Engine Wiring 101

[Kontakt]

Originally Posted by RICE RACING

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!

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.