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I want to repair/create my own wiring harnesses. recommend me a parts/tool kit?
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Lone Cedar
Posted 4/29/2017 10:09 (#5989260 - in reply to #5988825)
Subject: RE: I want to repair/create my own wiring harnesses. recommend me a parts/tool kit?


SW Iowa
KMech - 4/29/2017 05:37

Lone Cedar - 4/28/2017 18:04
To replace contacts the "right" way requires a ratcheting crimp tool with die set specific to the connector you're working with, which can run $200+ each. With any hand crimp--even using the proper high-dollar crimper--I think reliability is better if you additionally solder after you crimp.


Soldering is not recommended, and causes more problems than is solves. It offers no benefit over a proper crimp, but offers several drawbacks. If you are using braided wire, soldering makes those wire strands rigid. The rigid section of soldered wire have to end at some point, and if that cable moves at all, there's a good possibility that sometime in the future that wire will break right past the edge of the solder. There's a reason you never find a crimp joint soldered on a manufacturer's cable. Then there's the fact if you fail to clean up 100% of the flux, you have introduced a corrosive agent to your electrical junction. On top of it all, the soldered joint offers no better electrical connection quality than a properly crimped junction.

If it will let me attach a file this size, I will attach a deutsch technical manual. It has a lot of good info in it, not all of it specific to their connectors.


I understand your argument, however we will have to agree to disagree (at least to some extent).

My understanding is that the reliability of crimped connections is somewhat critically dependent on crimping tight enough to mash things together to displace all air gaps and get a cold weld--without mashing things together too tightly and causing fatigue. The reason OEM cables aren't soldered is that they are (or should be) manufactured using automated equipment that is calibrated to the specific wire and contacts being used by verifying crimp height with a micrometer. Using an automated crimp machine in a controlled environment with new materials I agree that solder isn't necessary.

With a hand crimper and a random wire you come across out in the field, though, you don't have nearly the same level of control over the crimp. You *want* the stranded wires to be rigid inside the conductor crimp area--if your stranded wires can move inside the crimped area you don't have much of a crimp. And to be clear I'm advocating putting a tiny amount of solder into the conductor crimp area... if it is wicking back up the wire and causing it to become stiff you're using too much solder.

If you use the Kester 951 no-clean flux, corrosion is not an issue.

This technique is probably only applicable to stamped contacts (u shape that you put the wire in and crimp into an m) where you can put an iron on the conductor crimp and add solder to the end of the wire, and wouldn't work with an indenter-crimped terminal.

I picked this practice up from an engineer friend who owns a small company that periodically builds custom cables for customers in industrial applications to use with their products. A lot of his educational background is metallurgy. You can make your own decision if it is right or wrong, but the logic behind it made sense to me.

Certainly a good crimp is better than a bad crimp + big blob of solder, but executed correctly I still think a small amount of solder helps ensure the reliability of a "good" hand crimp.
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