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Electrical Connectors

south east okie

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On my bikes , autos, tractors , ect. I have always used solder and heat shrink tubing or Posi Tap. I have been looking at the heat shrink wire connections with solder. They look good and will be user friendly .

Have any of you guys used them, if so, do you like them?
 
On my bikes , autos, tractors , ect. I have always used solder and heat shrink tubing or Posi Tap. I have been looking at the heat shrink wire connections with solder. They look good and will be user friendly .

Have any of you guys used them, if so, do you like them?
Yup alot of heat. We had some at work. I kinda lost my patience with these connectors. OEM auto mfg supply crimp barrels with the same glue style shrink tube also.
 
In my experience it works sort of, Its slow and its not liking any strain until its stone cold cool. great in a perfect situation everything aligned with no weight of wire hanging exerting any pressure whatsoever on the joint.
Its not like soldering when its off and its cool sort of deal, it behaves in my opinion rather like a cold joint certainly on heavier cable like starter solenoid switch wires etc.
Call me old fashioned but i can solder wires faster than the joints sort of do the job, just practice a soldered joint and by all means shrink wrap it but the joint kits for me are ... Anoyingly slow and IMO average on light wire to not that good on heavier wire.
 
In my experience it works sort of, Its slow and its not liking any strain until its stone cold cool. great in a perfect situation everything aligned with no weight of wire hanging exerting any pressure whatsoever on the joint.
Its not like soldering when its off and its cool sort of deal, it behaves in my opinion rather like a cold joint certainly on heavier cable like starter solenoid switch wires etc.
Call me old fashioned but i can solder wires faster than the joints sort of do the job, just practice a soldered joint and by all means shrink wrap it but the joint kits for me are ... Anoyingly slow and IMO average on light wire to not that good on heavier wire.
Same results for me. I make better time with traditional solder methods and shrink tube. And as far as stress moving conections such as trailer brake wires...industry standard is both wires in the same side crimp barrel. Then shrink or high quality tape. I have witnessed my tape connections 10 yrs later with no intrusion in heavy salt use.
 
I'll second what Matty wrote ^; You need to practice to get it right. I went back to old school, solder, shrink wrap, never
had one fail.
 
Sounds like some of you don't like the solder joints. I have some ordered, I'll try them and see what I think about them.

I went to a 2 year tech school for diesel mechanics from the age of 18 to 20. Worked at my trade for 39 years until I retired. I have "practiced soldering":D

That being said, I have been riding motorcycles for 53 yrs and still can't ride worth a damn. So I might need to practice soldering more. :dirtdog
 
Sounds like some of you don't like the solder joints. I have some ordered, I'll try them and see what I think about them.

I went to a 2 year tech school for diesel mechanics from the age of 18 to 20. Worked at my trade for 39 years until I retired. I have "practiced soldering":D

That being said, I have been riding motorcycles for 53 yrs and still can't ride worth a damn. So I might need to practice soldering more. :dirtdog
Solder joints are fine but not when it is done with a heat gun. But in extreme situations the wire will break at the solder joint. Also limited access and limited time factor in. Nothing beats replacing the wire from terminal to terminal. Or when "tapping" in to get a set of connectors and terminals and make a breakout pig tail. That way the harness remains oem.
 
Just my humble opinion.
I'll advice to avoid those unless you are having emergency.
There is a reason why you'll never see these (or solder joints) in new cars.
Of course I am lucky in that I have a large collection of professional connectors at hand, and the tools to use them. So I can afford to be a connector snob. :-)
 
The key to crimp connectors of any kind is to have the right crimping tool for the job.
Those $3 Harbor Freight ones won’t do at all. A good crimping tool costs $$$ but is worth it.
I have re-wired many boats and trailers and very rarely had a failure. Usually it was operator error if something happened.
The best connectors IMHO are marine grade connectors with heat shrink for water resistance. YMMV
 
I have wired way too much. Insulated barrel connectors are junk. Any barrels with a seam are also junk. The good barrel connectors we used were from tricor. The best crimps were channel lock with the anvil sightly radiused. On a hectic day I might make 100 or more connections. Everything from plow trucks, tow packages, flat tow, trailers and strobes. I also removed my own work to reinstall on a different vehicle. So I could see the my own work 5 to 10 yrs later. It never mattered how well I did it if the customer tears it up. Like driving off the with the plug still attached. Or our favorite plugging in a bargman plug 180° out.....my brakes locked up
 
A friend of mine could never understand why my trailer lights always worked and his were always out or on the way..
Until I saw what he did, laughed 🥴 and made him look at how I had done mine.
He asked me to rewire his trailer one day...... so while I sipped on a beer I made him follow my instructions... :lol3 Nothing beats hands on training right??? 🤣
 
A friend of mine could never understand why my trailer lights always worked and his were always out or on the way..
Until I saw what he did, laughed 🥴 and made him look at how I had done mine.
He asked me to rewire his trailer one day...... so while I sipped on a beer I made him follow my instructions... :lol3 Nothing beats hands on training right??? 🤣
My favorite customer stuff was I hooked it up color to color and bolted together trailers that had ground issues. We had molded bargman plugs that were both codes. Brown to green or green to green. I about lost it with a few coworkers too. I had to explain circuit function and terminal placement. My flat tow brake installs had all the same colors as the the diode package that acted just like a trailer. I rolled all the harness in black tape and tucked all my zip tie heads in. Nobody could even see the wires.

But the funniest was a Porsche with 2 sets of tail lights. When the hatch was open the 2nd set activated and the primary deactivated. I tried to rig it to activate the primary. Lost my patience and had my coworkers lock me in the trunk. I said to use any means possible if needed to get me out. That was the quickest I have ever pinned out functions on a foreign vehicle.
 
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