Date:         Wed, 4 Jan 2012 22:18:26 -0500
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject:      Re: redoing ground connections on left cylinder head ('84 1.9L
              engine)
Comments: To: John Lauterbach <jhlauterbach@BELLSOUTH.NET>
In-Reply-To:  <1325732144.4085.9.camel@landallc>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

At 09:55 PM 1/4/2012, John Lauterbach wrote:
>  and put things back together.  I
>plan on soldering connectors to wires instead of relying just on the

If you do, you're liable to create a hard spot in the wire (as the
solder wicks up the strands) which is subject to fatigue and breakage
from vibration.  People who solder for NASA get around this by using
beryllium-copper anti-wicking tweezers on the wire as they solder
each joint.  You may want to think carefully about strain relief.

One of the first rules of soldering is to create a mechanically sound
joint *before* soldering as solder has extremely poor fatigue resistance.

My own opinion is that a properly secured crimp connection is more
likely to survive for a long time than a solder connection in a
high-vibration environment like an automobile, and likely to degrade
more gracefully as well.  YMMV.

Yours,
David