Source for quality electrical connector kit?
 

I am looking for a kit of common electrical connectors for our cars. The issue is that local auto stores only have the cheap quick crimp things (not easily solderable). I can order individual pieces from McMaster Carr but that's not really practical when working on a project at 11pm on a weekend.

Does anyone know a source?

Hey,
I get my supplies here, awesome shrink wrap and connectors:
http://www.delcity.net/
Watch for their sales and specials, if you aren't in a hurry, some pretty smart deals come along!
eric

I'm in the same situation. Another Pelican pointed me to eagleday-believe its eagleday.com, I think, I just ordered a kit and crimper but haven't got it yet. I haven't found a connector on my 72 car yet to any acessory or light that isn't crimped. You should know that terminals soldered to wire are generally considered unsafe on aircraft and very likely to not be approved or signed off on. I believe you can use good, U.S. made commercial or aircraft terminals with no ill effects if you are not concerned about the slightly different appearance. Regards, Bill S

I picked up one of these someplace pretty cheap. I insulate them with heat shrink.

http://www.drillspot.com/products/44369/3M_G-100_Wire_Terminal_Kit

The connectors in our p-cars are always a larger size than you can find in your local parts shop.

I re-wired the headlights on a 9000SAAB and had to use the crimpers. Man did that look unprofessional.

I just took a look at your eagleday.com site and it looks like they have the ones needed for the german/european cars.

Thanks for the info.

Don't assume crimp = cheap and solder = high quality. I built a high-performance airplane some years ago, an F.8L Falco, and one of the things I learned while building and wiring its complex IFR electrical system is that you do _not_ want to solder connections in an aircraft. You crimp, using a high-quality crimper. (As I remember, the good ones cost around $150 or so back then.)

When you solder a connection, the solder migrates a short way down the wire inside the coating, from the connector, and then you have a very short length of stiff, unsupported wire attached to a long(er) piece of flexible wire. That's where it eventually breaks, in any high-vibration situation.

Soldering is fine for hi-fi equipment. For airplanes and cars, I crimp.

Ditto on the crimping, it's fast and the better way to go BUT. . .

1) Your connections MUST be "gas-tight" which means using good terminals with a crimper specifcally designed for them.

2) Use high-quality terminals like those from AMP. The radio shack stuff is NOT high-quality and lacks a number of features, such as the pin that prevents the wire from being pushed too far into the terminal.

3) Use a good crimper. When FSW says it cost $150 ten years ago, that is about equal to the couple hundred bucks you pay for an AMP or Panduit crimper today. They are NOT cheap by any means.

4) Consider heatshrink tubing applied at the terminals to exclude moisture and provide additional strain relief. Wires don't fail in the middle of a run, usually-- they fail at the ends, due to fatigue-inducing vibration, improper termination techniques or corrosion.

For a 911, unless it's an all-out GT car, there's just no reason to use anything OTHER than wire in the identical color and gauge to what the factory used AND the brass crimp-on terminals. The rubber boots for the terminals are NLA, but you can slip a piece of rubber tubing over the end to replicate the factory look.

The most compelling reason to replicate your car's wiring EXACTLY as it left the factory is to facilitate receiving advice on THIS FORUM. Pity the poor guy who says, "I need help with my alternator" and then goes on to explain that some DPO replaced all the wire in the car with identical white tefzel. . . you can hear the crickets chirping. . .

I'm speechless (and thats no mean feat),..Professors Wilkinson and Cramer took the words from my mouth,....... :)

AMP crimps and heat-shrink all the way using top grade tools, of course.

Keep in mind that companies like AMP make a variety of connectors, not all of which are equal in quality. They make some really good ones, like you would use in aircraft, and some not-so-great ones, that you wouldn't.

I have found that finding a kit of good stuff is next to impossible. I ended up buying connectors one part number at a time. It's tedious.

JR

I agree with crimping connectors if they are good quality...I just need a source for commonly used sizes--a kit would be great. Running through the AMP website is murder if you don't know exactly what you want.
Performance Products has a commonly used Porsche fastener set, I wonder if a commonly used electrical connector set would have a market? Maybe a product for Pelican?

Furthermore, I am simply either too dumb or too "electro connector lingo" weak to even find what I want on some of these sites.

I went through this recently. Ended up buying heatshrink terminals from delcity:
http://www.delcity.net/store/Shrink-Tube-Terminals/a_all
These also look good:
http://order.waytekwire.com/CGI-BIN/LANSAWEB?WEBEVENT+L01433C1B8721F7009357031+M37+ENG

I got a ratcheting crimper from partsexpress for $20. Seen it rebranded a bunch of places for cheap but feels sturdy and seems to work well:
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=360-642

The top brand name in crimp connectors is Thomas & Bett's "Sta-Kon" line. They invented crimp-connectors and take it very seriously. Brazed barrel seams with internal serrations, annealed barrels and cold-formed tongues, sizes stamped on the tongues, choice of nylon/vinyl/or heat shrink insulation, etc. Their normal range meets Mil-Spec. These are the 'Porsche' of electrical crimp connectors. :cool:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1264020929.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1264020948.jpg

If I had it to do all over again, I'd certainly use those...though it does look like they're $8 to $10 APIECE, before anybody gets too crazy.

I'm cheap, and I solder! :)
The rubber on the ends of wires at factory crimp-on connections is there to control the kind of stress due to bending that you are talking about, only in Porsche's case it's at the end of the connector. You can get the same effect by supporting the wire with with two layers of shrink tubing, one that extends about 1/2 inch past the end of the connector with one that extends about 1/4 an inch back on top of it. Because I do restoration work, I put a piece of thin-wall rubber tubing over that to make it look original. It takes time, but it's strong and reliable and it looks good.
BTW, the butt splice connectors supplied with the headlight relay kit that Pelican sells are new to me. They are awesome for that application. Anyone know where to get those?

Where would I buy these AMP terminals?

Thanks,
Larry

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1264031742.jpg


i just got these and they rock! no crimping at all, totaly reuseable and they make a water tight model if that is a concern.

big +1

Soldering is fine, except in the hands of those that are sloppy in execution (like solder running where it shouldn't...what would you expect?

There's a right way to do (solder) these connectors.

Equally,...there are FINE crimp hardware that will do fine,..but only the good stuff while running in the "crimp" world.......I personally don't care for crimps,(under any conditions)..unless it's extremely high quality stuff....(still, I bite my lip on these, too,..but can sleep at nite!!!)

Clearly, aircraft requirements are an aside discussion all-together...and not much to do with Porsches (well,..maybe a "little" bit).

Crimps are OK as long as you go with GOOD stuff and, of course, crimp properly (as there's a right way to do crimps,..and a wrong way).

Best,

Doyle

+++ 1..
Doyle

+1
we have been down this road before. you cant compare, or expect the quality out the amp connectors that you get in the air craft industry so why compare. if you are using air craft crimps, dont solder unless they are solder crimps. no home mechanic is going to buy the tools to do AC crimps.i went to the local aircraft repair shop here, a large company BTW, they said the only reason they do not solder connectors is for time and the connectors are so good they dont need to be soldered.
back to the amp (crap). if a crimped and soldered connector can fail, can any of you say that the same (amp) connector that is crimped only would not have failed. i dont think so, but i have seen crimped connectors that would not have failed if they were soldered too

as an electronics tech for the FAA since 92, and an auto electrical tech before that ( for a short time), i have seen lots of bad crimped only connectors. the wire can come lose in the crimp, would that have happened if it had been soldered too, not likely.

and as for what doyle said, soldering them properly makes a big difference. if a little solder is good then more is better is not the way to solder.

the way to do the amp connectors is to crimp, a little flux and a minimal amount of solder applied from the terminal side, not the wire side. then clean with denatured alcohol.