Phil,
Yeah, I found the same as well. I had to swap out the 16AWG wire that I originally used for different wire with thinner shielding. One of mine is running a deep-fire mosfet so there are 2 strands of 16AWG and one strand of 24AWG wire coming out the back. That's tight! My first attempt had the sheilding of one wire split.
I found that if you're wire casing is not too thick, you can get away with it. I use some heat shrink tubing, that will just barely fit over the 2 or 3 wires to give it a bit of protection. The shrink wrap will hold the wires flat an in position while you button everything up. Obviously sanding off any burrs for the cutting goes a long way. A burr in the stock pipe stub got one of my other wires on a previous build.
Personally I go for broke and cut out as much material as I need to, to get a Deans connector through the back of the lower receiver. Everything's covered up by the receiver plate and sling adapter plate, and I can still yank the whole mechbox without cutting the terminals off my wires. I haven't found that it compromises the strength of a metal body...don't think that I'd do it to a plastic body (i.e. I'd try to remove as little material as possible and take the hit of cutting the terminals off of the wire leads if I need to swap mechboxes).
You know I'm kind of pissed that our rifles look so much alike, right? So pissed that I had to buy a new front end for my other JP rifle...
Just kidding, I was going to buy a new front end away.
