By the by, make sure you don't twist the wires before inserting into the terminal for crimping.

You want the least amount of airspace inside the crimp.  The inserted part of the wire should be as straight and compact as possible, with minimum size diff between the ID of the terminal and the OD of the inserted wire.

Where did you guys do all this soldering  ?
Show me a commercial made anything that has even 1 drop of solder on any terminal, other than any place like a small switch etc where crimping it not possible.
Good God Gerti, we're not talking which is better or worse, we're talking what works !! And crimping only works,...and has for 75 years !
And who that has a life would haggle over whether to twist a wire or not ? Gheeeeeeesch !

arteacher wrote on 07/18/11 at 12:38:45:


Let's just agree you have a completely different mindset on soldering.  Your mindset differs from the established/recommended procedures used by those upon whose work millions of lives depend.  You think soldering is the cat's meow,... those of us working in aviation know different.

Sure it's okay to twist the wires before crimping.  It's also okay to twist the bare ends of a couple of wires together and wrap a lot of electrical tape around the joint.  90% of the time you'll never know the diff.  It's just better, before crimping, to keep them compact and straight.  The joint holds better and is more resistant to fatigue if they are crimped when straight.

I wonder where you come up with THESE kinds of statements: "If you have crimped it tight enough so as you are not able to pull it apart, you have damaged the wire."  This is food processed by male cattle.  Think about it.  If this were true the entire aircraft industry would either have damaged wires or wires pulling out of terminals.

That said, who really cares all that much?  A good crimp will hold for a long long time.  A good solder joint will hold for a long time.  Both will probably hold well past the point where the cam chain tensioner lets go, trashes the motor and we junk the bike,.. completely oblivious to its ratio of crimped vs soldered joints.

I suppose you feel swaging should be abandoned as a procedure as well, eh?

(Lest we interpret a "tone" that is not there, let me remind everyone about the twinkle in the eye.)

Routy wrote on 07/18/11 at 13:15:07:


You are remarking about the humor in his statement, right?

arteacher wrote on 07/18/11 at 13:18:19:


What is the typical term for male cattle?

Gyrobob wrote on 07/18/11 at 13:19:54:

Neutered or not?

Routy and Arty are correct that production light amperage crimp jobs using Amp applicators in an Amp crimping machine backed up by all the appropriate statistical controls used by the automotive and aerospace industry (including a full level 3 PPAP with all capability studies and all 17 sections of dedicated process information) are as rugged and reliable as can be.   This is most of your electrical connections.

Amp termination equipment used properly makes a darn fine electrical connection.   'sa fact !!

BTW, Amp sez don't twist the wire before putting it in a crimp -- wires get thinned where they cross over each other and get mashed into each other creating deformation zones.  

Crimped wires should lay parallel to each other for max integrity and greatest conductive contact after correct crimping height is applied.  Where the rolled over crimp edges roll back into the wire mass tends to cut into the twisted crossed over wires the most creating the worst problems.


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What you sometimes might do with a hand crimper to your personally edjumacated eyeball/grip judgment is something else.  Most hand crimp jobs tend to be a bit too tight and do both squeeze them little wires down a bit and can slightly pinch the wires at the entry end of the crimp.

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Yes, solder isn't a production level process much any more except in automotive starter brushes which have to withstand hell for high current loads and resistive heating.  Then the old fashioned crimp and solder is standard, not optional.   It is the most rugged, least resistance, most heat resistant and generally all round best connection between wire and screwed down termination that exists.
 



               



Now, do you strip and bend a hook then use the side screws on your electrical wall socket and light switch connections, or do you strip and jam it in straight under the screw head or do you strip and poke into the little one way grippy holes?

Don't ferget to tell us why you have that preference .....




And please don't tell us what the pros do, that's why we are having to go back and replace all them electrical fixtures in the first durn place.