Whether you’re fixing a broken wire,the pig tail on a headlight switch or wiring up a new set of gauges, one thing's for sure the best way to make an electrical repair like this is to get a soldering gun and cut the bad end off.

Once the bad end has been removed instead of butt connecting all of the wires together solder them and also use some heat shrink tubing to help protect the new connection.

Soldering makes for a more reliable and better conductor and connection than using plastic butt connections to reconnect loose wires or bad ends.

 

i couldn't count the amount of failed butt connectors that caused me problems.

 

Thanks for posting that. Good to know. I'm just getting started on a 83 TA I picked up last summer that was pretty neglected. Got it running real well but there's gonna be lots of work ahead. not fixing things twice will help.

 

x2 on the heat shrink tube. It's just as cheap as electrical tape, but doesn't turn into a nasty sticky mess, and looks more professional. I also find that it's even easier to remove than electrical tape, since you can just split it with a knife, instead of having to unwrap it. I've seen lots of people use the soldering iron tip to shrink it, but that takes a while - use a lighter, and it's a lot quicker.

 

what exactly would be the best way to use a soldering method?...i always just made two sets of wires on each end of the repair and wrapped the two opposite ends together and then wrapped the two wrapps together and shrink wrapped that....ive never used a soldering iron.....

 

89rser, when working with wires and the guts of electronic devices you will not regret learning how to solder.

 

tell him its the best thing to do and then not explain, sweet lol

its very simple theres a few different ways to do it. for an example lets just say you have a single wire that you cut and want to solder.

1.take both ends and strip some of the wrapping off of it, you can use wire strippers your teeth, a knife, whatever just make sure you have like 1/8" of exposed wire

2. Put the proper sized heat shrink up one side of the wire

3. Take each end and seperate them by splitting them down the middle, forming a "Y" shape and then put the two wires together and twist in opposite directions
for anyone who needs an example take your hands and make a peace sign with both of them (just like nixon lol) then interlace the two peace signs, each finger being half of the wire, then twist together (not literally i dont wanna be responsible for broken fingers)

4. With the two wires together you now have a "mechanical connection" they should be pretty snug and should not just come undone when you let it go, take your soldering iron and touch it to the bottom side of the connection, apply slight pressure, not alot just enough to know that your gonna heat up the wire enough to melt the solder

5. Take your solder and put it on top of the warmed wire/ soldering iron, the idea is to allow the solder to seep through the stranded wires and make it from the top down to the hot iron

6. Allow it to cool off ad slide your shrink tube over it, heat the tube with a lighter or a blow dryer if you dont wanna risk lighting something on fire...

7. Enjoy a job well done and go grab yourself a beer.

Tips/Troubles:


The perfect joint is one that has a nice silver finish to it, that you can see the imprint of the stands on, it will be the exact same size as the original wire, when you see it youll just be like "ahhh thats what hes talking about"

Once you do a bit of soldering you can make it easier by putting a little solder on the strands of the "Y" so when you put it together you can just re melt the existing solder, keep in mind if you put a fat glob down you wont get anywhere with twisting them together, you want to be able to see the strands still but see them coated in solder which is called "tinning" - Thanks Oelmuvun

BEWARE OF COLD JOINTS. This is when you heat up the solder so much that it starts to bubble and it cools off looking like a lava rock, its bad news and will come to bite you in the butt later when the conection fails. This generally happens when you use the soldering iron to heat the solder directly rather than the wires then attempt to drip it onto the connection, problem is youre putting hot solder onto a cold wire and it wont adheare to it, it will just drip off. Its a bit tricky but the idea is to hold the iron under the wire and then allow to solder to drop down through all the strands, problem is sometimes the wire doesnt transfer enough heat and people get impatient, you can take the solder and touch it to the iron, then slide it back on top of the wire and allow it to flow through like that, sometimes all you need is a little push.



Finally, watch where youre setting the soldering iron, if you hold it on a wire long enough you can melt the factory insulation (done it many times before) and also that wire heats up alot, watch where you hold it

Your best bet is to pick up a soldering iron and some rosin core solder (ROSIN, NOT ACID CORE) from autozone and start tinkering around with a spare piece of wire, cut a 4 inch piece, make a circle, and solder it to itself etc etc

simple write up

 

Tinning

 

yeah that! lol ill edit my mini writeup thanks

 

All I want to further add to what BluFBdy said is:
Have your beer after you finish. :P
Practice.
Patience. Take your time, no need to rush.
Cut down the distractions. Get rid of the cell phone, lock the wife/GF/whatever out of the garage. You do not need any of that.
Anything that can catch you off guard when you start learning is not desired. I hear too much about people who are just starting out looking the other way, talking on the phone, being bothered by a pet, etc and then they end up burning themselves with the iron. Not cool; be smart and prevent it.

Oh, and do not disturb the joint while it is cooling. That is an easy way to bugger things up.

Speaking of this stuff, I should totally scan or otherwise digitize some of the best parts of these HeathKit Educational Systems books around here. hehe

 

thanks for the info, but if you have two wires the same size how do you get them to still be the same size as the rest of the wire after there solderd together?...ive seen other pples soldering who has done for a long time and it basicaly looks like they solderd a bare unbroken wire.....thats what i would like to be able to acheave....unless your sayin to open the end of the ""y"" half way up the bare wire?.....oh and i dont have any beer so ill have to just drink my rum until i get a chance to make a beer run....lol

 

when you connect them you want to keep the strands tight, but you dont want to twist them so they make a fat circle, like keeping one straight and twisting the other end around that one, when you lace them together and twist, they will sit together roughly the same size, you can also like fluff the strands if that makes any sense, then lace the two "fluffed" wires together( instead of trying the like -- it would be more of == so the two wires can mate together then be twisted tightly) and twist like that, but the connection isnt as strong before the solder, once you put the solder on though it wont matter

 

ok well that makes sence, thanks for the info i know ill be able to use it...