GBM wrote:

"cavelamb" wrote

Just a suspicion, but it seems to me that the problem here is a result of
the swaging process itself.

When the swage is squeezed, there should be uneven compression which would
cause the material to yield unevenly - leading to rather high localized

stress

concentrations. In-service vibration, over time, should lead to exactly

the

kind of cracks described by GBM.

FWIW, for highly stressed aircraft cables, the terminals (ends) are

*Rolled*

rather than squoze...

Richard


Could be, but experience shows that this type of failure does not occur in
fresh water. The experts advise that it is the presence of chlorides in
crevices with an oxygen deficient atmosphere and stress that cause the
failure. The whole swage and the wire strands are stressed to various
degrees.

GBM



Capillary action would draw water up the wires and into the fittings.

Sea water there would be a bad thing (tm) that would aggressively attack the
small surface fractures in the fitting.

Your point about sealing the swedged fitting with epoxy should reduce the
susceptibility quite nicely just by sealing the open end of the wire and
fitting.

Keep the nasty old sea water out of those tender places...


Richard