electrical connectors. nklr.

[Russell D. Stephan, Sr. Tech Analyst]

This is a post I cranked out Tuesday night answering a question from the Honda Sabre/Magna Internet list. The ideas and procedures in this text maybe relevant to other bike riders doing electrical mods.

>PH said... > > I bit the bullet and spent a couple of hours on the thing. Redid the coils, > leads and plug checks, checked the ignition switch, and battery, and last of > all checked the pulse generators. Bingo. Faulty 2-4 pulse generator. Took one > off the parts bike, installed it and no more worries. Chris Marsh, you may > want to check these pulse generators as well, could be part of your problem. > The procedure is in Haynes and Clymers. >

FWIW. In the past I've been burned by electrical leads, i.e., cheesey crimp jobs. If you ride a lot, your average Pep Boys electrical connectors will fail you as corrosion begins to play havoc with the copper. If you ride in the winter when even the hint of dry salt dust is on the road your problems will show up that much quicker. After my second stator meltdown connector failed me on the side of the Ohio Turnpike in February during a ride from Chicago to Cleveland, I decided to investigate possible improvements and find a better way. Throw in a couple of Accel coil cutouts due to bad crimps; motivated I was. After much Internet and equipment research I found what seems to work for me... Solder every damned splice! Yeah, that's right every wire junction I add or have apart for cleaning and/or access. NOTE -- This does *not* mean replacing all Nylon connectors. It means breaking out the wire crimps and soldering the wire/connector crimp. The improved joint should then go right back in the Nylon connector. Add dielectric grease to the Nylon-to-Nylon snap connection. Now, wait just a minute you aviation mechanics and wiring system know-it-alls. Let me explain the results of my findings. Fact. The FAA mandates that all wiring in an aircraft have crimped terminals; makes sense really. Aircraft wiring failures are a little bit more hazardous than bike wiring failures. Although, I would argue a dead machine in February near the Great Lakes is dangerous regardless. It seems that crimped connectors flex more and are more apt to go-with-the-flow when compared to soldered terminals. Where as solder joints don't fatigue all that well; bare crimps can "give". However, since my main concern is corrosion, I like the way a soldered joint keeps everything out of the crimp. However, I tried for a couple of months to locate a FAA/aircraft guide to crimp joints. Certainly, AV mechanics don't us the crappy Pep Boy connectors and pliers. Do I know how to crimp? Yes, I done hundreds of DB9 and DB25 connectors with expensive AMP tools and specific-for-the-job pins. TIP. The best in-the-field wire stripper around for small gauge wire is a small pair of Revlon fingernail clippers. Don't leave home without a set in your tank bag or fanny pack! The long and short of it all is that I came to the conclusion that the aircraft connectors would be prohibitively expensive and the terminal crimpers worth a virgin's dowry. Like any good economics understudy I started to look for cheaper substitutes... Obviously, the stuff has to be widely available. That leaves the regular Pep Boys or Wally World terminals. Okay, what if I updated my crimper to something like a high end AMP unit? That would be great if I could find one that worked with cheapo terminals. You see, most of the high end stuff has two pairs of wire grippers. One set is for the electrical connection itself, the other is for a crimp on the insulation which offers the whole wire stress relief. Pep Boy/Wally World terminals don't have but one set of crimp ears. Anyway, I pilfered a dozen or so cheapo terminals from by supply and set to trying different ways to improve my crimps. Eventually, I came up on the best way to do it. First, I use a heat gun to remove the plastic crimp insulator. Relax, don't blow a gasket just yet. Careful when you do this, you'll need two sets of needle nose pliers. Heat guns get those terminals HOT! Second, using the fingernail clippers strip the exact amount of insulation off the wire so the copper is completely crimped by the single pair of metal ears. The insulation of the wire should be very close to metal of the terminal. Don't, however, touch the terminal with the insulation (more on this later). Third, this is *one* of the most important steps. Use one of the pointy half moons of the cheapo crimper to start the crimp ears to do a U-turn bend. Don't crush the thing, just start the U-turn. NOTE: The following ASCII art diagram is best viewed in a fixed width font like system Courier. If you have an email client that uses some other font, copy the diagram and paste it to MS Notepad or some other basic fixed width font display application. Pre-crimp. | | O - is the cross section of the wire. \ O / --- The vertical and horizontal lines are the cross section of the terminal. Post-fist-step crimp. V -| |- O - Is the cross section of the wire. \ O / --- The vertical and horizontal lines are the cross section of the ^ terminal with the ears U-turned. V/^ - Is the half moon pointy part of the crimper. Now, you have to be careful with this first step. Remember one of those pointy half moon things from the crimper is pushing on the bottom of the terminal. If you use excessive force, you'll destroy the attempt. JUST START THE U-TURN! Fourth, Use the normal part of the crimper to complete the crimp. You may have to rotate the terminal 90 degrees or go back to step three to get it perfect. Practice with a dozen terminals and scrap wire first. It takes some patience, but you'll get it. So after all your meticulous work, what do you have? A nice copper crimp that's very solid and cannot, if you did it right, pull away. However, there is no wire stress relief for the insulation. Five, Time for the solder. Hey, I'm an engineer wearing a belt and suspenders is good form! Using a medium sized soldering iron because you need quick heat here (I think the one I use on wires is forty watts), heat the connector just enough to flow the solder into the crimp. Too much heat will destroy the insulation and/or flow solder towards the slide and/or bullet connector preventing the two slides from fully seating. Yeah, this also takes some practice. Six, since you're just practicing, you should be able to slid a 1/2 inch section of heat shrink tubing over the wire and over the just soldered crimp. Oh, let the joint cool otherwise your tubing will shrink before you get it seated. This piece of tubing should barely fit over the wire and the soldered crimp. Blobs or excess solder are your enemy, here. Apply enough heat to activate the first section of tubing. This piece of heat shrink tubing is part of the stress relief. That took care of the belt, now for the suspenders... Get a second piece of heat shrink tubing bigger than the first and a little longer. Install it over the first tube. Since I do use slide connectors, I always get the second section to completely cover the female slid connector. You now have one hell of a wire junction! Things to remember... When building wiring harnesses this way, you'll have to plan ahead and install the first piece of heat shrink tubing before you crimp on the terminal. What about insulating bullet connectors? For my four 55-watt flood lamps mounted on the forks between the axle and the Super Brace, I did exactly the above. However, at hook-up time I used dielectric grease in the bullet connectors followed up with a large tube of heat shrink tubing to weather proof the whole shootin' match. Yes, service will require cutting the external tube of tubing. Hell, I'll live with that for the sake of reliability. What about stock wiring harness splices? I use a similar procedure. Completely cut the stock wire. Strip and install the necessary heat shrink tubing. Twist the stock wire and the splice into the accessory wire tap; lightly solder. Use paint on liquid insulation to cover the splice/solder joint; wait overnight for the liquid to set up. Heat shrink the tubing into place. Isn't this a pain in the ass? Yes, it is. However, I wasn't going to take any chances on any wiring after my ass-frozen, street-side fix on the Sabre in Toledo. This is probably too much work for most riders. However, considering I ride almost year round, I think it's a worthwhile investment in time. Sometimes it's also necessary to do all the work on the bike. If you're building a complete wiring harness, you can only complete one end on the bench before routing the wire on the bike. Be careful with heat guns and soldering irons around stock wiring. Obviously, this type of job is for the seriously anal and meticulous or people ending up four thousand miles away from their garage during a tour. Of course, your circumstances may be different. Modify the above to your needs or ignore completely. Thanks, *************************************************************************** Russell D. Stephan, Voice: (614) 760-3065 Senior Technical Analyst Fax: (614) 760-3360 Technology Management Consulting, Inc. email: rstephan@... 9980 Brewster Lane, Suite A. russell.stephan@... Powell, Ohio 43065 URL: http://www.tmconsult.com

[gianthanduk]

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