Technical 3-SOME SPICE! Oops, I meant SPLICE! (TECH WEEK)

Come on in my garage, don't be scared........Is this your first time?

 

Alright, I'll try to keep this brief......

Most aftermarket wiring harness's have a few splices...parking lights, tail lights, etc. Trouble is, they're never in the perfect spot. I'm talking about how they run one wire and then that wire split's into two. Their splice (or split) is nicely wrapped in heat shrink, and is not bulky. I guess you could just move their splice, but in most cases, you would be adding 1-2 more coupling connectors.

Here's what I came up with......

 

Get out your basic electrical tools, and follow along.

 

I can't open the hotrod sedan link Chucky

 

Ok - can I finish my tech thread first?

 

Did you notice the female spade connector? They come in a variety of (input gauge) sizes.

 

Using one of my dental picks (sweet! I worked in a tooth reference!) as a holder, so I don't slice my fingers - I remove the plastic crap from the connector. The "yellow" gauge connector was "stripped" just to show how one could split a 10/12 gauge wire into two 14 gauge wires.

 

Then the "blue" 14/16 gauge spade connector for the actual process.

 

Now, strip your wires. Don't forget the heat shrink, before it's too late!

 

My work bench has about 2500 holes drilled into it. I find them quite useful. The female spade connector needs a little 'bump' with the dental pick to open it up slightly.

 

You can see where this is going. If not, hire someone to do your electrical.

 

Crimping this takes a little extra care. You want the crimp to close slowly around the wires. Don't just flatten the shit out of it. I "worked" the crimp with a baby channel lock pliers to finish it, after the initial gentle crimp.

 

After crimping, you can gently fold it in half. Now you can crimp the two wire side as if they were one wire. Finish up with the single wire side. Did you forget the heat shrink?

 

Double heat shrink is something I am doing more of lately.

 

That's it / good night!

 

Neat idea, (literally) can't believe I've never thought of that myself.

 

Awesome !

 

All done with mine. I wish I would have thought of this. I certainly would appear much smarter. Great tip!!

 

Great idea

 

Nice..Neat and trim..

 

Hmmm.... being an electrician, that looks like a nice firestarter to me... sorry. Some electrical engineer spent considerable time designing those connectors for a specific use, UL tested it for that use, and it certainly wasn't approved for this. If I were doing this, I'd solder this, and I never use solder....

 

Steve I realize you know a lot about wiring, what exactly would cause a fire, other than a less than proper crimp. (I would solder it so the crimp wouldn't be a problem)
I'm not picking a fight, I want to hear your knowledge.

 

Wolfcreek-Steve X2. I also fail to see the fire hazard.

 

Man, that is simple and slick! Thanks for the tip!

 

"Less than a proper crimp"..... That's the crux. I hate to say this, but there's plenty of guys here that don't understand what a proper crimp is because I see photographic evidence of it here pretty regularly. I'm not going to try to police that; you'll always get somebody that will insist 'I've done it that way for years and never had any trouble', so why waste your breath. But in this case, this is being touted as a 'tip', so people will look.

You're taking a connector and using it in a non-designed way, using several 'make-do' tools to do the 'crimp'. Remember, just because you can't pull the wire out after you've smooshed it doesn't necessarily mean you have a good crimp. And they do make those specialized crimpers for a reason. And you don't even end up with a 100% crimp; note he had to open the slot slightly (which already has about 20% if it's circumference missing to allow the 'tab' to slide it), so if the 'finished' crimp doesn't surround the wire totally, that 'uncovered' percentage won't contribute to current capacity. That's assuming you get the rest crimped at 100%, which could prove difficult (or 'worked' in the words of the OP). Current through an inadequate connection equals hot spots equals heat....

It's far simpler (and much safer) to just use a standard splice barrel, just go up in size to whatever size is needed to get all wires inside the sleeve. Got three #14 that need to splice? Strip to go through the sleeve, a #10-12 one will work. Got more than three? Use a longer 10-12 sleeve (they make them), you could do 2-3 in each end (inserting the wire to the middle of the sleeve). Use the right crimp tool, you're done... and will have a less-bulky splice.

I won't even get into the inadvisability of changing wire sizes through a splice unless you know how to properly size circuits and fuses.

Electricity is funny stuff. It generally works right up until it doesn't. In a properly designed/installed system, the safeguards built into it will usually protect you from catastrophe. Cut corners, and that's when real problems appear.

 

I did this ^^^^ build thread in the "Model 'A' HotRod Club" social forum. Maybe you need to join that particular social forum to view it?

I must warn you...I did some modifications to my car. I'm absolutely sure the engineers who spent considerable time developing each part of the original car would be shocked at what I have done to it.

And this is why I didn't post it on the main board.

 

Seems better that some shit I have fixed in cars over the years. Wires just twisted, wire nuts, those crappy blue hinged cover inulation displacement connectors.
I like the idea, and will use it. Maybe with a dab of solder on the dual wire side, depends on how the crimp works for each give application.

 

What is inferred is that the ears on the female connector are designed to slide over a male flat spade connector and are to thin to support a crimp. A small amount of solder on all three connections will last a life time. I would not trust a crimp that is just smashed flat. I use one that has a tooth that deforms the connector and the wire together.

 

I would also solder the joint but its a good way to hold everything together while doing so btw my bench also looks like yours very holy lol.

 

Ahhhh! I dig it. I always end up with ugly soldered messes. I'll use this trick now