Connecting wires together

Paul Steinberg

PCS Life Member President
Staff member
Super Site Supporter
Thanks to our friends at Hagerty Insurance for the following video.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKLsTnKVTEY[/ame]
 
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A tip, DON'T use masking tape in place of electrical tape. One car I bought many years ago had just that under the dash on wiring repairs.
 
Mark stuff??? don't you just keep touching them togather till either the sparks start flying or what you want turns on.
 
OK, all kidding aside I can't believe any Insurance carrier or agent endorsed that video pile of dung.
If any Litigator stumbles onto this video in the course of preparing suit against a Carrier or agent I will be happy to be a COMPENSATED Expert for you and even explain in greater detail what is wrong in that video.

To begin, note the use of Micronipper double blade wire strippers. These are NOT Ideal design strippers with blades that don't engage the conductor, the strippers in the video actually notch the conductor at the point where the insulation begins to be removed, they continue to plane the conductor all the way to the end. You get caught with these type strippers on a Federal job you and your tools are leaving the job.
That initial notch will grow and cause conductor fracture on stranded wire over time, sooner if vibration is present. The planing is loss of conductor capacity.

I really enjoy the demonstrator pointing to the pair of bypass strippers and saying he doesn't like them. Probably because they do less conductor damage.

Moving on from the damaged conductor issue, the actor tells us how he twists the stranded conductor. Get caught doing that on a job and you're headed down the road. Stranded wire is manufactured with a twisted lay to the individual strands to keep them in proper orientation in the bundle, and exceeding that lay by twisting the strands is not acceptable as a terminating procedure because it adds stress to the joint and leads to failure from vibration.

Then the actor mentions corrosion. No schmidt Silvio. 10 to 20% of the population exude a corrosive element in their sweat, you just put your paw on that bare copper that was cleaned before it was insulated and you think it might corrode. You completely skip the usually mandated and often ignored dip of the conductor into an anticorrosive grease. Stick with your acting because you lack skill in electrical assembly.

Lets move on to his crimper. That's a T&B design hand crimper and has been around industry and electrical trades for over 40 years from multiple manufacturers. They are expensive and they are one of the best crimpers made. Every one of the 9 I picked up and looked at today is clearly stamped on the jaws. There are 2 (two) crimping positions in the jaws of that tool. 1 is for insulated terminals and the other is for noninsulated terminals.

Mr Video Presentation is proudly crimping plastic insulated terminals with the jaw for bare uninsulated terminals. His crimp is definitely overstressing the individual wires in the conductor, even if he didn't twist the strands.

But he's not done.

He moves on to expound on heat shrink covered terminals and demonstrate the misuse of the Butane powered shrinker. He scorches the heat shrink and proudly proclaims the insulation is a pretty good seal with the wire insulation.

My hunch is his previous job involved asking if he could supersize that for you.
Thank God he didn't have low melt point solder terminals or gel filled terminals or he could have set the building on fire.
 
Now then i have heard most of this. And nicking the wires will disrupt the skin effect. All of these problems increase as the voltage goes up. Me I like the butt splices soldered and heat shrink. The key is to get a good joint and secure the wire so you don't strain the connection or let it vibrated and work the connection. I'll remember not to hire on one of those high dollar jobs. My only thing is if i do it its lasts if I pay the big boys they have to come back 3-4 times to get it to work.

I have a bad connection to some were in this avalanche that trips the check engine light. It reads low voltage to the knock sensors. One of the factory splices some were after the new sensors and wire harness I had put on has failed. But were. If ate factory with all there money and engineering can't make a splice that will last over 14 years how is a shade tree mechanic going to.
 
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