Soldering Connectors

[jdub0802 0]

I have always crimped my connections as they mostly are 8 awg or less. Moving to large wire I have found crimping to be a royal pain in the a$$.

I was looking at soldering as a nice option but I have only ever soldered water pipes.

Is the process and technique basicly the same? Flux the wire and inside of bass connector, heat connector, insert wire and place solder around the edge of the wire so that it is pulled into the connector?

Any help that you could provide or tricks of the trade would be great. Plan on upgrading the Big 3 this weekend and some under the hood wiring.

Thank you.

[BanginGMC 23]

Depends on the connector.

Heat the connector, then take the sodering stick (whatever its called) and press it against the connector and exposed strands of wire that you see after you crimped the connector and the sodering stick should melt right in place.

YouTube.com has NICE as How To videos on this.

Edited April 14, 2010 by BanginGMC

[emh9009 199]

the way ive done it, and have seen it done is put the connector on the wire, crimp it enough to hold it in place while you work. then put in on something to hold the wire still (you will need both hands) and start heating up the connector and inside wire-best to make it all one temp. after a bit start putting the solder a little above the wire on the connector, so it *drains* down in between the wire strands and forms it all into one big ol' chunk of metal

like that guy, but he didnt heat it up beforehand so it all pooled on top, it looks like

[The enD 467]

How do you guys crimp larger ring terminals? - SSA Car Audio Forum

Just searched "crimp" in the search field

[jdub0802 0]

Thank you all for the quick help.

I think that I am going to try out the Hydraulic Crimpers from Harbor Freight. Seems like crimping is the best option when done correctly.

I will report back with how they worked, going to get them this weekend.

[notloudenuff 0]

i just learned how to do this myself. i started off by using acid based solder, i quickly learned that there was something not right with it. i did a lil more research and found out it need to be a resin based solder. lol

all i did was heat up the connector and the wire with a propane torch and put the solder to it, it all fell into place after that. the one thing i didnt like about soldering is that the wire coating would melt a lil bit, but hey i guess thats why they have a jacket to got over them.

[akrod2as 2]

If you know how to solder copper pipe, you'll have no problem wicking a large wire in a ring terminal.

[Randal Johnson 544]

great info guys ... I take my cables to my local welding shop. They definately know how to install connectors.

[hondakilla98 29]

I'm ghetto. I use my bench top vise and just smash the hell out of it and then cover it with heat shrink. I tried soldering it but my soldering iron is too small and the only torch I have is my oxy acetylene torch. Which is way too hot. I went to harbour freight but they were out of stock on the hydraulic crimpers.

Edited April 16, 2010 by hondakilla98

[notloudenuff 0]

I'm ghetto. I use my bench top vise and just smash the hell out of it and then cover it with heat shrink. I tried soldering it but my soldering iron is too small and the only torch I have is my oxy acetylene torch. Which is way too hot. I went to harbour freight but they were out of stock on the hydraulic crimpers.

how much do they charge you to do it? if its something you heve to get done often you might as well invest in a torch, you can get a hand held torch from any hardware store. i bought mine awhile ago and if i remember right it was fairly cheap (under 30). its just as easy as it looks.

[dem beats 1,223]

As in the other thread posted.

Crimp > solder

[lostdaytomorrow 0]

And what do you use to crimp?

[Duran 387]

I second crimp > solder.

If you must solder, cut your solder into 1/4" pieces or so and fill the terminal with them, then melt them with a torch and jam your wire into it. That way you don't melt the jacket.

[akrod2as 2]

I second crimp > solder.

If you must solder, cut your solder into 1/4" pieces or so and fill the terminal with them, then melt them with a torch and jam your wire into it. That way you don't melt the jacket.

That's also a cold solder joint, and not a good idea.

[Duran 387]

Soldering a large gauge wire is never a good idea, just a suggestion if you don't want to melt your wire jacket.

[hondakilla98 29]

I'm ghetto. I use my bench top vise and just smash the hell out of it and then cover it with heat shrink. I tried soldering it but my soldering iron is too small and the only torch I have is my oxy acetylene torch. Which is way too hot. I went to harbour freight but they were out of stock on the hydraulic crimpers.

how much do they charge you to do it? if its something you heve to get done often you might as well invest in a torch, you can get a hand held torch from any hardware store. i bought mine awhile ago and if i remember right it was fairly cheap (under 30). its just as easy as it looks.

Charge me to do what? I used my vise to cruch the connector onto the wire.

[akrod2as 2]

Soldering a large gauge wire is never a good idea, just a suggestion if you don't want to melt your wire jacket.

I've never had problems. Flux the wire and the terminal and use pure silver solder. If you want it to look pretty, crimp it.

[notloudenuff 0]

I'm ghetto. I use my bench top vise and just smash the hell out of it and then cover it with heat shrink. I tried soldering it but my soldering iron is too small and the only torch I have is my oxy acetylene torch. Which is way too hot. I went to harbour freight but they were out of stock on the hydraulic crimpers.

how much do they charge you to do it? if its something you heve to get done often you might as well invest in a torch, you can get a hand held torch from any hardware store. i bought mine awhile ago and if i remember right it was fairly cheap (under 30). its just as easy as it looks.

Charge me to do what? I used my vise to cruch the connector onto the wire.

i quoted the wrong post, it was ment for the post before urs. sorry for the confusion.