For Autosport connecorts
AS series high density micro sized pins I can tell you that soldering them is fine and in some cases prefereable to crimpind with DCM crimpers (which I also have).

Soldering them correctly though is hard and technically its a monkey ability job to do it with the correct DCM mandrel/positioner, but can still be fucked up.

The soldering method needs a jig and angle plate, a fine tip, but the result is amazing and will pass an flexture test and tensile tests and the wire will fail well past anywhere to do with the solder joint! I know I have tested it!

The beauty of the soldering as the pins are very expensive is you can reuse them if need be! not that this is a big point if you can afford the item that these connect too LOL let alone the connectors ! but I prefer this method as the joint is PERFECTION and its sealed and it will not oxidize over time, and its a perfect joint, and it is reuable, and its smooth, and the pin is not work harndened, and its the best joint despite what is written in the Duetsch manual about not soldering them!

That is my expereince, I have done thousands of these joints and never had a problem!

Nothing wrong with soldering, but its operator skill, where as with crimpers any fuckwit can use them and do an accpetable job so long as they are calibrated and tested to conform to the correct level of crush for the gauge of wire you are inserting in the pin!

Soldering is a good option.

Bring on the hate mail!

The classic irony of the anti soldering brigade is that on the other side of you mega dollar autosport connector its fucking soldered to the board of my $15,000 ECU LOL as it is in every single F1 car! and its all done by hand by a human with a soldering iron :)

It is totally fine to do it to a wiring harness so long as the joint is then supported against vibration and stresses and strains, this is common sense, glue type heat shrink you will see used by lots of people to reinforce these sodlered joints.

I've even repaired thermocouples and resoldered the wires back on past the Inconel sheilds then siliconed the joint then used simple heat shrink and these last longer than the fancy coiled wired strain reliefes.......... allot of this is common sense and its easy to use cheap and easily available products to ensure you have a reliable wiring solution without resorting to holding up the local 7-11 store to fund your purchse of XYZ dildo race car NASA spec Internet recommended brands.

FFS just look at how planes were wired in WW2 or how race cars won LeMans, they did all of this before XYZ "best practise" was pushed down your throat by layman 'experts' ................ its just pure common sense, problem is in the internet dildo phone youtube age its no longer common ;)

Sooo yes or no to scotch locks?

I'm with you on soldering. Personally I will solder just about anything if I have the time, and am at my workstation. If I'm not or I don't, then I'm going to crimp.

I've also basically been soldering since my balls dropped, and fear almost no soldering task. 0402 (metric... 0402 standard is no big deal) is something I don't really look forward to, but that's really about it.

I don't have a $4,000 professional soldering station, but I'm not exactly using a radio shack pencil either. I use a temp controlled 5 wire with Hakko element on a box that also has a hot air rework gun and a decent adjustable bench power supply.

Some of the most important things that I can tell soldering noobs are as such:

1) Large or small, there is no job that the correct soldering tip is a pointy cone. Chisel, and angle cut cylindrical are my favorites. I also make a lot of my own tips to maximize contact area and heat transfer for specific shapes of components. The contact area for heat transfer, and the mass for heat capacity are the largest factors in tip selection.

2) Too much solder is a BAD thing in pretty much every way. It makes the joint bulky, hard to heat, and is likely just masking a cold joint. If you find yourself having to use a lot of solder to complete joints, then see item 3. You are likely needing to use so much solder to get enough flux to finally clean the contacts so that the solder can spread. Flux is what makes the solder wick through the wires. Also note that sometimes wicking is something you want to fight, especially in automotive use. You don't want it to wick up the wire creating a hard flex point where the wire will fail in time due to vibration.

3) CLEAN surfaces solder well. The tip as well as the prepped surfaces should both be clean. Flux as needed where appropriate. If the tip of your soldering iron only seems to melt solder at a very specific point, and the solder beads up on it like a waxed car in the rain, then you have work to do. Sometimes the only way to recover a tip like this is to file off the surface, and tin it *immediately*. Treat your tips with care.

4) Use small diameter multicore flux or rosin core solder. Only use large diameter solder for very large jobs.

5) If you're even going to CONSIDER soldering on your car, buy a Hakko FX-888 or similar, and practice for a very long time. Just do it. You will regret not getting a real soldering iron with temp control that actually heats up and reacts quickly.

Still, despite having just said all of that. I generally recommend you just crimp your harness. Unless you have some other need or desire to learn how to perform very high quality soldering, it'd be a waste of time. Crimping works great and is retard repeatable.

I may put together another set of tips specific to automotive soldering such as how to solder to specific pins, how to solder crimp connections, how to support and protect your work, etc.

:rofl:

I wanna see I wanna see!!!

:smilielol5: Cheers!

I've come across a few of your harnesses @ S1, nicely done.... the only problem I had was with JRP installed it and picked the wrong wire for the IGN hot... nightmare chasing that one... :banghead:

I yes... forgot the shielded wire... if it's not already in the flying loom, Pacific coast Avionics is where I buy all my 2-4 core shielded wire...

I love Joe, he's awesome

Truff... you've hooked me up a few times when I've needed them...

I use it by taping the tape to itself so it doesn't transfer any adhesive... and I take it out of the harness before shrinking it....

:rofl:

Levi just wants to be baller ;)

There's no need for raychem boots, the same can be accomplised with some good 4:1 adhesive shrink and a pair of needle nose pliers.... but they look so damn nice....

And I am not the best, hence I ALWAYS crimp... don't want to chance a cold joint....

I love the connectors I put on the firewall... makes things much easier for me.... and they look pretty as well ;)

The last time I clocked myself installing a halltech, it was 27 or 28 hours to wire EVERYTHING including the stock dash, turning the overheat exhaust into a check engine light etc etc etc.... several months?

MOTHERFUCKING THAT

For the right person... I would rather crimp, quicker and less chance of a fuck up....

Again, goes towards the level of the user....

I just hatre layman bdc fagwadwhore selfproclaimed non loosers....

I still haven't redone the solder repair job on my 8... it's on the list but not a priority because I know it will hold just fine ;)

Because this is so important it deserves it's own post.....

the big thing is, there should be zero debate on soldering vs crimping when talking about engine harnesses because at no point in the harness should there be a splice of any kind.

Think about that.... Crimp the pin for the connector for whatever injector, coil, MAP sensor, TPS, whatever and it should be ONE SOLID LENGTH OF WIRE to either the bulkhead connector or the ECU..... the only place splices should exist is right off the ECU when branching out from say a relay or a fuse to 4 seperate wire for each injector....

Lets put it this way.... I've got like 12 hours into the harness for the 'vert.... this is after getting the PS2000 with the long harness (bought the whole thing used and the only thing altered was one of the trigger wires removed which I was fine with becuase FFE kit) and setting up the harness to power everything individually, splitting the grnd wires the, shields etc etc etc... I haven't even fit it into the car or started weith the engine side of the harness... it's like 8 feet of wire leading to a bulkhead and that's it.... soooo yea.... sooo much prep goes into a harness, most people just dont get it... remember... I've done more than a few of these and the last faily simple one took like 28 hours....

I can solder everything you just said you'd crimp.

Splices and butts aren't the only things that can be soldered.

Then again... when I solder to a crimp connector, it's after I've crimped it. ;)

As for splitting something off a relay to multiple destinations... don't they make bus bars, terminal blocks, and other things for that? Do it the right way, man, for god sakes! Do you not care about the children!?

fuck the children... I've done the busbar route and no thanks... to bulky. I will use power posts for 8ga and larger when needed.

I would rather take a 14-18 gage wire coming from a relay and use a stepdown connector to splice to 4 20-18ga wires to power things like inj and coils...

Sir Mix-A-Lot