[VAC] Re: Crimp Connectors

["Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer" <geraldj@xxxxxxxx>]

Soldered connections to stranded wires tend to break in the vehicular
application. That's why they are crimped. Hand crimps are often not
completed, so they can pull out.

Solder tends to wick in between the strands and make the wire stiff
beyond the soldered connection and the wire tends to fracture in time at
the end of the solder wicking.

Proper crimp tools don't open until after being fully closed and do make
better crimps that the typical hardware store crimper.

When patching in a tight spot where the wire was already a hair short,
it might have been faster to add a second crimp and a half foot of wire
just to make access easier. Providing there was the crimp, crimp tool,
and wire available.

Hand made crimps with the typical hardware tool need to be crimped
twice, once over the metal part of the lug squeezing metal into metal to
get a cold weld on the stranded wire, and the other at the insulated
sleeve of the crimp lug over wire insulation to give the wire crimp some
added support. One manual crimp is inadequate for the vibration of a
vehicle.

Gerald J.