This afternoon , I have replaced my altenator and battery on my car , both went for a kicker to the crapper ! Altenator was real low in amps on the tester ( dont remember the number and my battery was real crapped out to . But both under warranty , so thats good ! I have not been able to drive my car at all this week to school !!! ANYWAY , so , my altenator pigtail is shot I picked up a pigtail at the parts store . Is this hard to replace guys ? How do I do it ? Thanx guys .

 

Its not unusal for a battery to take out an alternator when its dies. The pigtail replacement is not too hard. I would recommend that you solder and shrink tube the splices instead of butt crimps but if thats all you have it'll work. cheers, Bob

 

wayne, when you measured your alternator's output, how many amps did it give you?

and at what RPM did you take the reading?

 

Im totally ignorant when it comes to this stuff man , I dont even know what solder and butt crimps are ? Maybe if I dont know how to solder and butt crimp , I should not be messing with this huh ? I can butt crimp If your just talking about slapping a girls ***

 

I did not even test it with my multimeter , I just knew it was bad , but I let advance test it , and I wanna say they said it was only putting out 14 amps . What was crazy about the battery was , I tested it with my multimeter and it read out at what it was suppose to wtih the engine cold , 11 or 12 cant remember the correct number now , but it would not spark when I went to screw the neg terminal in , so I decided to take it to get that tested with the altenator , the battery was good , but it needed charging they told me . I let them charge it for me while I waited like an hour . I was just walking around in advance looking at things that I dont need to be buying . They told me that as fast at it was charging , it was de-charging . So now I have one of those 75 Yellow Everstart batterys .

 

solder is a soft metal that can easily be melted and is used to bind wires together to hold them together for good!

Crimps are little peices of metal wraped in plastic that are used to attach wires together without haveing to "solder" them...

THe "butt crimps" you speak of are much more fun!

Did you say those were under waranty? So they were free? If so, thats cool

 

Warranties rule!
:rockon:

 

Here's a picture of a crimper, at this page: http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...%5Fid=64%2D404 You can buy fancier ones that work better, but this is the one I've had since 2nd grade. (Hm, maybe time for a new one, eh? )

Here's some of those crimp connectors.. http://www.radioshack.com/category.a...0%5F000&Page=1

For joining two wires in an engine bay, there's an "approved" way to do it. Buy a pack of non-insulated butt connectors, and some heat shrink. Slide an appropriate sized heat shrink over the wire, and connect the two wires with a butt connector. Solder through the center, and at the sides, of the butt connector. Then slide the heat shrink over everything, and use a lighter/match/heat gun to shrink the tubing so it's weather-proof.

But I prefer what Saturn mentioned. You strip both ends of the wires. Sometimes, car harness wires feel "hard" and don't look like copper anymore because of corrosion. Take some FINE sandpaper (320-400 grit) and lightly sand the copper strands. (I usually press them flat, then sand them, then twist the strands so they form a round shape again.) Corroded wires are hard to solder!

With the insulation gone, twist the exposed strands together so they look like one piece. Now twist the ends of the two wires together, tightly. Bring the hot soldering iron over, and touch the iron to the joint. Let the iron heat the wire for a while... not too long, or the insulation of the wires will heat up and start to "creep away". Add solder to where the soldering gun touches the wire. You don't want a "cold soldering job", which is what happens when someone melts the solder directly against the iron, and lets the solder drip onto the connection. That's bad. It's not a secure connection. When you do it right (solder right at the point where the tip of the iron meets the wire joint), you'll see the solder "flow" around the strands. It'll flow so well that there won't be a large blob of solder "on top of" the strands, it'll be around and in between the strands. Remove the iron and solder, and let the joint cool.

I think Radio Shack used to sell little starter kits with a cheap soldering iron, a little roll of solder, and a cheezy stand for the iron, for about $5. Oh, yeah, bitchin, they still sell it. Hehe, it's $8 now. http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...5Fid=64%2D2802

Heat shrink is a tube that shrinks when you heat it. Slide it over the wires FIRST, before you solder. Also, slide it FAR from the soldering joint- the tubing can pick up heat from the wire and start shrinking! Then you try to slide the tubing over the (slightly thicker) joint, and it won't go over because it's shrunk. Radio Shack sells that stuff too.

I'm sure you can find all this stuff elsewhere, but it's sold in so many places that my "searches" turned up millions of websites.

 

reason i asked, wayne, is because we have a tool at work that diagnoses the charging system..........you have to hold the idle at 2000 RPM and check to see if the alt is producing AT LEAST 80% of its rated output

glad everything is ok now

 

One day , when I win the lottery , Im ganna have one of those tools . I wish I had alot of those shop tools , but most of those nice big toys cost 2k plus ! ...I've even seen em for 20k But , when I do win the lotto , I will let you guys know so ya'll can come over and use my toys

 

Thanx so much Tom .

 

How the hell do ya use this soldering gun ? I just got one from advance and it came with no directions . It also came with some kinda lubricant and wire ?

 

ttt

 

its kinda hard to explain, basicly just melt the wire with the gun and the "goo" will dry and form a bond of the wires... Sorry thats the best I can describe it...

DON'T BURN YOURSLF WITH THE SOLDER IRON, IT GETS HOT!!!! TRUST ME

 

you forgot to mention: Do not inhale the smoke & try to drive, work heavy machinery, or perform maintenance immediately afterwards.

 

Wayne, plug in tool to electrical socket.
Find pane of glass or wood surface.
Unwind the silver stuff.
Touch tip to end & check it out.
Use the goop, dip ends of stuff/wires to be joined/soldered together.
It's solder paste makes the ends stick.
As Tom suggested, prep stuff, join wires...YOU DID REMEMBER TO SLIDE HEAT SHRINK ON WIRES FIRST!!..touch silver soft wire stuff & hot tip heat source over the joined section, it melts sizzles, then instantly cools.
You'll have lots of practice.
PS
Use wood surface, and nails bent over to hold wires together/in place to free hands to do this solder trick.
Hair dryers do work on heat shrink, too.

PRACTICE on somthing else/wires first.
It's not wise to keep cutting short spliced in wire sections! because of mistakes!

 

Thanx guys !

 

Hehe, none of those instructions worked? Sorry bout that! I've never used that goop/paste that came with your tool; make sure the solder they gave you is "rosin flux". That goop/paste sounds like the old-school flux which came separate from the solder. Rosin core solder has flux in the center of the wire. Radio shack would carry it, rosin core is meant for electronics.

Remeber what I said about seeing the solder "flow" into the joint, as opposed to being blobbed on. Plus, solder that's flowed (hot solder job) will look shiny, as opposed to solder that's blobbed on (cold solder job)- a cold solder job looks dull.

 

The "Goop" is to help the solder get down inside the wires. Dip the wires in it, do not take a toothpick, screwdriver and dob it on the wires. Other then that, a combo of tomp and ked85 should do it. I agree, practive on scraps first a few times. Watch it, be amazed, then do it on the car. Also, some solderguns you have to pull triger to work, others are the "stick" kind that are on while plugged in. And yes, they get hot as #$%#% and burn skin in a blink of an eye. The smoke is kinda nasty also, but do not use a fan, as the solder will not melt as well.

 

Yeah , I understood them Tom . I combined your directions and Karl's to figure it out . I really suck with directions sometimes , I usually work better with more than one set of instructions or Visiual , or watching someone do it . But , I soldered them together and fixed it today guys , it worked out great . My car is running SO GOOD NOW . My maf was going bad slowly for awhile and did not realize it . This is the first time in awhile I have drove my car because my bad pigtail I had to replace and maf sensor . I drove around for like 20 min today in my subdivision , there are burnout and peg-leg marks like on every other block ! I even have a 15 footer that snakes around a corner ! , well actually , a few of those !

 

it also always helps to have it plugged in to before you try to use it !

Im sitting there for 2 mins pressing the button , why isnt this damn thing working ? :sillylol:

 

Yea, that always seems to help. Wish I would have got my posting up before you fixed it, but seems you learned it yourself. Good job, just watchout, some neighbors might not like all them rubber marks.

 

Wayne, I thought you wern't that "Hard" on your ride ?