Which way to use this crimping tool?

[les_danger]

This is going to sound dafter than my usual questions. I bought these years ago, no instructions as far as I recall, and now i'm in a spot of automotive bother and need to use them in anger pronto.

Pretty bog standard pair of ratcheting crimp tool. Let's call them side A,...showing the profile:

little grooves on both bottom

and top jaws

And side B

where the jaws are flat, but there's a little groove running close to this side.
Now from the youtube vids I've seen the tooth needs to go into the smooth side of the terminal connector. All of the terminals I have, whether bullet/spade/ring/whatever, all have the same set of prongs on the back- so the ones that go around the wire's insulation are taller than those which go around the exposed wire.

Now my best guess so far is this positioning (side A is on the right hand side of the image), with the view that the open prongs should face down on the groove so that it folds inwards.

But that then results in two things happening every time i've done it. Firstly it's uneven:

Then the only prongs which are affected are the ones that go around the insulation. The ones that go around the wire itself are barely touched because of the shorter length.

Would be grateful for thoughts or doodles on the obvious thing that i'm not doing, or a pointer to a vid where they do it up close with this kind of crimping tool.

 

[rsgaz]

Those crimps only works with the colour-coded insulated crimps.

 

[Burnerman]

As above but do solder if at all possible!
John

 

[opps]

As above, you have the wrong crimping tool.

You need something like this one

I am not necessarily recommending the above though. That type simultaneously crimps both the wire and the insulation.

I found a German one on ebay for about £20, elsewhere it was about £40. A professional one (with replaceable dies) will set you back a lot more.

I don't have a lot of experience of crimping, but the type that crimps the insolation strikes me as being far more secure than using cheap insulated crimps with a diy crimper.

 

[JohnD]

I haven't found the colour coded terminals very reliable. The plastic insulation is thick and hard and I don't find the connection is strong. It may slip out of position while working.

I rather favour a plain metal connector with the light cover in thin rubbery plastic that you can slide down the wire after crimping.

 

[les_danger]

Thanks very much everyone that's very helpful. It didn't occur to me that the dies are specific to the type of crimp, but now I type it aloud is sounds like common sense....doh.

I think i'll need to do both insulated and non-insulated, as one end is spades going into a multi-terminal connector so non-insulated (at least insulated would be more of a faff to get in and out), and then at the other going for butt connector to join an ignition switch.

That said the dies in this come out, do you think I could just buy replacement dies? There isn't a name or serial number on the pliers but it doesn't look like a tight fit, they just locate on the screw holes. Or is that just a recipe for more paper weights.

 

[JohnD]

I got some of these things, which you slide onto the wire before crimping the uninsulated connector, and they can be slid down to provide an insulated cover of the live connections in use. You can examine the quality of the crimp because it is visible.

Pardon our interruption...

 

[Burnerman]

For reliability, it's solder and heat shrink tubing every time for me.
John

 

[evdamadiynot]

Metoo - looks better as well

 

[les_danger]

Just to close the loop on this I bought that Haisstronica one in the link through lack of imagination, with 6 different jaws on for different crimps. It worked a bit, but the release mechanism broke within about 20mins. Just long enough for me to realise that I didn't actually need to do uninsulated at all as i could have just scrubbed up the old spade connectors and used butt connectors on the other side.

Anyway at least i've got a nicer pair of wire strippers out of this fiasco.

Maybe i've been indoctrinated by past videos, but I thought solder would have been worse in a high vibration environment (this is for a motorbike) as it's quite brittle. Anyway the fact it's used in all sorts of places over the bike says it's clearly not a law.

 

[Burnerman]

Often enough, automotive terminals are flash welded to the wiring and then the terminal lugs bent over. Soldered joints don't fail particularly, but if you find the wire strands have turned black due to oxidisation soldering can be difficult.
John

 

[Stivino]

I thought solder would have been worse in a high vibration environment (this is for a motorbike) as it's quite brittle.

That is correct. There are times when it shouldn't be done, i.e. when it will be subject to vibration, extremes of heat, and there are limititations on the type of solder to use.
Having said that, I do it, too.

 

[opps]

Just to close the loop on this I bought that Haisstronica one in the link through lack of imagination, with 6 different jaws on for different crimps. It worked a bit, but the release mechanism broke within about 20mins. Just long enough for me to realise that I didn't actually need to do uninsulated at all as i could have just scrubbed up the old spade connectors and used butt connectors on the other side.

Anyway at least i've got a nicer pair of wire strippers out of this fiasco.

Maybe i've been indoctrinated by past videos, but I thought solder would have been worse in a high vibration environment (this is for a motorbike) as it's quite brittle. Anyway the fact it's used in all sorts of places over the bike says it's clearly not a law.

Sorry mate. I wasn't recommending that particular crimper. I just wanted to show you the type you needed. I hope Amazon give you a refund.

Apropos solder and stranded cables- in some cases it is frowned upon when the cable needs to remain flexible. There is a risk of the solder flowing below the insulation and (apparently) making the cable more prone to snapping. I guess that is in cases where connections are often connected/disconnected.

 

[les_danger]

Sorry mate. I wasn't recommending that particular crimper. I just wanted to show you the type you needed. I hope Amazon give you a refund.

Ah sorry no worries i wasn't trying to pin it on you lol, more me being too lazy and ego-depleted to look around. In any case it's only the release bit that's broken so it's still going to be useful later.

It's worked out a treat tbh even just cleaning up the old spade connectors on the old cable (which i used as an extension) has made it much better. The crimped bit smoothed out nicely once i applied heat to the shrink wrap, although in another area where i've tried to apply generic wrap i might have accidentally melted through some insulation. It's not too exposed to the weather, but we'll see how it holds up in the rain sure enough.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[morqthana]

Solder is not to be used to provide mechanical strength. Any measures needed to guard against vibration or flexing etc must be provided by other means. Solder is only for electrical connectivity.