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Car Forum / MINI / April 2006Battery cable question
Advice please. Renewing the full length battery cable in my CE. Got a length of cable and separate ends. Is there a trick to soldering (and/or crimping) the ends to the cable please? How do I prevent heat loss (and possible melting of the sheathing) along the cable? Thanks Peter I think you can get special double insulated wire, for the back end you can use a screw fit terminal & for the front you will need to crimp & solder it on, Steve. > Advice please. > [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > > Peter Is there a trick to crimping the end piece? Is it a special crimping tool - or would the vice do the trick? Thanks there is a special tool but the easiest thing would to be to use pliers then solder it, put flux on the conductors then the terminal on, crimp using pliers then solder it, you will probably need to do it with a blow torch, as the wire is very thick, finish it off with some heat shrinkable sleeve to make it look good, Steve. > Is there a trick to crimping the end piece? Is it a special crimping > tool - or would the vice do the trick? > > Thanks Thanks Steve A gentleman and a scholar. P >there is a special tool but the easiest thing would to be to use pliers then >solder it, put flux on the conductors then the terminal on, crimp using [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > >Steve. Yep. It'll be practically impossible to solder wire that thick without melting some of the insulation. What I do, is to cut away the melted bit after soldering, then wrap insulating tape around the bare bit to build the diameter back up level with the original insulation. Then heat-shrink over the top. It should end-up looking something like this... http://www.stamp.plus.com/temp/BatteryPositive.JPG Cheers, Colin. >>there is a special tool but the easiest thing would to be to use pliers >>then [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > > Colin. as we all know, Heat rises, place the terminal higher than the cable, concentrate the heat in the direction of the terminal, the heat should transfer to the cable, apply solder, remember to monitor flame deflection, and also remember, solder will follow the heat,,,,it will even flow vertically, Fitzy >> Yep. It'll be practically impossible to solder wire that thick without >> melting some of the insulation. What I do, is to cut away the melted [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >the heat,,,,it will even flow vertically, >Fitzy All good things to do, but I still defy you to solder a battery cable to anything without knackering any insulation within around 10-15mm of the joint. There's just too much copper to conduct the heat straight to the PVC. 2mm^2 is fine, 3mm^2 is starting to get slightly dodgy, but I've never seen starter cable less than about 15mm^2. Having molten solder within a few mm of solid PVC isn't going to happen on wire that thick. If you have access to a TIG machine, I suppose you might be able to weld it before the PVC notices too much heat, but the easiest thing is just to let it happen and make good afterwards with heat-shrink. Cheers, Colin. Your totally right there Colin, just trying to describe how I would do it, to reduce the damage, Fitzy >>> Yep. It'll be practically impossible to solder wire that thick without >>> melting some of the insulation. What I do, is to cut away the melted [quoted text clipped - 33 lines] > > Colin. Yup, with the heat the insulation will creep back but the rally stuff is double insulated with the inner being PTFE, when done a little insulation tape & cover the end with heat shrinkable rubber, also if its getting renewed run it inside the car maybe? Steve. > Your totally right there Colin, > just trying to describe how I would do it, to reduce the damage, [quoted text clipped - 37 lines] >> >> Colin. |
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