Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 14:04:23 -0700
Reply-To: Lawrence Dongilli <buspilot@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Lawrence Dongilli <buspilot@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
Subject: Re: Check your grounds
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Kim Brennan wrote:
> I've never liked crimps alone in electrical (or especially electronic)
> connections. I prefer a good solder connection. Although, I also find
that
> cold solder joints are a prime culprit for bad electrical connections
too.
....understood. I must say that I have seen what a _proper_ crimp look
like when it is cut apart and analyzed under a microscope....very
impressive. It greatly strengthened my faith in crimps. The vast
majority of electrical terminations in aerospace are crimped only....but
there are strict guidlines and special crimpers to do the job correctly and
consistently. Most of what is available to the consumer is pretty cheesy
stuff. If you want quality terminations and quality crimpers, it costs
money.....and you won't find it at Radio Shack. Most people don't want to
pay the price, so they settle for less. Perhaps that is where crimping has
gotten it's bad rap. Solder absolutely has its place too but, like you
said, it can have it's own problems. Very few people I know can make a
_good_ solder joint....merely adequate at best. I personally regard the
act of soldering as an art form. There is a lot of very subtle 'english'
that is applied.
Given all the proper tools (and there are a few), it _is_ easier for for
someone to make a good a crimp joint than make a good solder joint. I see
this quite often.
I guess the key here is that, whatever method is used, the person/machine
doing the job has to do it properly.
Remember the erratic A/C compressor clutch cycling problem I mentioned in
my previous post? That turned out to be an intermittent connection in one
of the wires in the harness that runs from the A/C switches in the overhead
duct up front to the relays in the rear. There is a 'molex looking'
connector that holds about a half dozen wires that disconnects about a two
or three foot section of harness that goes to the front switches.
Somewhere back in time, there must have been a problem with one of the pin
pairs on the connectors, because one of the female pins was gone and that
wire end was loose and stripped. The mating male pin was still locked
inside the connector shell, but had insulation stripped away about an inch
from the crimp. Then, a third piece of wire was used as a splice and
_twisted_ (!) around the two exposed conductors, bypassing the connector.
Nothing more. Oh yeah.....some electrical tape was at least wrapped around
the two 'junctions' and left that way. A real 'quality' job to be sure.
I'm sure it worked......for a while. Man.....I don't even _own_ electrical
tape. I hate the stuff. Anyway, the conductor for the male pin was
repaired, a close fitting female (computer) pin was found and installed in
the connector shell, and everything is fine.
Lawrence Dongilli
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