A wire connector for connecting and maintaining a branch wire connected to a main uncut wire during handling of the wire connector and without cutting the main wire by laterally inserting the main uncut wire into a laterally open wire port in a piston sleeve and extending a cut end of a branch wire through an offset wire guide on the exterior of the wire connector and then reversing the branch wire direction to form a slack loop in the branch wire before inserting the end of the branch wire into a further wire port in the piston sleeve.