Wire joins: solder vs. butt connector

[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]

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.

[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.

[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]

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.

[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?

[s_ribs]

This thread is becoming awesome! Love the links.

[george graves]

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

[Axxe]

Fedex overnight:

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

[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

[george graves]

Fedex overnight:

[Axxe]

They are available at all heavy duty truck places, made by Grote. Next time I swing by the yard I'll grab a couple and send them your way if you want to try them out.

http://grote.com//cgi-bin/goc/goc.cgi?product_number=88-2350

[StereoInstaller1]

I speak with 8 years of experience working on wiring that sees the worst possible environment: huge vibration, intense salt spray, blasted by road debris, and more vibration. Class 8 trailer light wiring. Did I mention there is a ton of current? Think 10+ amps contiunous through a winter blizzard driving on frost heaves sprayed with salt and sand 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year. Solder doesn't last, non-insulated butts don't last (both covered with top quality shrink tube). The only connection that lasts, and the only ones that I have never had to open on my equipment is the Grote heatshrink insulated butts. They are expensive (over $0.75 each when buying them by the bucket), but god damn they are the best. They are double wall insulated with glue, and transparent so you can see the quality of the connection, and the glue expanding outwards creating an air-tight seal. The added bonus is that when diagnosing an electical problem, you can see if there is any corrosion inside, which is rarely the case. I've only had a handful out of thousands corrode, mostly due to error during installation (too hot, melted shrink tube, or not hot enough allowing the glue inside to fully flow to the ends). Repairs that I have done on factory wiring with these crimps have lasted over two million miles on our BC-bound trailers, and countless miles on our local haul trailers. Nasa doesn't have to worry about potholes while loaded with 50,000 lbs of freight and ice buildup on wiring swinging it around.

If I paypal you $5, will you send me a couple? I wanna see these. If ANY of my work sees that kind of stress, warranty is 100% void, but still, those sound absolutely bad ass.

[Axxe]

I speak with 8 years of experience working on wiring that sees the worst possible environment: huge vibration, intense salt spray, blasted by road debris, and more vibration. Class 8 trailer light wiring. Did I mention there is a ton of current? Think 10+ amps contiunous through a winter blizzard driving on frost heaves sprayed with salt and sand 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year. Solder doesn't last, non-insulated butts don't last (both covered with top quality shrink tube). The only connection that lasts, and the only ones that I have never had to open on my equipment is the Grote heatshrink insulated butts. They are expensive (over $0.75 each when buying them by the bucket), but god damn they are the best. They are double wall insulated with glue, and transparent so you can see the quality of the connection, and the glue expanding outwards creating an air-tight seal. The added bonus is that when diagnosing an electical problem, you can see if there is any corrosion inside, which is rarely the case. I've only had a handful out of thousands corrode, mostly due to error during installation (too hot, melted shrink tube, or not hot enough allowing the glue inside to fully flow to the ends). Repairs that I have done on factory wiring with these crimps have lasted over two million miles on our BC-bound trailers, and countless miles on our local haul trailers. Nasa doesn't have to worry about potholes while loaded with 50,000 lbs of freight and ice buildup on wiring swinging it around.

[Jean]

I'll take some pics of my soldered connections that were still there after my hu was ripped out of the car...passed probably a 100+ lb test lol.