[Charles]

My year-old radiator SPAL fan is not coming on. Looking under the hood, I noticed that the repair shop (I had an accident) seems to have done a half-ass job on the wiring. It looks like crimp connectors and black electrical tape. Seems to me this is not a great way to make some permanent electrical connectors.

I need to redo the wiring. What's the proper way?

 

[kellerscobra]

I personnally solder all of my splices and connectors. Some people will argue that solder will make the wire brittle and will break over time. I never had a soldered splice or connector fail on me, however, I have seen several crimp joints and connectors fail.

Go to this link to get a good overview on soldering:
http://fordfuelinjection.com/?p=7

 

[Charles]

So solder and then perhaps some heatshrink?

 

[Stavros]

you can get butt connectors with heat shrink tubing on them already. I use this for my O2 sensor, since i had to lengthen that wire for my header, and i have had no problems with it.

soldering done properly with heat shrink is probably THE strongest thing you can do under the hood of your car, though. Im no good with a soldering iron, so i went with the easier way out. Heat shrink is a must, to make the connection waterproof.

 

[kellerscobra]

So solder and then perhaps some heatshrink?

Yep, solder and heat shrink are my suggestions.

However, if you decide to use crimp connectors, make sure you use a good crimper for quality crimps.

 

[Charles]

Thanks guys. I think that is my problem. Heat and splashes are making the electrical tape come undone.

By the way, don't use Master Europa in Fort Worth for your body work.

 

[Krix]

radio shack sells a little bag of solder tape. its small strips of solder you can use with just a lighter. i used alot of it when i did a wire tuck and had to lengthen some wires. great for small spaces. wrap your 2 wires together, wrap a piece or two of the tape on there, heat it up and boom, soldered. worked great for me.

 

[Stavros]

radio shack sells a little bag of solder tape. its small strips of solder you can use with just a lighter. i used alot of it when i did a wire tuck and had to lengthen some wires. great for small spaces. wrap your 2 wires together, wrap a piece or two of the tape on there, heat it up and boom, soldered. worked great for me.

what a cool idea! i wish i knew about that when i did my MPFI conversion. thanks, krix, the next wiring job i do will be a peice of cake.

 

[Charles]

For real. I am getting some of that tomorrow.

 

[toxiclows]

Solder and heat shrink... . the reason that some solder connections seem to get brittle and break is that people overheat the connection when soldering. . . . .just apply heat long enough to get the solder to flow through the joint and then heat shrink it

 

[bobski]

people overheat the connection when soldering

The only way I see that happening is if you melt back a significant portion of the wire insulation. If you leave heat on the connection, solder will tend to wick up the wire (assuming you're soldering stranded wire), making more than just the solder connection rigid. The only solder connection I would call brittle is a poor one. I generally see poor connections form due to poor heat transfer or dirty material. Rosin can help clean the material and make the solder flow (do the strips have rosin?), but heat transfer is purely a matter of technique. Keeping the iron on the connection longer gives things more time to come up to temp, but I find melting a little solder on the iron first increases the contact area, speeding things along.
Oh... I always use solder and heat-shrink unless there's no way to get the tube on the wire, then it's tightly wrapped electrical tape.

 

[akirarex]

Since I do soldering on a daily basis, I would say that if you have wires that are breaking that are soldered it is due to a bad solder joint (most common is a cold solder joint). Or that the stranded wire has been wicked up far away from the joint (not a bad thing though) but some mechanical motion has flexed the wire repeatedly and caused it to break because it is a "solid" wire now, as opposed to it's very flexible stranded former self. Just my thoughts without seeing the failures myself.