Crimping in JUST FINE and preferred for many applications. Don't use the crap from Home Depot. Go to a marine supply store and get their crimp connectors. They are tinned and will prevent corrosion. Cut the wire back until you get to good wire and then remove about 1/4" sheath. Put a little di-electric grease on the wire ends and put you connector on. Make sure the crimp is solid.....good to go.

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I just spent a long weekend replacing the fuse box in my '66 912 with a modern box that is sealed with O-rings and uses modern bladed fuses.

Several wires needed a bit of lengthening. I've done this in many cars over the years, NEVER had a joint fail. Here is the technique I follow:
1) butt splice the wires with solder.
2) Use TWO layers of heat shrink over the joint. Preferably, the inner layer has that heat melt adhesive inside, this makes the joint pretty monolithic and relieves stress from the solder joint itself.

Your average crimp joint is a good example of the technologies used in my car originally. Exposed to the elements, dissimilar metals take on moisture and crud, and eventually build up a layer of non conductive oxides. Capillary action does this very nicely. It's why we try things like putting Vaseline on our turn signal lamp contacts....

I am also really really looking forward to NOT starting a road trip by reaching in and rotating all of those oxidized round fuses ( as I've done the past 36 years I've driven this car) to make sure I have turn signals, lights, etc etc.

cheers

Why not change the male and female connectors if the wire length does allow it .
Crimp terminals for both connectors.

Splicing with a solder joint is best, next is crimp connectors (good ones). I use a stake-on tool for crimps and it works fine, without a ratchet mechanism. Just pull on wire to make sure it is good. Marine or other quality weather-proof crimps shoudl be used if any exposure is possible.

Splicing with a solder joint is best? Sez who? "Just pull on wire to make sure it is good." Hey, helluva test, doc, should assure that all future vibration-created failures won't happen, right?

Agree with Steve I would never had soldered when building my RV6.

I used to work on electronic weapons systems for the Navy and no cabels or wires were ever soldered,,, ever.

I started a thread similar to this a few weeks ago on this subject.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/495403-source-quality-electrical-connector-kit.html

The problem I have is finding a readily available source with all the aircraft worthy connectors that fit our common applications without mailordering a box of a hundred. I end up soldering because it seems the next best thing.

If anyone knows of a variety of AMP or reasonable qulaity connectors in a kit...let it be known

As I recall that is called a "Bell Telephone" splice or something of that nature..Good splice when soldered.

Guys have made careers writing about this subject,, throw in connectors and junction theory and you can write a doctoral thesis

I believe it's called a lineman's slice.

Sherwood

It's done. :)

Solder and heat-shrink, and that's my final answer.

I did a test outside the car on a piece of spare wire, and the splice cannot be pulled apart without some serious effort. There is no way this is going to fail as the wire has zero tension when installed (plus, clips hold it in place).

BTW, I really hate mice.

- Mike

As mentioned in previous posts, a soldered splice isn't going to fail because of inadequate pull-apart strength. However, the chances of joint failure are higher in a high-vibration atmosphere. A very rigid solder joint is more susceptible to metal fatigue.

Sherwood

Steve is right bout soldering in the aeronautical field...
I don't know of any avionics technician at my work who would put his stamp on a soldered joint related to any type of aircraft !!!
And yes,they still extensively use the wax cord to tie wire bundles together,most
likely for weight savings.A good quality butt splice with a bullet type connector is a strong permanent repair !!!

Phil

come on guys, has anyone ever really thought about how much a wire would have to vibrate to fail and how long it have to vibrate? you mean to tell me that yall (im in the south)(use guys for the ones up north) leave your wires just dangling in the air to flop around? i can see it know, 2 ft of wire and no tiewraps or wire loom.


if you put heat shrink on the wire, it provides for a very good transition from the soldered stiff part of the wire to the flexible part. the heat shrink adds support to the joint, no? plus, tie wraping the wire adds more support from vibration, like there is really enough vibration to make it fail. the only way i can see a solder joint failing over a crimp is if it is a cold solder joint to begin with.

porsche and crimps? sure, but use the same crimp and tools they did. and i cant think of any porsche crimps that are the same as what we are talking about anyway, which is not saying much. i have not had to do any elctrical work on my car since i bought it, so i cant think of anything.
but i did use to do electrical work on cars for a living for a short time back in the early 90's and i DID see a lot of failures from crimps. those vampire splices were the worst. in fact, last year, my borther bought an 88 911, he was having hot start issues. after he replaced the ignition switch AND the starter, i found a bad crimp in the CAR ALARM system (another one of my worst things you can add to a car issues). had the crimp been soldered too, as i do, this would not have cost him several hundred dollars and pushing the car to get it started. and i can promise you, that joint would not fail in his life time.

besides, what looks better under your dash, a wire bundle with a mess of butt connectors or soldered wires that blend in?

although i work for the FAA, i dont know what the standards are as far as this goes for aircarft, but i will try to find out.

I have ordered some of the Porsche ones from places like Pelican.... I went through PET and pulled part numbers and ordered some, to see what was available. There are quite a few that are useful. I have also found them available at BMW dealerships, motorcycle dealerships, etc.

Thanks,
Jeff

ok, here is the deal. i just went over to the big comercial repair shop here. the tech there said they CAN solder the wires, not like i showed you im sure. but they mostly use crimps because it is easier. BUT, they have special crimps. not like this cheap crap the public will go buy. the one he showed me for butt splicing looked like a female pin that might go in something like an RS232 connector that uses special crimping tools. then it has a special heat shrink that goes over it. he said he does solder, but mostly on the bigger stuff like ground lugs. the pin he showed me was like a 22 or 24 gage.
i told him the story here about solder joints breaking and he just laughed and said ANYTHING can break. so to tell people that solder joints are less reliable because that is just not true. with that i will say this, the first thing i look for on a circuit board, unless something else is obvious, is a bad solder joint. but you are talking about smaller joints. in fact, i just fixed my bass players amp that had a bad solder joint, the 48 inch tv i bought for $75 had a bad solder joint, the computer on my brothers BMW had a bad solder joint. i love solder joint problems, they dont cost anything to fix. but, thats circuit boards with small connections vs connectors with larger surface area for the connection.

i should have asked him more about the standard amp connectors, but i can tell you this, the AC industry in not using them.

take it for what it is worth. like anything else, we will all come to our own conclusion as to what we think is best, most likely what we are more familiar with. i understand that most out there dont know how to solder that well and may prefer crimps because of that.
i prefer it because it is a more secure connection, less resistance in the connection, it looks better and i do think it is more reliable (based on my experience dealing with auto electrics on a daily basis) i have also seen many crimp connectors fail at my current job.

i do use crimps, but i solder them too, after all, what makes a better and more secure connection, a crimp alone or a crimp and solder. i only do the splice i showed above if i want it to look better and/or i want to put the wire back in a bundle and i dont want the big bulge from the crimp connectors.

if you do use crimps alone, give them a good tug after you crimp it.

In the fine, time-honored Pelican tradition of continuing to beat the horse long after it has died, and the original poster has left the room to find something more productive to do, I offer the following:

Crimp vs, solder, and how you can screw up with either of them:

http://www.rbba.us/documents/crimping.pdf

A little dissertation on proper crimping:

Molex - Good Crimps

Gotta go,
JR

nice article. i still dont agree with the vibration aspect, but then they are talking about "properly" crimped wires. with heat shrink, you can avoid the flex at the area they are talking about, it is almost like a strain relief.
but the article did say the proper way to crimp was with the die crimpers. yes, i have a set for work, but how many of us out there use those pliers type crimpers, i have at least 2 pair. what the article said about the wires flattening is why so many fail and the reason i solder my crimped connectors.

for butt splices, i have even cut the insulation off a butt splice, crimped, soldered and then put heat shrink over it.

just remember, the article is talking about good expensive connectors and tools. the amp connectors you get from advance are not the good ones.

That's true. I never buy anything from an auto parts store. It's all crap. All of my parts come from the dealer network. I pay more but I get what I figure is the best quality that is available.

When I was looking into connectors, I found that even companies like AMP have several different product lines, with varying degrees of quality. Some are aircraft-certifed, some are Napa quality crap.

I've got a drawer full of electrical tools. I've figured out that sooner or later I'll need a good one. Having the right tool is worth it's weight in gold sometimes.

JR