Wire joins: solder vs. butt connector

[Todd Black 88]

I have basically the same ones, but they are made by Klein. They are the cats ass.
http://www.mytoolstore.com/klein/1005.html

[Axxe]

Fedex overnight:

How much did you pay? I want to pick up another pair as back-up to keep at home.

[george graves]

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CNL-909/

[s_ribs]

This thread is becoming awesome! Love the links.

[nmlss2006]

Yes, links are very useful - now the question becomes, what are 'heavy truck' places, for those of us who have never driven anything bigger than an F150?

[z31maniac]

And I asked a third engineer that is an actual god damn NASA solder instructor.

All of them said that it's fine and normal practice to solder wire. The only time there is an issue is then you don't have the wire supported and it does a ton of bending right next to the solder joint. Basically - anything on your e30 will be fine. Any quality solder made for electronics is fine - solder till your heart is content. NASA requires RMA solder, and that's what all the wiring that is soldered on the space shuttle uses.

I'm calling bullshit on this for one reason.

I work in the defense industry. We build high power/high voltage switchgear equipment for naval and commercial ships.

And the Navy and the Army, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, allow us to make connections/splices/solder anything. If a wire becomes damaged from mechanical wear, arc, etc, a new wire has to be ran point-to-point, no splices.

Even if it runs through 9 cabinets, through 15 different looms and is a single 90ft piece of wire, NO SPLICES are EVER allowed.

I have a hard time believing NASA would allow that on even more sensitive equipment.

If I'm wrong I'll glady eat a big bowl of "I told you motherfucker" stew, but based on my experience working with the Army/Navy, I have hard time believing that NASA has more lax standards.

[whiltebeitel]

Repair and new wire running are 2 different things. It makes sense that you aren't allowed to splice a cut wire back together, but running a new wire, soldering is fine at the ends.

This is how I understand the standards the two of you are talking about.

[z31maniac]

Nope, no soldering on new wires as well.

Only crimped connections are used. And this is on $50k relay controllers and shit. No solder anywhere in SUPER expensive equipment.

[StereoInstaller1]

George, have those broken in yet? When they are, they will fall open when held by one handle.

Anyone who has seen me cut, strip and crimp wires understands how awesome this tool is.

[BDSax]

those things are complete crap. someone used them all over my m535i and all the wires are breaking in half. i dont thing you can beat solder and heat shrink

[StereoInstaller1]

i dont thing you can beat solder and heat shrink

I have got to take some damn pictures of nasty ass old solder joints that I see damn near every day...even ones that look like nice work are STILL all corroded an inch up the damn wire.

[kronus]

Crimps. Proper crimps. Specifically, the kind that look like B's. With heatshrink over them.

Butt connectors are bullshit.

[blueapplesoda]

For anything uninsulated and not the size of a whale's wanker,



Molex 63811-1000

I love these. What channellocks will do to insulated crimps, these are meant for precision. I build race harnesses with these mugs. Don't get them confused with the cheap crap at your local store. They make that perfect "B" shape, and are the perfect width for 90% of the crimps you will use on the car. They leave about 1mm of extra metal to flare out to give a proper crimp its "flexibility", and it passes the pull test.



These molex crimpers are bomb-ass. It makes crimps like factory. For about $50, I've used these to build harnesses on house water filtration machines, and of course, race cars.

For insulated connectors, the best is the Channellocks. The normal insulated connectors are hard to crimp correctly without breaking the insulation, and when you do crimp them correctly, the insulator falls off.

Of course we can get into die type mechanical/machine crimpers which are the real shit, but thats for another day.

fyi crimping article: Crimping 101

and for solder...leave that on circuit boards and stuff.

Derek
DedericMS

[nmlss2006]

B crimps are great - those crimpers unfortunately, like all tools like that, flex a lot more than they should. There used to be a reference on here to a decent tool for that purpose...

[StereoInstaller1]

i HAVE USED THAT EXACT SAME SET OF CRIMPERS AND UNLIKE MOST, FLEX VERY LITTLE

goddamn it, I hate that capslock button