Side entry electrical wire connector

Claim 1

An electrical wire connector having a hollow, open-topped, insulating body with a base wall and a pair of generally parallel side walls extending generally perpendicularly from said base wall, a flat plate, wire connector element formed with a plurality of wire connecting slots retained in said body perpendi- cular to said side walls and said base wall, and an insulating cover formed to telescope with said body, said cover having wire receiving channels for supporting wires, one in each channel, to carry a wire into each said connector element slot upon telescoping of said cover and said body fully together, said body and cover being formed with complementary latch members to retain said body and cover in said open position to permit one wire for each wire connecting slot in said wire connector element to be inserted into said wire receiving channels and to retain said body and cover in a crimped position with said cover and body fully telescoped together, characterized by the feature that at least one of said wire receiving channels (25) is open-sided for insertion of a wire (29) transversely into the channel when said body (10) and said cover (11) are in their open position, and at least one deformable resilient finger (27) at the outer edge of each open-sided channel which the smallest wire size to be connected will snap past and which the largest wire size to be connected will readily press down upon insertion to retain the full range of wire sizes in the channel until the body and cover are telescoped together.