"Steve" wrote in message ...
Wow, you have to be so carefull on this group. To clarify, I never solder
battery terminals. I am not even sure how you would without the use of a
blow-torch to get such a lot of metal hot enough. Then you would probably
do a lot of damage to the wire with wicking solder and melting the
insulation. They have to be crimped and sealed with double layer
heatshrink (the sort with glue inside).

Yup! But I have a friend that soldered all his battery connection with a
small blowtorch as you mentioned.

The crimp/solder I was refering to was for the spade connectors on the
switches/cct breakers etc. Yes it might not be the universally accepted
best solution but if the crimp is good to start with then the solder
should not penetrate the crimp joint and hence will only act as an
additional seal for the whole.

See my previous comment about the research done by NASA back
in the 70's or 80's.


Doug Dotson wrote:
"Jim Donohue" wrote in message
news:vuI1e.506$ZV5.360@fed1read05...

"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.


Rather extreme for boat applications.


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....


Buy a good crimper that produces a proper crimp each time. One of the
ratcheting types.


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.


Wow! That's alot of work. How many years have you been doing this?


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 seem to recall in an issure of NASA Tech Briefs about 25 years ago that
the
major problems with solder joints had to do with microcracks forming as a
result of thermal cycling resulting in high impedance in the joint. Also,
moisture
can deteriorate via the microcracks assuming the joint is not made
moisture
tight.


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