Wire termination

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amgis_obrut
Posts: 1742
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:26 pm
Location: Orient Point NSW

Wire termination

Post by amgis_obrut »

Wire termination
It sounds and looks easy enough but if you don't get it right you can bet your left arm they will fail leaving you stranded, causing intermittent electrical problems and in worst cases turn your car into a smouldering heap

So id like to share how I do it, now im no electrician though over the years I have found a way to create strong reliable crimp terminals that look neat and will never come off !

First up buy some decent tools, you don't need to spend a fortune but don't cheap out either
you can get a good pair of wire strippers and crimp pliers from supercheap for under $50

NO!
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These make life easy, you don't really need the strippers but hey who doesn't like a strippers !
Yellow pliers are for common single terminals and blue are for multi pin and weather pack connectors (injector plugs etc)
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Get yourself some heat shrink, Ebay is a good place to get bulk cheap, I got these from Aldi for $5 a box
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Ok time to get that pair of strippers to clean off your end :\
They really do make life so much easier
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Ok so im just going to do a single terminal that would be used on a earth or coil wire
bits im using
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Take both pieces of heat shrink and slip them over the wire
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Next crimp the terminal to the wire and slip the small shrink inside the plastic part of the terminal and shrink it to the wire
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Put the bigger shrink over the terminal, sometimes they need a little work to get on
shrink it once you have covered the entire plastic part of the terminal
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Now you have a terminated wire that will never fail
Yep that's a full nitrous bottle hanging there
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GH Sigma, 16" Mesh wheels, sports steering wheel and a V8 exhaust
75glnt
Posts: 2354
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2009 12:42 pm
Location: South Brisbane region

Re: Wire termination

Post by 75glnt »

:o fark me!!! Now that's a good job :thumpsup:

I'm gonna do this for all my joins now, and solder the wire into the joiner
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amgis_obrut
Posts: 1742
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:26 pm
Location: Orient Point NSW

Re: Wire termination

Post by amgis_obrut »

no need to solder crimp terminals, you want them to have some flex !
GH Sigma, 16" Mesh wheels, sports steering wheel and a V8 exhaust
75glnt
Posts: 2354
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2009 12:42 pm
Location: South Brisbane region

Re: Wire termination

Post by 75glnt »

Oh ok then :) cheers!
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geezer101
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Location: adelaide (SA)

Re: Wire termination

Post by geezer101 »

...and that people, is the right way to prepare a connection. Those cheap crimping tools are absolute rubbish but if you're on a tighter budget and car electrics isn't something you will be doing a lot of, I've found the "Narva" version of them to be a good quality all round wire stripper/crimper tool (I searched for an image of the one I use but couldn't find one - I paid about $30 for one) Good stuff amgis_obrut - getting the technique of wire prep right is so important for reliability, but more often than not it's to undo quality car audio work like this -Image
:hit: :hit: :hit: :hit: :hit: :hit: :hit: :hit: :hit: :hit: :hit: :hit: :hit: :hit:
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amgis_obrut
Posts: 1742
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:26 pm
Location: Orient Point NSW

Re: Wire termination

Post by amgis_obrut »

geezer youre right, theres really nothing wrong with the first set of wire stripper/crimp pliers pictured and I had used that pair for years
They're fine for small jobs though when I started building full wiring harnesses I quickly found they weren't so pleasant to use and my hands ached from squeezing so hard

The yellow and blue pliers have a ratchet and make it pretty effortless to get a nice positive crimp they also surround the terminal and don't squash it out of shape

I might put some pics up of how to do a weatherpack connector next
GH Sigma, 16" Mesh wheels, sports steering wheel and a V8 exhaust
Jordan1249
Posts: 607
Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2013 6:57 pm

Re: Wire termination

Post by Jordan1249 »

HAhaha you couldnt of posted this a few weeks ago before i did all the wiring for my sound system hahah
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bruggz351
Posts: 1486
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2011 5:14 pm
Location: Northern Rivers NSW

Re: Wire termination

Post by bruggz351 »

amgis_obrut wrote:geezer youre right, theres really nothing wrong with the first set of wire stripper/crimp pliers pictured and I had used that pair for years
They're fine for small jobs though when I started building full wiring harnesses I quickly found they weren't so pleasant to use and my hands ached from squeezing so hard

The yellow and blue pliers have a ratchet and make it pretty effortless to get a nice positive crimp they also surround the terminal and don't squash it out of shape

I might put some pics up of how to do a weatherpack connector next

:thumpsup:
'82 GJ GSR Silver (family heirloom):)
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