calling all wiring gurus

figgie

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bigaaron said:
Talking about basic car wiring connections with you aerospace guys is like talking about car stereos with a home audiophile guy. :nuts:

You can never be right and what you use is never good enough. :biglaugh:

Most peoples cars here will never be subjected -100 degrees F or 10g's or go past 50k feet.

audiophiles... lol I call those idiotphiles... as they are the ones spending 1000 for f'ing speaker cable that is nice and purdy!
 

Asterix

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lagged said:
I'll still be soldering everything with confidence.

Go right ahead. With care, soldering works just fine. It's not as good for production, but for repair, it's perfect. I've done it a bunch, too, and will do much more.

Asterix
 

Nick M

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supra90turbo said:
LOL Figgie!
At least this thread went in a constructive route...
When the correct information is put out, that is the route it is supposed to go. The problem is "my buddy did it, so I will too, I don't care what you people say."
 

Nick M

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jetjock said:
but I'm in a place where internet access is difficult.
Good to have you in again.

Very good post figgie.

I also still don't like basic automotive "butt connectors", but have been shown that a good crimp is the way to go, if possible.

I did my non scientific test today. Non scientific, but still worth while info. I cut two wires in half, aproximately the same length. Meaning I cut them together, but they were not measured directly. A straight wire ohms out to zero. The 14-16 butt connector with a 16 gauge wire ohmed out to two tenths. The soldered wired omed out between two and three tenths. As pointed out, the meter is good for one tenth. So wavering between .24 and .26 will read, or whatever the unaveraged reading was displays to .2 to .3 ohms.
 

Nick M

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And in Toyota electrical class, I do mean Toyota, not the dealer, they wanted soldered wires, not butt connectors from Napa.
 
Oct 11, 2005
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You can get all this stuff from mouser.com. By the way, for best reliability of the butt connectors, get the mil ones with a window so that you can guarantee the wires are fully inserted. They cost a quite a bit more, but are still cheap relatively speaking.

Did you know that there are butt splices in the factory harness. They use a regular pin terminal and cut the pin off! I was a bit shocked to find these, but somehow it passes Toyota QA.
 

figgie

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3p141592654 said:
You can get all this stuff from mouser.com. By the way, for best reliability of the butt connectors, get the mil ones with a window so that you can guarantee the wires are fully inserted. They cost a quite a bit more, but are still cheap relatively speaking.

Did you know that there are butt splices in the factory harness. They use a regular pin terminal and cut the pin off! I was a bit shocked to find these, but somehow it passes Toyota QA.

I saw the butt splices but was not aware it was a terminal with the terminal part chopped off!! :eek:

I was looking at some thomas & Betts splices. :)
 

Allan_MA70

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less about the joint more about the strain relief!

I make STACKS of data cables almost daily and so forth for use under all conditions, a soldered join with adhesive lined shrink tube FTW

for automotive use you can even fold the wires in a Z hot glue and heat shrink if your really worried

aerospace is not automotive! when was the last time you did a service and inspected your loom on your CAR?
 

figgie

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Allan_MA70 said:
less about the joint more about the strain relief!

I make STACKS of data cables almost daily and so forth for use under all conditions, a soldered join with adhesive lined shrink tube FTW

for automotive use you can even fold the wires in a Z hot glue and heat shrink if your really worried

aerospace is not automotive! when was the last time you did a service and inspected your loom on your CAR?

2 weeks ago actually

since the OEM harness is old (14+ years for the youngest). Inspection is mandatory now a days.

<-- Raychem DR-25 advocate. No need for glue. ;)
 

NashMan

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Aug 5, 2005
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to answer this right ps i never read the rest of the pages

for big gage wire cover it in flux take torch a reg solder with no flux

touch the crip tube add both hold both wire togetter and soder it cover it in shink wrap and bang you are done


small wire is just soder it then heat shink wrap it if it out side use the glues all weather type srink wrap

other then that that si the prop way to do any thing

and it all ways importian to add in eleice greas to your stuff so it don't caroad as int eh pins and such

but don't by the super condtive stuff or you have some issue's
 

tte

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Mar 30, 2005
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Well from my previous employment I learnt the soldering was better. We did civilian and military contracts and we were told to solder and if we couldnt, then we'd use crimps and connectors. We have seen plenty of cases where the crimps and connectors have gone high resistance due to corrosion and this caused it to pull so much current and heat up n burn the entire wiring. This was for vehicles.

Well when dealing with the aviation industry, you have to think weight and the large number of joints involved. Every part is scrutinied for its weight. I do not think the aviation companies would want their employees to solder all the joints. Solder joints are like welds...they have to be good and at times solder joints are studied esp for very important applications. How do you know that the employees would perform a good solder joint every time for so many joints? It is easier, cheaper and faster to crimp.

But I think for your car, solder with heat shrink tubing is fine.

I too am a electronics/electrical engineer.
When I first worked for this electronic company for work experience for my degree I had to be trained to military standard. I used to solder pcb boards that control the cruise missiles from a
milliary ship. I mean if I did one bad joint, it could mean an intermittent connection with the possibility of a cruise missile firing on its own due to a faulty controller.
Soldering is learnt skill...if you do not know how to solder well practice first.

Cheers,
Roy
 
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NashMan

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the most thing you see on a bad soder job is bruned up flux from runing to hot of a iron another is boiled soder or poepl soering to carroded wire and not useing accied to clean the wire frist

i hate crimps just hate them
 

figgie

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Guys

to add

I know how to solder as that is one thing we had to learn and had to use especially in RF wiring. Crimping would cause way to much RF leakage. To this day I much prefer a solid crimp over solder. Tefzel wire over just about most other wiring. Don't get me wrong, soldering is good IF done correctly (not to much seepage past the area being soldered, correct temps, good flow and no buldges).
 

Nick M

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I looked up the Toyota page on electrical repairs.

Crimp it, then fill with solder. Don't solder the wire alone, it is not strong enough.
 
Oct 11, 2005
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Lots of good info here. One thing that I struggle with is crimping multiple wires together (3 or more). The crimp butt connectors are usually symmetric, so that either the side with one wire is too loose or the side with two wires is too tight. As I said earlier, Toyota does this by stuffing all three into a regular large crimp pin (withthe pin cutoff), but they have automated crimpers so I guess its all set up to be reliable.