Thread: Holy crimp connectors and wire nuts batman!

Tweet

While I agree from looking at your pictures that your wiring was pieced together badly, crimp terminals are not in-of-themselves a bad thing necessarily. I know some people feel much better because they solder every connection, but we use crimp terminals exclusively and have never had a problem, and there is a reason why we do it that way. Both my Son Dan and I came out of the marine industy, and the American Yacht and Boat Council, who dictate how things must be done in boat construction, insist that all wires have crimp terminals, not soldered. The reason is that soldering creates a hard/ brittle spot that can fracture from vibration.

The other reason they do not allow soldered connections is because it is possible to solder a connection and get a "cold" solder connection. It looks good on the surface, but wasn't heated correctly and a good bond wasn't created between the wire and connector. There is a fine line between not enough heat and too much heat.

The key is to not use wire and components that you pick up at the local Autozone type store, but to use high quality parts. I have always used Ancor brand, marine quality wire and terminal ends. Each strand within the wire is individually tinned, and the same coating process goes onto the crimped-on parts. They don't corrode, and the terminals we use have heat shrink built onto them, so that we simply hit them with a heat gun when done to effect a good seal from moisture. Another important item is to use a good quality crimp tool, the $ 5 ones you pickup are not the ones to use. Proper ones crimp very tight without cutting into the protective skin of the terminal end.

My '27 was wired that way 20 years ago and the wires have been wet a lot, as the electrics are all under the seat and got rained on often. Never had one wiring related problem, and when I cut the wiring out a few months ago to redo the entire car, everything still looked good and solid. I wired my current T the same way and am having the same result. Just thought I would offer another spin on the solder vs crimp discussion.

Don