Abstract: An apparatus for installing between a pair of spaced terminals a wire having a conductive core and an insulating sheath surrounding the core and interrupted at spaced stripped regions has a head defining a passage having an outer end, a guide element on the head at the outer end forming a passage alignable with the head passage, and a supply for feeding the wire along the head passage and the guide-element passage. A cutter on the head at the outer end can sever through the core in the stripped regions between the head and the guide element and the guide element can be pivoted on the head about an axis transverse to the guide-element passage for directing the passage at any of a plurality of different angles to the horizontal and vertical.