Club 80-90 Forums

Aha! How you laughed at my idea of buying a second black box for additional wiring in the engine bay!!! Once I have a spare box, there'll be no end to the amount of things I can stuff in there. The only thing I'll need next will be a load of dash gauges for the wires to go to

I use crimp and shrink sleeve.
Every motor manufacturer and aviation company uses tat method why do different.

I worked at a Mercedes dealership back in the early 90's . There was no bonus system, the emphasis was always quality....bolts coppa-slipped, distributor caps cleaned in thinners, wheels acid cleaned and balanced, exhaust pipe sections held in place and welded, not a clamp in sight....and you guessed it, every fitted alarm, tow bar and air conditioning system wired with every joint soldered.

Martin

Lots of places I wouldn't rely on crimped connectors.

CovKid wrote:Lots of places I wouldn't rely on crimped connectors.

Prey tel me why. Solder causes cable to be very week behind the joint. If a crimp is done with the correct crimp tool it should be as strong as is possible.
just about every connection on your car irrespective of make is crimp.

Why is a soldered joint weak? Their only shortcoming is the short soldered section is rigid and accepting that they are suitably insulated and contained within a junction box rigidity is not an issue.
Using a soldered wire joint on a section of wiring likely to move ie; harness to window lifters through the door aperture, Is a different matter altogether but we haven't got that in a fixed box.

Martin

California Dreamin wrote:Why is a soldered joint weak?

Martin

If you solder a wire the temp softens the conductor.
If you look back to old batt cables, they always fray and strands snap off just behind the soldered joint.
Now all bat cables crimped.

nicq wrote:

California Dreamin wrote:Why is a soldered joint weak?

Martin

If you solder a wire the temp softens the conductor.
If you look back to old batt cables, they always fray and strands snap off just behind the soldered joint.
Now all bat cables crimped.

The heat might soften the copper but the solder then stiffens the joint...in the absence of movement nothing breaks. Whilst I sort of get what you are saying I think that in this particular instance where wires are static and not moved their simply isn't an issue.
I think we are kind of missing the point a little here as well. The main point made is NOT to use Scotchlock style blocks.....other types of connectors are fine, I just happen to prefer soldering but agree that other methods could be reliably used.

Martin

I've ended up patching in my trailer cable in the black box at the back of the engine. I do agree that it was a tight fit getting it in there and it's not the easiest place to work, but it had a number of advantages!

- I could easily identify the cables I needed to patch into.
- My buzzer even fitted in the box
- It's all now hidden and dry

I ended up using cutting the cables and adding crimp bullet connections to patch my cables in.

Tidy job done; let's hope it still works in a few years!

Thanks for all the ideas

Mark