Whats the correct way to join cables?

Thu Jun 08, 2006 9:47 am

Guys, I'm about to start diving under the car to fix the intermittent speedo. Assuming its the old fave "broken wire from diff sensor" problem, I'll be rejoining the wire. Now.. I'm sure I could bodge this with a soldering iron and some waterproof tape but how would a proper mechanic do this? I'm hoping not to have to repeat the job in 3 months time....because I'll hopefully be on with other niggles before then

Thanks for any help - no explanation too basic....
Morat

Thu Jun 08, 2006 9:53 am

Soldering a broken wire or connections, is not a bodge !

Thu Jun 08, 2006 10:26 am

Solder and heatshrink - easy.

When i did the same job on mine i didn't have any adhesive coated heatshrink so i just used normal heatshrink. The adhesive coated stuff has glue on the inside which heats up and melts as the rubber shrinks, and when it all cools you end up with a watertight seal - obviously better, but you should be ok with normal heatshrink too.

Simon

Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:02 am

we joint 66000V cables with what is effectively solder (actually MIG welded Aluminium) and heat shrink (but a bit more high tech!!), so for your 12V application soldering and heatshrink is fine. avoid using pvc tape as once it gets hot it tends to loose its stickness and unravel. plus its almost impossible to wrap it properly round a single piece of thin wire.

mrlee

Thu Jun 08, 2006 10:43 pm

Solder and heat shrink is the correct way to join wires BUT in this case the problem is caused by the copper wire "work hardening" from vibration from the diff. If you make a repair it will probably break again in a short time.
Get a piece of wire about 300mm long from a scrapper with the correct angled connectors on the end, (the yellow outer shell can be changed over), and solder this in place of the last section of wire.
Headlamp connectors are ideal.

Fri Jun 09, 2006 5:52 pm

You might struggle to solder it if it's been open for a while eg:bare wire. So like Mr Moore says, get a longer piece with the correct plug and join it further down the line where the wire hasnt been bare. HTH

PS Please dont use Blue insulated terminals!!