Multi-way Soldered Joints

[peter_m7uk]

Hey Chaps,

 

Going through my old Sierra loom, I noticed a lot of soldered joints which are similar to the one in the pic.

There will be points in the new loom where I will need to have a junction for several wires, so I was wondering what is the highest quality way to do this? It seems that Ford have some system to solder them all together and encase them in plastic, as shown. At other points in the loom, they are taped up in addition to this. Anyone got any tips on the best way to join three or four wires at a point?? Also, how do you get all the wires to stay together neatly during the soldering operation? I have very little wiring experience!

 

Cheers,

Pete

[miikae]

The best way would be to lay them together and then bind them with 5amp fuse wire as this will give you a good mechanical joint before soldering , HTH

Slide a piece of heat shrink sleeving over the joint when you have done.

 

Mike

[Guest Dan_Beeston]

They are probably not actually soldered, but ultrasonically welded (soldering makes the wires brittle which can lead to snapping due to vibration)

 

Unfortunately ultrasonic welding is a bit out of the grasp of diy types, the kit to do it runs at many thousands of pounds!

 

You should be able to get hold of some butt crimps, which are like a metal tube crimped over all the wires. These often have a small hole you can use to fill them with solder after crimping for a belt and braces approach. The whole joint can then be covered with heatshrink for insulation (an adhesive lined heatshrink is a good choice to prevent water ingress too)

 

I'm rubbish at practicing what I preach though, my car is full of block connectors and unsealed bullet connectors to join wires together! :-p

[fry61]

Firstly,use clean newly stripped conductors; strip about 25mm if bunching to a point & twist all together, heat joint with a 25 watt iron & dab multi-core solder wire onto the joint (may help to have a little solder on the iron to aid heat conduction) when solder starts to melt into the joint continue feeding solder until strands of conductors look "soaked" in solder, remove heat & allow to cool with-out moving the joint,trim soldered joint down to about 10-12mm. Insulate with heat shrink sleeving or PVC tape. OR go the quick route & use a very large insulated crimp terminal. For straight inline joints re member to slide-on the sleeve before soldering. (I wish I remembered this last point more often)

[peter_m7uk]

Thanks for all the tips. Great