To solder or not to solder??

[nagalfar]

I have ALWAYS soldered all terminal connectors I figured it was good insurance against one coming lose like we see solder-less terminals do from time to time.. I was doing some connections while talking with a friend that I had not seem in a lot of years, his son is a Marine (SF) who works on rotor craft A&P type stuff for the Corps.. he said his son told him to NEVER solder solder-less terminals, the vibrations (especially in rotor based aircraft (guess we could apply that to use as well)) cause soldered terminals to crack where the soldered portion of the terminal and the wire inside it meet.. I have seen plenty non-soldered terminals come lose and work at all or even worse intermittently, I never have with any of my soldered terminals..

Any old or new A&P guys around here who can verify that? while I have not had this ever happen a soldered terminal, break that is, I am not pulling 7 or more G's, yet at the same time, I am always looking for a better way to do things.. I HATE wiring problems, I would rather turn a wrench on a Chinese POS export motorcyc... never mind thats a lie... I would still rather do the electrical on a new bike than even allow anything Chinese or Korean in my shop (unless she has nice legs! then I will toss out the red carpet)...

On this one, I am more of a "if it's not broke dont fix it".. but it wouldnt hurt to get some feedback from others who might know something I am missing here..

Thoughts? anyone?

[nuklhd]

the harness i made for my bike or any repairs i "tinned" the ends of the wire then slid it into the terminal and crimped it then soldered the end before shrink wrap. don't know if thats proper tho. i recently read some stuff from an old hot rod guy that said to never solder the end but to crimp then just put a drop of solder over the crimp. i'm interested in what is said here also cause i have some wiring to do this winter.

[Chris Haynes]

On many older machines terminals weren't used. Simply twist a loop in the end of the wire and dip it in solder.

[rodklop]

I have two 40's bikes on the road for about 24 years. Both I had made my own harness for and crimped the terninals. Like said in the other post, I just put a dot of solder on the crimp. Only had one fail in all that time. Last year my batt. ground wire broke off clean at the back of the terninal. I noticed I had overdone it on that terminal. Solder had leached back into the wire about 1/8 " past the term. Just my experience so far.....Rod

[Bigincher]

I think these are just motorcycles, not the space shuttle. I carefully solder and shink-tube all my connections. So far, I can still walk on the moon.

[TonUp4Less]

I was an aviation electrician in the navy and I worked on all sorts fixed and rotary wing aircraft. As far as soldering goes there are certain things that are labeled "DO NOT SOLDER" but the majority of connections are soldered. Now as far as my own experience, I usually do what Rodklop does. Crimp the wire then place a bead of solder to hold it in place. That being said it is true that if you over solder a connection all sorts of problems can arise so maybe they want marines to use less intricate means of connecting wires that's almost as effective but with less chance of causing damage?

[nagalfar]

Gesshh you cant even get away with not running into the continued and constant envy of those "Navy Boys" (by another name lol) even in a place like this.. thanx a million for the reply, that was exactly what I was wanting to know.. there are days I do a lot of electrical, and it was a question that really bugged me since I was told about it..

[TonUp4Less]

I would say that I have flipped at least 5-6 bikes with so called "electrical problems". Funny thing is that's how I ended up with that job in the navy. I got tired of hitting road blocks on my own projects because I didn't know enough about electrical systems. After all my training I started buying bikes that people had given up on due to electrical issues. Felt bad sometimes though especially when the only things stopping the bike from running was one little connection or even one time a kickstand switch that was stuck in the open position lol.

[bobdo]

Wow, this is interesting. I just finished wiring my bike with a new harness & thought I would "improve upon it" by soldering the connectors. It never occurred to me that it might be a problem. What problems can I look out for?
Is it that the heating of the wire makes it brittle & susceptible to breaking?
Thanks for this post, Bob

[nagalfar]

The way it was explained to me was, when you solder it, the solder moves down into and between the wire strands, thus stiffening it.. stiff means less ductile, less ductile means more prone to stress cracks, one the crack starts it will finish cracking all the way though soon or later due to vibration and/or stress.. copper is pretty ductile, lead, tin and silver are less so.. then add heat to the copper and that is adding even more stiffness to the copper, like old wire that has had a lot of power run though it becomes brittle over time from the constant low temp heating and cooling from power going though it then is cooling when no power is passing though it, I am sure most of us have seen it..

I think TonUp4Less has the best of all answers, glad his expertise was around, placing a small amount of solder on the front side of a terminal at the end of the wire after it has been crimped is the best of all answers.. the solder would help hold the wire in place, and it would add to the connection, yet the back end of the terminal would still be free of solder and much more ductile..