"Sailct41" wrote in message
...
Crimp or solder but not both. Soldering a connection that is crimped is
thought to weaken it, and crimping a previously soldered connector would
probably lead to a cold solder joint. I suggest that a good way to do
your
internal connections would be to crimp the wire and then use the heat
shrink
from West Marine that has glue inside. Not only does the shrink provide
protection but the glue seals against moisture. When I last did my
battery
cables I used my rigging crimping tool to crimp the connectors to the
heavy
wire (two crimps, at right angles to each other) and used the heat shrink
(and for god sakes use a gun, not a lighter) with adhesive. After three
years I had no corrosion at all either at the terminals or underneth them
(did a modification to add additional golf carts).

Scott
"Doug Dotson" dougdotson@NOSPAMcablespeedNOSPAMcom wrote in message
...

"Steve" wrote in message ...
All,

Thanks for the replies. It should mention that just about all the wire
I
am working on at the moment is internal to the boat.


This is an age old discussion that has more aspects than one can easily
comprehend.

First ABYC is down on solder only. It argues that a connection based on
solder alone may fail from heat at some inoppportune moment. So no straight
solder joints.

Crimps are, as is often suggested, very reliable when properly made. How do
you tell if they are properly made? You can't. Only real way to QC the
thing is to section it and check with a microscope. Note that too much
crimp is actually worse than too little. You can pull check a crimp and
eliminate a too little crimp but an over crimp is pretty close to being
undetectable visually. If you have a suitable bridge you might pick it up
by an impedance change but that is going a little far.

It is a very repeatable technique. If you make a good crimp or two the next
10 thousand are virtually certain to be as good. If however the first is
bad....

I know a bit about this after having to change out tens of thousands of
harnesses in the field when bad crimps in the main AC connections were found
on a device.

Soldering a crimp does not weaken the crimp. The concern is that it creates
a hard point up the wire where vibration will cause a stress cracking. I
would think that if carefully limited to the connector barrel by the use of
a suitable heat sink it would lead to a quite suitable connection.
Otherwise you must support the wiring mechanically somewhere back of the
solder.

I personally would crimp, solder with heat sink and use an inch of the
sealing heat shrink to support the connection.

I would also believe that a matched set of connectors and new crimp dies in
the proper tool are equally as good as the above crimp and solder. However
with generic crimping tools (even of the ratchet sort) and WM
connectors...you are on your own.

Calder is interesting on this one. Volume one recommends crimp and solder.
Volume two lists the authorities as believing good crimp is as good or
better than solder.

Jim Donohue