Installing Cat 6E (and Cat 5E) Shielded Modular Plugs using the QuickTreX™ System

Slip on the strain relief boots over the cable and proceed to skin off the Cable's jacket about 2 inches from the end. In this illustration we are using our EZ-Cable Stripper tool. Due to the fact that many Cat 6 shielded cables have very thick jackets, it may be necessary to put a rubber band around the tool thereby reducing the pressure on the cutting blades and making a shallower cut.

Gently bend the cable back and forth at the strip point to finish the process of skinning. Remove the cable's jacket

Cut off the entire foil wrap leaving the silver color drain wire and the four pairs. Pictured above is the Klein - 6" Diag.-Cutting Pliers - Model# D252-6.

Fan out the four pairs and cut off the center spine. Then bend the Orange and Brown Pairs (assuming you are wiring for 568-B scheme) to the outside leaving the Blue and Green pairs in the center.

At this point we will prepare the two center pairs (Blue and Green pairs) first. Remove the twists in the Blue and Green pairs leaving at least 2 twists at the end. The twisted portion that remains should be roughly 1/4" from the skinned end. It may be necessary to remove and then redo the twists either tighter or looser so that they fall out properly.

At this point we will prepare the two center pairs (Blue and Green pairs) first. Remove the twists in the Blue and Green pairs leaving at least 2 twists at the end. The twisted portion that remains should be roughly 1/4" from the skinned end. It may be necessary to remove and then redo the twists either tighter or looser so that they fall out properly.

Arrange the straightened pairs as shown with the blue pair in the center and the green pair to the sides of it. Then move the green pair inward making two straightened pairs.

Repeat the process that we did in step # 5 but only with the remaining Orange and Brown pairs and arrange them as shown in the illustration. Notice that there is between 1 or 2 twists left in the pairs where they leave the jacket.

Check your wire sequence to see that it matches the sequence below. Then proceed to make the straight portion of the wires are perfectly straight and perfectly pressed together in a very compact way.

Use a pair of high quality electrician's wire scissors with serrated blades to make a straight cut across the bundle at about an inch back from the end. The strongly recommend the QuickTreX™ Wire Surgeon™ Wire and Kevlar Scissors for this purpose to get a perfectly clean and straight cut.

While holding the cut bundle together between the thumb and index finger, proceed to slide the black loadbar on to the wires with the hollow portion of the loadbar facing the wire bundle. A slight amount of wiggling may be required but get all of the wires into the holes of the loadbar. Then slide the loadbar all the way back to the twists and use some pulling pressure to get the loadbar as far back as possible which should leave about 1/4" of twisted wires showing. NOTE: It is not necessary to cut the wires on an angle for this step as we had recommended in previous tutorials.

Put the wire assembly over a connector so that the jacket is about 1/8" into the connector. Then mark the wire at the point where it is even with the end of the connector. Use the electrician's wire scissors to cut the wires straight across at the point where you made the mark.

Take the silver color bare drain wire which should be about two inches long and wrap it around the cable's jacket as shown in the illustration. Please look at the assembly shown in the illustration. Your assembly should look like this.

With the Orange pair furthest away from you and the Brown pair closest, slide the connector on to the assembly with the pins facing up and the locking clip facing down. Push the assembly into the connector with a slight wiggling motion to make the ends of the wires go all the way to the end of the connector. It may be necessary to use moderately firm pushing to make this happen. At this point it is advisable to use a magnifying glass or jeweler's loop to look directly into the face of the connector to see that the wires have gone all the way in.

Use a high quality Industry Standard Crimper such as our QuickTreX™ Ratchet Type Crimper for RJ-45 to crimp the eight pins down making the connection to the eight wires. Push the connector all the way into the crimper and use a firm squeezing motion to assure a full crimp.

Next, crimp the shield clamp down to the drain wire and the cable's jacket. You may start this process by using the long nose pliers to bend the two silver arms inward and around. For best results we recommend finishing the crimp with a 0.256" Hex crimper such as our QuickTreX™ Hex Crimper for Shielded Assemblies as shown in the illustration.

Here is what the connector should look like when finished. Notice that the twists in the wires are visible looking down into the connector body.

(Optional) Slide the boot over the connector.