Technical Heat shrink and solder wire connectors

The cheap no name crimpers like that have die cast dies and are softer. The expensive stuff are machined heat treated tool steel. Now the question is will you use it enough to ever wear out a cheep set. Probably not in your garage. One of the 3 position < $35 ones would be fine. HF has one for $15.

If you want to do Weather-Pack or Bosch connectors then you need specialty crimpers and pin removal tools. For a HAMB car you really only need to crimp Red, Blue and Yellow terminals.

 

Never been fond of that look. I prefer this method on what ever terminal type it is.

 

^^^Nice! Last build was an ECU fired Focus powered A.
Myriad nest of wire runs.
Used non-jacket crimp connectors, soldered, shrink wrapped.
Wrap & Pinning the harness was a challenge.

 

A great wire splice! You pretty much don’t need solder when doing it this way.
Working at a few dealerships, the oem’s did not like solder connections because of mechanics error, wrong splice, not enough heat, too.much heat, shrink wrap wrong etc, etc.

They all required crimp connectors on all wire connections.


The big thing with crimp connectors is shitty connectors harbour freight, princess auto, dollar store etc all sell brittle, short junk that fails, either folds on itself wrong, crushes, or does not crimp enough and gets loose.

A good quality crimp connection, and done with a good tool will not pull out and fail


I have this tool from princess auto ( Canadian harbour freight) I think it was 50 bucks or so. I use it weekly and it’s great nice tight all around crimp and in different sizes and barrel design works very well for the money.


I also have this style from channel lock
I like it, used to have the snap on version also ( but it grew legs and walked away)
If you look at the tip it has a tip and a groove that does a very aggressive but neat crimp, I have never had one of these crimps fail either.
Snap on or channel lock the tool is close to $100 bucks but it’s a multi tool with life time warranty and does all it needs to very well.

I like solder connections and on electronics or certain situations I prefer it.
But a quality crimp connection done with a good tool is just as secure if not more secure.

Just my 0.02 cents on the topic

 

Sorry, but $73 for a set of crimpers is "not cheap" to me. Maybe if I were an electrical professional they would be, but I'm just a hobby builder, and these seem like they would be more than adequate for the amount of use I would give them.

 

$73 is about 1/4 the cost of quality, pro-level crimpers like these... so yes, these are 'cheap'. And because they're not as precisely built, you will have crimp failures.... So make sure you have spare crimps.

 

Steve, I think you forgot to load the pic of the good crimper. I’m curious, because I thought the ones like Van was showing were the ones you were referring to.



Bones

 

Like I said, hobby level. I would rather spring for some extra terminals than have to spend $300 on a set of PRO level crimpers that I'm only going to use a few times. If I was to buy nothing but pro quality tools, I would never have the money left to build my car. But hey, if ya gonna do this for a living, by all means buy the good stuff

 

Bones, I'll try to scare up a pic of the pro versions when I do my crimp tutorial. Not seen too often because of how expensive they are. The last one I saw in person (years ago) was almost $500, not a tool I could justify buying. These aren't even common with contractors; as they're for specialty connectors, most of the time you get a loaner for that job that you then return when the job is completed.

 

Steve, when you get that tutorial finished please post a link to it on this thread so that we will be certain to see it.
And a source for good quality crimp terminals rather than the stuff at Harbor Freight, etc. would also be appreciated.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Ideal-Industries-Crimpmaster-Insulated-Terminals/dp/B0000WU4JK

I use these, you can get dies for almost anything.

Chris

 

Two things about the above crimper and all like it... One, if you're using insulated crimps you're not getting a 100% crimp. Two, these are designed to meet the minimum spec for UL when properly installed. This spec is IMO not adequate for automotive applications, and is why crimps have gotten a bad reputation.

If I were doing terminations in a control cabinet, I may use something like these. But not on my car.....

 

I've seen multiple people bring up the 'western union' splice... Great splice... if you're using solid wire, not stranded. Try this with stranded wire and it'll pull right apart before soldering. On solid wire, this will have almost the same mechanical strength as the uncut wire before soldering. The solder is basically there to 'seal' the joint because the tapes available when this was in common use wouldn't hold up and would allow corrosion to start.

The solder was the 1900s equivalent of shrink tube...

 

I thought the Western Union splice was meant for knob and tube house wiring.

 

It was used there, but the original use was splicing telegraph wire... which is why it's called 'western union'.

 

I do a lot of wiring, cars, trucks, motorcycles. Napa here finally started stocking most of the connectors in the non-insulated variety. I'd already started pulling that plastic off, easy except for the butt splice pieces. An old pair of generic sort of Klein crimpers and I'm good. The best thing is when I started buying that shrink tube in 4 foot lengths. Cheap enough you can use all you want. Only time I use the blue red and yellow terminals now is for temporary.

 

I'll probably never buy heat shrink tubing again. Can't beat the price either. There's enough here for 40-50 complete wiring jobs!

100' of 3/16" Polyolefin heat shrink tubing

 

Here's the link.... https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/crimping-tutorial.1127519/

 

How much do you want? I get the out of date stuff from work and it lasts forever. The parent part number is M23053/5. I use it quite a bit throughout my cars. There is a Raychem sleeve that is a 3:1 ratio and others with the adhesive inside.... a gooey mess if you ever have to take one apart to add wires, etc.

 

These are great solder sleeves, NAS1744 is the military part number. These seal very effectively and I use them under the hood quite a bit.
http://www.strancoproducts.com/downloads/CWT SolderSleeve.pdf

 

Zen and the art of fine wiring. Sometimes there is nothing better than a good stool, good cigar, and me and my car soldering wire ends....cheap therapy

 

I like this thread! I do the same thing as above, when I run out of non insolated crimps I am forced to cut the plastic off with a blade. I also buy shrink wrap in long lengths at West Marine. Theirs has glue inside to make the connection water tight. If you have ever tried to remove that stuff you gain respect for it. I use it on Harley wiring too.
Like I said, great thead @Blue One

 

The crimp thread is worth a look too. Keep it up guys this is why we are here

 

Learned it in Demolition training in the Army

 

I use the Thomas and Betts WT111M crimper. Mine are more than 20 years old and work great.
https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Betts-WT111M-Insulated-Terminals/dp/B0018LD2PU

 

Copied to my files

 

As has been said previously, that western union splice means nothing for stranded automotive wire.
It doesn’t work.
It was meant for solid wire.

 

Not even. My daily-use crimpers at work were about $750.

I spent more than $73 on dinner last night, and I was alone.

 

Doh, your right....