Has anyone actually looked at the construction of the Haltech Flying lead supplied with the E6K? ACK!!!!!!!!

The power feeds to the injectors looks like ***!. A 12 GA . wire stripped with 6 18 GA. wires wrapped around it and GLOBBED with solder. Then to make it pretty they cover it up with heat shrink. Not what I expected to see.

I cut it out and made the branches using Solder-Seals

John

 

looks like RETED and HIGGI discovered the same problem

 

what power feeds?

theres one wire, red & green on the harnesses I've worked with, that is power for the injectors.

I've always had to fork this wire myself with n number of branches where n is the # of injectors, it's never been done for me on the flying lead harness.

 

You can optionally use the leads provided for additional sensors as the lead for the injectors if you have 4 injectors since there are 4 provided leads (at least on mine I got 4... banzai said 6 - he might have gotten a bonus harness).

Solder is fairly reliable if done right (pretinned, properly fluxed) - I have myself joined a number of wires that way alone - although I prefer to use crimps on bare wire then flow solder over it letting the crimp take the mechanical stress and the solder provide a solid electrical connection. In the case of my harness I didn't feel like the soldering was that bad so I left it as stock, but I might still change it before I fully install my harness.

 

Yeah, this might get into a discussion on "proper" soldering techniques.

I try to shy away from crimp connectors in an automobile, because I've seen too many of them fail.  I used to do a lot of car audio and security stuff back in the day, and I've going countless stories about failing crimp connections.  If we're talking about compression connectors with the $100+ mil-spec compression tool, this might be another story.  But, for the most part, crimp connections are done very poorly and use inferior tools to execute.  I agree a good crimp connection is just about as good and secure as a soldered one, but what are the chances of executing this type of perfection?

I was always taught to twist and then solder wires.  This is suppose to give the best electrical and mechanical connection with very low probabilty of failure.  I'd welcome any comments an alternative electrical connection techniques?


-Ted

 

Actually, such a discussion would be nice. I've never found a decent site on how to properly solder, although I'm an electrical engineer and I've built a number of PCB-based items, I've never been taught raw wire and connector soldering techniques. As I mentioned, it made sense for me, when butt-splicing two bare wire ends, to crimp first, solder after. I know you should never solder first then crimp because the solder remains slightly liquid and over time it flows, making the crimp come loose. So I usually just crimp to hold the wires physically in place (only got two hands!) and then flow solder over the crimp and the two wires, firmly connecting them electrically. I'm sure there is a "proper" way to butt-splice two wires but I haven't been taught it.

For tap splicing I usually don't do the "twist + solder" because I don't like fully stripping the insulation off the main (carrier) wire if its a large gauge run (like the keyswitch lines, from which I get a lot of my gauge power wires, wideband o2 power, etc...). Instead, I tin both lines, but i tin the new lead in a flat fan, so that it maximizes the contact area and minimizes the "lump". Then I tape or heatshrink the joint. I do this on wires I don't plan to have a large amount of tension on, but I've tried to physically rip apart this kind of joint and found it VERY difficult to do, and in many cases nearly impossible. I just end up cutting or desoldering the work. So I think it *can* be an effective, valid way to tap-splice two lines, if the contact area is maximized - which is all the twist method really does, since the stress is taken up by the strands of wire at the point where they are first soldered - not by the whole twisted structure. I avoid using wiretaps themselves in general since they usually work their way loose over time from vibration etc.

Does this make sense? Ted, especially, your comments are much appreciated since you say you have several years experience in all manner of automotive wiring.

BTW, I plan to purchase the $100 mil-spec crimper. Am I stupid?

And to stay 100% on topic: RETed: do you re-wire this junction on all your haltech installs or do you find some of them to be acceptable?

 

I like to use Solder-Seals on branch line connections on newharneses. On Old Mazda harnesses I have had a very poor success rate even with various metods of cleaning the old wire.
John

 

I don't usually bother with the Haltech harness unless we got an "unsolvable" problem.  I've seen the discussion on the bad solder jobs, and the E11 one was my first when I really started digging into the problem.

If I had the money, I would've gotten the MSD crimper with optional AMP and Weatherpak dies to complete my Haltech installers "kits".  The crimper (comes with spark plug dies) are $80, and the optional dies are $30 each.  So, no, I don't think it's ridiculous to buy a mil-spec crimper.  You should see how I take care of those connection right now!  I'm really embarassed to even mention it.


-Ted

 

i was tought (in school!) to twist and then solder when butt splicing. i also dont like crimp connectors, like ted ive seen a lot of them fail (mechanically, usually)

 

This thread makes me want to go to work and take a picture of the GM weatherpac crimping machine we have

 

Yeah i was gonna get the $130 hand tool for those. I still might. That is an amazing unit.