Heater cables on aftermarket dash.

I'm beyond mad at this point. I've broken 4 cables now, 1 of them being new. The free dash that came with the Jeep, is made out of 12ga steel. It is too thick and the openings for the heater cables are 1/16" too wide. I snapped one of my new cables by attempting to use a small screw to push the prongs out, plastic is too hard and brittle. I'm about to rip this piece of junk out and just buy an OEM replacement dash. Any creative ideas before I do?

 

Mount them to a correct thickness panel under the dash, cut out the existing dash and make a "filler" panel the right thickness, or replace the dash.

 

I ground out the back side side which helped but the holes are just too wide. After I heated the plastic tabs to make them softer, I successfully used screws to push the tabs out. The seem to be holding for now so we will see. I still have my old dash but it is pretty mangled and beat up. I may just cut out the old heater cable area and patch it in as you say. Cheaper than buying a whole new dash.

 

Clips ended up breaking after a couple push/pulls on the cable. At this point I wouldn't recommend a Warrior Products pre-cut dash, what a joke. Going to rip out out tomorrow.

 

Why not get quality cables? MTS has cables listed that attach to the dash using nuts and washers. They appear to be the same ones I purchases from another place a couple years ago when these cables started to become available again. They are quality and heavy duty. If the holes in your dash are too big, use a couple big washers. Should be enough threads at the mount because I mounted my cables to a piece of 3/16" aluminum below the dash to on a separate panel similar to the location of the original plastic panel.
http://www.mtscompany.com/airbox.htm
Looks like you can get all 3 from the-jeep-guy.com for $75. They don't say mts, but you could email Ryan.

 

OleBlue, thanks for the info. The MTS website was fairly limited on quality pictures but I found a couple enlarged phots on eBay. Heavy duty, no kidding! I like the fact they are attached via nuts instead of the factory snap-in method. I'm glad you pointed this out, I had originally planned on cutting up the dash today but was called in to work. I'll definitely try the-jeep-guy first, he is local and I see his ads on craigslist from time to time.

 

Just be careful dealing with him. Make sure you get what you paid for and don't pay for anything until you have it in your hand.
You are in LaPine? That's where he lives.

 

I'm in the NW area, near Portland. I used to see his ads all the time on Craigslist. He said he moved to central Oregon.