When I am installing my SAFC, should I use a soder or would crimps work fine?
I have the sodering skills, but then I need to run an extension cord, use the old school gun I have, etc. whereas a crimp is a matter of squeezing some pliers. So would it work to just crimp or should I use the extra effort?

 

solder!!!!!!!! put it this way....hard work always pays off

 

If you have a good quality pair of crimpers, they'll work fine, but most of the guys here solder. Everything I do is crimped, but I have the right tooling to do it...Both are equally strong & conductive if done properly...

 

on crimp connectors I usually crimp then solder.

wire splices I will generally just solder together then heat shrink tube.

waytek sells some nice connectors for crimp+solder splices that are environmentally sealed.
http://waytekwire.com/

 

solder and sleep at night!

 

I just crimped mine in, works fine.

 

Solder everything. It's so much better.

 

Lol, I knew this would happen...

You guys that are so gung-ho for soldering, tell me why you think it is better than crimping, and I'll give you some facts you may not know.

More useless trivia- no modern aircraft (that I know of) has soldered wiring splices, they are all crimped. All wiring repairs are also crimped. Why is that?

 

Really? thats good to hear. The previous owner of my car sodered most everything, including the E-fan. Not so good when you are driving down the road and the soder connection breaks, and your electric fan no longer works. I'm sure this could have been avoided with some better sodering work, but I would rather crimp and sleep well at night.

 

forget crimping and soldering. what you really need to do is pull a scrap ecu and wiring harness. then grab the connectors, and then make yourself a custom harness. that way, no crimping or soldering.

~suds

edit: well... maybe some crimping for the pins and the splices in the harness.

 

Crimping is fine. The problem lies with wrong gauge connectors. I've seen some connect 18 gauge wires with 10 gauge butt connectors. Wrong.
Use quality connectors and the right crimp. More things can go wrong with a bad solder. Most don't know how to solder. You don't melt the solder onto the wires as most believe. You heat the wires and let the solder melt onto the wires.
The right connector and crimping tool is the key. I use all marine wires and most are crimped on and heat shrinked.

 

yeah it is inportant to solder right! like boosted said you have to get the wires hot so that the solder melt onto the wires or else it will just brake right off. also if you are soldering the best thing to do is put electrical tape over it or heat shrink tubing.

 

It all depends on what you are connecting, and what types of connections they are. If you are connecting something in a higher-stress area, where there may be tension or movement to the wires or connections, crimping will be what you will want to do. Reason being, that solder joints under stress will crack and seperate, causing either a very bad, it intermittent connection. Neither of which is something you want, especially something like and ECU connection. Now something like stereo wiring, I usually solder, being no stress is put on those wires, and a good soldered connection will offer more conductivity (for the most part) than a crimped wire.

 

I've soldered ALL the connections I've done on my car.....well all but one. I used some crimp on connecters on my fuel pump because I had the connectors, and I was out of solder at the time. I kinda regret crimping them...but oh well, it works.

Just run the extention cord....if your too lazy to do that, just pull your car up near a outlet and get to soldering!

 

A proper solder joint will ALWAYS have less resistance to electrical current. That's reason #1. A solder joint can be more secure if done properly. That's reason #2.

 

Use Male To Female Connectors Or Wire Tappng Connectors There Best For The Ease Of Installation And Removal=)