Wring crimping tool?

rbullockv8

rbullockv8

Senior Member
Does anyone sell a crimping tool for the chassis wiring bullet ends? I think it must have a half circle that supports the barrel while indenting the other half. These things are a pain to solder.
 

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Not sure you can crimp that type (if they are the thick style). The crimp style are much thinner.
 
The ones that are machines brass will crack if you try to crimp them. If they were the type that is formed from brass sheet & tin coated then they will crimp. I use a 4-way crimp tool to install those.
 
rbullockv8 said:
Does anyone sell a crimping tool for the chassis wiring bullet ends? I think it must have a half circle that supports the barrel while indenting the other half. These things are a pain to solder.
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Typically this type is soldered on the wire. Also, soldering creates a much better conductor than crimping.
 
I just soldered some wires up to a stick grip switch yesterday to repair the 4-way trim function on a helicopter. A person has to have good clean wire to start with. It can be soldered without tinning the wire tip but tinning speeds things up and insures that the solder will stick. Solder type terminals that are clean brass should be fine without any pre tinning. If you wire is loose on the bullet, try doubling the wire over if it will fit tighter or tin the wire as thick as you can with solder before inserting it in the terminal.


You can use a torch but avoid contaminating the parts to be soldered. A good quality solder gun or an old large soldering iron would be better. The quicker you can heat it the better it will solder. Use a good quality modern electrical type rosin core solder no larger than 1/16" in diameter. Use a good quality shrink tube of the correct diameter to protect the finished solder joints. It doesn't take too long to master the soldering technique.


In aviation, crimp type connectors are preferred over soldering but in tight areas, there is no choice. Solder joints are stiff on the solder joint but the wire remains flexible. They tend to fatigue crack at the joint over time and the wire will break off from the terminal. This is the reason most stuff is crimped where practicable.
 
Kahuna said:
Solder them
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I hate to disagree, but crimping is better if you have the right tools. Ask just about anybody in the business. Soldered joints can fail in high vibration situations before crimped ones will.

Of course, if the only crimper you have is one of those flat black ones from the "tool table" at the hardware store, you are probably better of soldering. I upgraded my crimper and it was worth every penny. I even went overboard and bought a crimper just for spark plug wires. Making a set of plug wires is a snap now. No more pre-cut sets for me.
 
British wiring products are very similar to the stuff used in the US back in the 30s, 40s, & 50s but they aren't quite the same. A person needs to find out what diameter the OEM are and what the equivalent wire size needed is in order to compare before you buy. The UK went 12-volt before the US did and wire sizes can be smaller for a lot of items at 12-volt. The terminal blocks used by Ford will only fit one specific sized bullet and they fit tight.


The crimper tool previously linked (hex type crimp die) is very similar to what is used to crimp the small sizes of coaxial cable used in aircraft in this day and age. That size or similar may be available here in the US but a specific size will have to be know before a person shops for one. I use a Daniels 4-way crimper but they are too expensive for most folks. Many of these crimpers lock on to the splice or terminal and won't unlock until you have gone all the way with the crimping dies. If it's too small a size it may mash the bullet till it fails.
 
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rotorwrench said:
British wiring products are very similar to the stuff used in the US back in the 30s, 40s, & 50s but they aren't quite the same. A person needs to find out what diameter the OEM are and what the equivalent wire size needed is in order to compare before you buy. The UK went 12-volt before the US did and wire sizes can be smaller for a lot of items at 12-volt. The terminal blocks used by Ford will only fit one specific sized bullet and they fit tight.


The crimper tool previously linked (hex type crimp die) is very similar to what is used to crimp the small sizes of coaxial cable used in aircraft in this day and age. That size or similar may be available here in the US.
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Trust me. it works. It is the same size, that's what I just said earlier. 6V and 12V has little to nothing to do with it. I wouldn't be saying this if I wasn't sure. I'm using those things on my 1947 Ford.
 
The problem with soldering is "wicking" of the solder up between the individual strands. This causes stiffening of the wire and, subsequently, an interface between stiff and flexible where the failure occurs during vibration. In the Army, back in the Sixties, we were taught to use anti-wicking tools to prevent these vibration failures on our mobile radars. The tool was a tweezer-like clamp placed on the stripped area of the wire to freeze off the flow of solder. It was made of chrome-plated copper to be a good heat sink while the chrome plating resisted solder from sticking to it. They were made to fit specific wire gauges snugly. Because of the materials involved, aggressive fluxes were verboten......Bob L
 
Rustedjunk said:
Trust me. it works. It is the same size, that's what I just said earlier. 6V and 12V has little to nothing to do with it. I wouldn't be saying this if I wasn't sure. I'm using those things on my 1947 Ford.
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I'm not implying that you are wrong but my experience with British cars and motorcyles has given me a bit more insight that most. I've been able to find the old crimp type here in the US but sometimes they also mix them with the ones that can't be crimped made from machined brass. British terminals are sized to the wire by the number of strands which is a rough equivalent to the American wire gauge system. Most 12-volt systems use 18-gauge wire more than other sizes due to the higher voltage. Most 6-volt systems use 16 gauge on the average for less resistance to the lower voltage. This means a size change of terminals since 18 to 22 gauge terminals are used for smaller gauge 12-volt circuits and 14 to 16 are used for the larger gauge 6-volt circuits so voltage can have an effect.


The depth of the groove behind the tip is important for good locking of the bullet terminal in the blocks and single connector sockets. The diameter of the body bellow the groove is important for a good tight fit in the terminal sockets. Most of the British stuff I've worked with or checked out to date is different and generally smaller or of a different shape.


It's not you I don't trust. It's the vendor trying sell me something that won't work well or reliably that I don't trust. It's a little hard to b!tch at someone in the UK that I've purchased something from when even they likely wouldn't have any idea if it will be a good fit or not.


If they work for your 47 then that's great but which ones work and for what size wire? They use bullet connectors a long time in the UK and there are a world of different types.
 
rotorwrench said:
I'm not implying that you are wrong but my experience with British cars and motorcyles has given me a bit more insight that most. I've been able to find the old crimp type here in the US but sometimes they also mix them with the ones that can't be crimped made from machined brass. British terminals are sized to the wire by the number of strands which is a rough equivalent to the American wire gauge system. Most 12-volt systems use 18-gauge wire more than other sizes due to the higher voltage. Most 6-volt systems use 16 gauge on the average for less resistance to the lower voltage. This means a size change of terminals since 18 to 22 gauge terminals are used for smaller gauge 12-volt circuits and 14 to 16 are used for the larger gauge 6-volt circuits so voltage can have an effect.


The depth of the groove behind the tip is important for good locking of the bullet terminal in the blocks and single connector sockets. The diameter of the body bellow the groove is important for a good tight fit in the terminal sockets. Most of the British stuff I've worked with or checked out to date is different and generally smaller or of a different shape.


It's not you I don't trust. It's the vendor trying sell me something that won't work well or reliably that I don't trust. It's a little hard to b!tch at someone in the UK that I've purchased something from when even they likely wouldn't have any idea if it will be a good fit or not.


If they work for your 47 then that's great but which ones work and for what size wire? They use bullet connectors a long time in the UK and there are a world of different types.
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http://www.britishwiring.com is located in Pennsylvania. I learned on European cars and after dealing with Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz, so I am not cavalier with any period of car. When I went to the shop in Minnesota that deals with the restoration of British cars, I brought the wire harness for the dome lights of my 47 Ford. Granted this is a new remake I got from one of our trusted vendors. I also brought one of our black connectors that is for our Fords. The British terminal fits snugly into our connector. No issues! The bullet terminals were the same width. That was comparing 14 gauge wire and 16 gauge wire, both which is very common in 12V cars, British, American, Japanese, and German. I didn't even touch 18 gauge wire.
 
Of course like most things, I had no idea it was so complicated and/or controversial. ��

I was just frustrated that I was on my back trying to solder a taillight wire overhead and I needed three hands. Shouldn’t be that difficult for the ones I have left to do. Not worth $60 for a tool I might not use much in the future. My 50-year-old Weller soldering gun works great. Now, if I could figure out that third hand thing...

Thanks for all the info. Educational as always.
 
No argument meant at all.
My experience has been thus:
The Brass connectors need to be soldered. They will crack & I have an excellent crimper.
The aluminum ones are crimpable (is that a word).
The problem I've run into is that the vendors (Mac's, in particular), don't always send whats noted in the catalog. I have received both types on the same order.
I solder all of them and then add heat-shrink on the ends
Just my experience
jIM
 
I'm with Kahuna. Henry soldered them. The good wiring suppliers (like Rhode Island Wiring) solder them. I think they actually dip the ends in a solder pot. The British are known for electrics that don't work (Lucas!!). Personally, I solder them with a relatively small soldering gun. I would never use anything but brass. Some folks have built a "third hand" using a magnetic base holding an arm with an alligator clip on the end.
 
I hold the solder with my teeth but it won't work that way upside down. A solder pot might work as long as the tip doesn't fall off into the pot. Tips covered with solder may not fit in the terminal blocks. My Mercury cars didn't have any soldered tips in the OEM harnesses.
 
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