell assembly. The one piece back shell needs to be in place before setting the pins, then the 2 cable clips get attached (they conveniently make it as difficult as they can by using an integrated but loose clip that is supposed to retain the backing nut but actual just makes it so you can't clamp the hut to be able to thread the screw). Finally the retaining clip is used to secure the assembly to the back plate.

One comment about the picture, this is my first pass at the harness while disassembling. I'm rebuilding the harness with direct connections to the other ends. So I will need to do this all over again. There are 7 shielded cable terminations on the J1 connector. I soldered and used heat shrink to try to keep the termination diameter down. My second attempt uses solder sleeves that shrink down better than this.

So my question is this. Can I just not use the back shell? I can still secure the connector to the backplate with the retaining clip and I can still stabilize the wire bundle. I just wouldn't have to swear as much.
 

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I just went through this not too long ago. I managed to get it to work. I don't love it either, but it worked. You could order a GMA Garmin connector kit Stein. Those connectors would have the Garmin shield attachment points. A little more money but it would probably come out much nicer.
 
I believe you can get a 2 piece backshell that will work just fine with that. I'll look and see if I can find them again.
 
I just went through this not too long ago. I managed to get it to work. I don't love it either, but it worked. You could order a GMA Garmin connector kit Stein. Those connectors would have the Garmin shield attachment points. A little more money but it would probably come out much nicer.

Just had a look at the Garmin connector kit at Stein Air. It is identical to what I have, so now I'm blaming Garmin for the design. Back shells are usually my nemesis but the idea of having to work around the back shell while inserting pins raises it to a new level of awful.

I made it work the first time, it'll work again. But I know I will not have much fun with this part.
 
Okay, it really wasn't that bad. The extra length past shield termination made it much easier to work with. Harness v2 is done and just like any second time around effort, it turned out much better.

Photo attached. Now off to install it and see if it fixes the 2 issues I had with the first attempt.
 

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Maybe I should have been more specific. I had been reading the GMA 245 installation manual and I was thinking of the connector backshells that are shown in that document. They appear to be similar to the other ones that I have used for other G3x related or newer Garmin backshells.


gma245_backshell.png

It sounds like this is a little late now though.
 
Just had a look at the Garmin connector kit at Stein Air. It is identical to what I have, so now I'm blaming Garmin for the design. Back shells are usually my nemesis but the idea of having to work around the back shell while inserting pins raises it to a new level of awful.

I made it work the first time, it'll work again. But I know I will not have much fun with this part.

I don’t think Garmin sells those **** tin connectors with any new kits. For my PMA8000BT I just bought the newer Garmin shell kit and called it a day
 
I used to be able to buy a backshell that looks like the one in the OP. But, it was two halves that hooked together and was locked in place when fasteners were pushed through the connector body.

I cannot for the life of me find those connectors online now.
 
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