Crape crimps

[mrzigazaga]

Hi Peeps...I went out today..Started the car..(The starter is ok it was a low battery)..Went to the bank to pay a cheque in..Pulled up all casual like and fizz..Spurt..Ssshhh all my water comes out from the catch tank..No fan on???...Wire to fan..Wiggle..wiggle..Comes on..I then spot this..

Placed in between a single run of wire..WHY??..Did TVR get a st load free or something as they are everywhere..I hate them..Blue bds!!..In fact there were two on the same piece of wire....I went to maplins and got some bullet connectors and some heat shrink tubing..Sorted..Cheers..Ziga

[Mr Tank]

mrzigazaga said:

Hi Peeps...I went out today..Started the car..(The starter is ok it was a low battery)..Went to the bank to pay a cheque in..Pulled up all casual like and fizz..Spurt..Ssshhh all my water comes out from the catch tank..No fan on???...Wire to fan..Wiggle..wiggle..Comes on..I then spot this..

Placed in between a single run of wire..WHY??..Did TVR get a st load free or something as they are everywhere..I hate them..Blue bds!!..In fact there were two on the same piece of wire....I went to maplins and got some bullet connectors and some heat shrink tubing..Sorted..Cheers..Ziga

Zig

Not TVR! I bet it was a previous owner.

Andy

[GV]

The most unreliable of connections so I hear....

[mrzigazaga]

Mr Tank said:

Zig
Not TVR! I bet it was a previous owner.

Oh ok..Thanks andy..Sorry trevor..They certainly are an abomination..They are in the headlight and side light connections..Probably why i have to wiggle the wire there now and then as well..They are a bit of a nightmare to get to as i would like to tackle them as well..I suppose i could always label the wires and then disconnect them and pull them out to sort..Cheers..Ziga

[wooly350i]

Found one or two of the critters on mine as well zig, I think alarm fitters like em!

[Chimpandtonic]

Scotch Locks sometimes known as Snap Locks.

Either way, they are the first thing a cowboy auto sparks reaches for when looking to tap into a feed

Nasty, nasty, nasty little critters.......

Did I say nasty

The truth is you can do anything with a handful of Scotch Locks and some speaker wire.

Including burning your car down

[RCK974X]

Those things are an invention of the Devil IMHO. They're used by people who can't be bothered doing a proper job, and people who fit them should have their bits ripped off.

What me feel strongly ?

They are not TVR originals as far as I know.

NB some of the original TVR crimps on mine (i.e. the bolt eyelets for earthing) weren't up to much either after 20 odd years, and had corroded, so it's always worth rechecking the electrics....

[mrzigazaga]

RCK974X said:

They're used by people who can't be bothered doing a proper job, and people who fit them should have their bits ripped off.

..Or someone should make human scotch locks..To put their bo locks in!!...

[RCK974X]

It's called a bench vice ......

[mrzigazaga]

RCK974X said:

It's called a bench vice ......

[jmorgan]

Yeah, a vice with scaffold pole on the lever, just to be sure.

For a small outlay you can get the right connector. For the fan I have a waterproof one from vehicle wiring products and other general tidying up the brass spade connectors so I can solder them and fit them in plastic bodies so I can make up multiple connections. Even with a proper crimper I am never really happy with a lucar let alone them sctotch locks.


But, in their defence, I have a few lurking as a get you home connector.

[Mr Tank]

Hi

What I find just as much which annoys me is, white chocolate block! Which I keep finding more and more!

My FHC has more than Cadbury's

Andy

[RCK974X]

jmorgan said:

Yeah, a vice with scaffold pole on the lever, just to be sure.
For a small outlay you can get the right connector. <snip>

I couldn't agree more !!

IF you have the correct professional crimp tool, then crimps are a good and reliable method. The problem is most (all ?) home owners, and many garages DON'T. The hand ones from Halfords (or whereever) don't provide nearly enough force in the right places.

I solder all my connectors, and even then they aren't as good now that most of the lead has been taken out of the solder. I reckon for the home mechanic, soldering is about as good as you can get.

Soldered connections do deteriorate with water,salt, etc, so they also benefit from a regular spray of WD40. I don't know about the later wedges, but my 280 has some connectors in stupid places, where they are bound to catch the road muck, for example the injection subloom had its original, INTERIOR GRADE, connector sat right by the radiator with no extra sheilding. Give it 10 years (and a lot more than that now !) and owners wonder why the electrics are dodgy ? I spent a bit of time on mine cleaning all the green crap off them all, a good coat of WD40, some replaced, etc etc, and had very little trouble since. It's worth the effort.

[jmorgan]

I have the right crimper for lucar connectors, not the pressed out thin one you normally get. Problem is the moisture gets down the strands that is why I prefer solder.

[phillpot]

RCK974X said:

they also benefit from a regular spray of WD40.

Try Contalube, longer lasting (and far superior) than WD40..


Soldering is ok if all the flux is thoroughly cleaned off, otherwise it will cause corrosion far quicker and worse than anything thrown up from the road.

Crimping is the "standard" on equipment and machinery these days,carrying far higher voltages and currents than found in cars and subject to dirt, corrosion, viabration etc. As said, all depends on quality crimpers and crimps.

All IMHO of course

[Wedg1e]

I had an argument (on PH, I think!) some years back as to whether soldering was better than crimping (I was in the solder camp). Then up popped some guy who pointed out that aircraft wiring looms are always crimped as it's been proven to be a more reliable technique (I checked with my contact at Shorts in Belfast who build Learjet fuselages, he was right). Which (still arguing here ) it may be, in the right circumstances, but as Jeff Morgan says, the exposure wiring gets in a car tends to lead to capillary corrosion, which is staved off better by soldering.
Scotchloks are the work of the devil; chocolate block is far better, not least because of the bigger surface area involved for contact.
The 'proper' crimp terminal ratchet tool usually has interchangeable jaws so they can also be set up for crimping bootlace ferrules etc. - handy if you happen to work on process control panels as well as cars...

[RCK974X]

Yeah, I had a similar discussion. What we ended up agreeing was that the MOST IMPORTANT item was the quality of the crimp tool. With the proper professional tool, crimps are in fact lower resistance than even soldered joints. Also solder can make the copper wire brittle because of the alloying of tin (as I remember) into the copper. But there's a huge difference between a professional wiring factory setup, and yer local garage like.

Most of the crimpers bought from halfords et. al. aren't nearly good enough, because they can't apply nearly enough pressure. You need much longer handles !!

I did see the inside of a proper professional wiring shop once (computers, custom panels, automotive etc.), and saw that even the fairly small diameter crimpers (like what we would see on car headlamp and main power wires) were HYDRAULIC and powered by a FOOT PUMP !!
That's the kind of pressure required...

So at home, I still solder the connectors.

Edited by RCK974X on Thursday 26th January 02:07

Edited by RCK974X on Thursday 26th January 02:09

[jmorgan]

When I was mooching around for me head light/side light/fog light all go out together, the crimped connectors were corroded to buggery and without piecing out large sections of the loom it was the wire wool treatment and solder. I would not have trusted it to a crimp. The damp has an easy life on some of this wiring.

I appreciate that crimps are the norm elsewhere but somehow when it is soldered on the wedge I feel happier.

We do crimp a lot of stuff at work but then its different uses and design.

[mrzigazaga]

Ok..So we have established that crimps are crapy unless crimped with "May the force be with you" and solder would be better if there was more lead put back in it!!.......
....So what i need is some lead crimps soldered on and then get an elephant to stand on them....But wont this burn the poor elephants foot?...I suppose the bullet connectors that i put on the fan wire..Crimped with a crimper from vehicle wiring products and sleeved with heat shrink tubing is still crape!!..Wah..

[Barkychoc]

Crimps with vaseline is the trick - keeps the weather out.
They have been used in the telecommunications industry for years - even crimp joints that work on a similar principle to scotchloks work fine with jelly in there to keep the water at bay.