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Good crimper - any recommendations?

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bigjones

bigjones

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Connection-1.jpg

This connects to the coil so if it comes apart guess what.

It has been crimped twice, once on the bare wire and once on the insulation. But sometimes these can be pulled apart with a quick tug. Anyone recommend something a bit more dependable.

(Yeah, I follow up with heat-shrink tubing)

Cheers
 
I use regular "cheap" crimp/strip pliers.

The die on the pliers should have a "female" concave seat and on the other jaw a male stem. When you look at the crimp fitting, study it carefully looking for a seam where the metal was rolled into the socket the wire goes in. When you put the crimp terminal in the dies of the crimp pliers, put the terminal in with the seam against the male part of the die so the "split" in the metal is pushed inward against the wire. This will give you a much better bite.

There is no benefit to crimping on the plastic by itself.

If you are using heat shrink anyway, remove the plastic sleeve from the terminal first.

See this picture link of a crimper/stripper:
https://www.wanderingfree.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Wire-Stripper-Terminal-pliers.jpg

You'll see the male and female parts of the die to the right of the fulcrum/pivot. Notice the "narrower" male/female pair are marked 22-14. That's the one you'll use most on common wiring on a car or around the house.

See this picture link for a crimp terminal without the insulator sleeve. You can see the split I was mentioning. The male part of the crimp die goes against that split to push the metal down into the wires.
https://image.rodandcustommagazine.com/f/...ls+terminal.jpg
 
I always crimp and solder
 
Ok, Here we go. As background, I'm a professional electrician (UNION MAN)

(https://www.tessco.com/products/displayProductInfo.do?sku=66543&eventPage=1)

Thomas $ Betts WT112M does insulated or non insulated.

You don't need fancy ratchet crimpers, but you do need to use the correct slot in the hand crimpers you do use. If it has a little teat, it's for NON insulated, but it if it looks like () it's the right slot for insulated lugs. Also be sure to use High Quality lugs themselves. Don't use the ones you pick up at an automotive store or Harbor Freight, but go to a real electrical supply house and get Thomas and Betts (T&B) or Panduit brand. The T&B crimpers similar to the ones above are every bit as good and in fact I prefer T&B. Done right, you don't need solder and the connection will never fall off or get pulled off. I just looked at the link to your crimpers. Throw them away. Also be sure to use the correct colored slot to match the color of your lug, and use the correct SIZE of lug for the wire you have. You should be using BLUE, 16/14 on almost all the wiring that goes into the wiring harness, and IIRC yellow on the headlight wires as they ARE larger.
 
Thank you for all that info, I actually have a pair of the last mentioned crimpers that a friend gave me but how no idea what I had. I have been smashing them with the vice grip all along which does come apart. I love this place.

Mark
 
It is NOT so much the crimpers, but good ones do work better.
It is the cheap imported crimp on connectors that DO fail most of the time.
Go to an electric or alarm supply and get US made connectors.
It DOES matter.
 
Funny, that is the connection that disintegrated after I installed my new distributor... Installed, got it running and then suddenly nothing. Had to strip the old wiring back to good wire and then just plugged in whatever I had in the garage (funny, it looks just like yours!).

Geez, after reading BillL's post, I think I'd better go pull it apart again and start over!
 
+1 on the solder. A mechanical connection can always come apart. Doesn't matter how good the crimp is; run some solder in there and it's never comin' loose. I got into the habit repairing bullet connectors; now I solder everything.
 
There's a reason that they quit soldering connections in house wiring. When the wire carries too big a load, the solder can heat up and melt. When it melts, the connection gets loose, causing even more heat due to the loss of conductive area, and the next thing ya know, there's a fire.

I know many swear by it in cars, but I don't want the solder to act as a fuse link in mine. Perhaps both is the most reliable way to go.
 
12V DC ~can~ do some heat generating if things are in a dead short condition. But by the time the temp at the connector is hot enuff to melt solder I expect the wiring would have melting insulation smoking to a point of combustion. IE: the harness self immolates LONG before the solder melts. I've seen MANY a harness melted to uselessness, ALL insulation melted away, with the connectors' solder still intact.

I solder all automotive/marine connectors. Crimp connections, no matter how well connected mechanically still have opportunity for electrolysis over time. Multi-strand copper wire and (even the "tinned" T&B) dissimilar connectors can allow atmosphere to ingress and degrade conductivity. House wiring is rarely multi-strand and what is, is usually not subject to the same conditions of humidity, vibration and mechanical stress occurring in an LBC. Crimp connectors and wire nuts are fine in a *house.

That said, the Lucar bullet/sleeve connections are JUST as prone to corrosion so need to be cleaned and some electrolytic grease used to lessen the opportunity for resistance-causing corrosion to occur.



*unless there's copper and that poxy aluminium wire needing to be spliced. Replace the alloy run with COPPER! :wink:
 
All good point Dr. except that one should never put crimps on solid wire.
 
Probably not a good idea to use solid wire in a car, anyway. It's too susceptible to breaking as a result of vibration and work hardening.

If you solder a connection (which is what I do and recommend), use heat shrink on it. This makes it a little harder to kink at the joint. Also, wiring should be tied down with non-chafing cable clamps of some kind. This will also help prevent its vibrating at the joints and eventually cracking.

If you get a joint hot enough to melt solder, you've lost the game a long time ago. Most ordinary insulation is designed for something like 90C, max, (and a lot won't come close to that), but most ordinary solders melt in the high 200C range.
 
Pythias said:
All good point Dr. except that one should never put crimps on solid wire.
Click to expand...

So why would <span style="font-style: italic">one</span> use 'em on stranded wire then?

"Stake-on" copper ferrules and a four-point crimping tool with solid wire work fine, IMO.
 
I own a company that make cable harnesses, we're doing a lot of motorsport at the moment, Mosler Europe one of my customers & so may a UK F1 team soon.

Soldering is a no no!. It makes for a brittle joint. Crimp & solder makes this much worse. It will be good at the start, but with heat/vibration it will fail.

Always use the correct size crimp. Choose a quality make of crimps & preferably a ratchet crimp tool.

Practice on scrap pieces.

Take care to get the correct strip lengths.
 
Hairyone said:
Soldering is a no no!. It makes for a brittle joint. Crimp & solder makes this much worse. It will be good at the start, but with heat/vibration it will fail.
Click to expand...

Well, soldering is good enough for high-reliability hardware used in spacecraft and medical equipment, subject to much greater stress and far higher standards, so I think it's probably adequate for cars.

Like anything else, you need to do proper stress relief at the joint. If you don't, doesn't matter what else you do.
 
Yes (above) you're correct, our airborne harnesses are predominately soldered, but these are to a much higher quality than the average mechanic can achieve within the confines of a dark spridget hood. They are also very well secured, mostly laced to something solid.
Most of the wires in our cars are left dangling & flopping around, subject to wet & vibration. my frogeye dash with new marine grade switches & new automotive grade wire (we've lots of colours & sizes). I wanted my car not to ever breakdown due to an electrical fault. :driving:
 
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