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I decided a long, long time ago I would never used crimped connectors again. As stated many places, 80 percent of all wiring failure is due to bad connectors. I bought top of the line Klein crimpers, no luck, gave up solderless crimping at that point. After fabbing an entire fuel injection and body harness for a late model car with all soldered connections and heatshrunk covered joints (I use torches for soldering like that) I figured there had to be a better way. Many videos online about this topic, but here is why I am getting to my favorite tool. Nylon insulated connectors can be not just good, but great, but NOT with standard lineman/smashed down crimps — these simply fail. While looking for vacuum tubes at an industrial electrical supply house, I ran across the wiring tool to top all others. The double crimping ratcheting pliers. Oh yes, this takes a nylon insulted connector and forms it with great pressure and precision into a perfectly formed double crimp, and a strain relief crimp as well. Upon further research I was made aware that this is what is used in Aircraft wiring, and I haven’t soldered a joint in a car in quite awhile. Upon further research I found that most ratcheting crimp pliers are all the same design, and have many different universal fit jaws, or dies available. I use the standard red, blue and yellow type insulated die, but there are dies for other types of wiring as well. The cheap nylon butt connectors and terminal ends CAN be useful, but only with this tool. Many places sell this thing, but I would advise getting a better quality set as I found one set of jaws that wasn’t sharp enough to make a good crimp impression. NO, Snap-on doesn’t sell anything that works this well as far I have seen (It would be overpriced anyway), but many airplane supply stores sell these pliers at a reasonable price, and I would never tackle another wiring job without these. Imagine this, these pliers work so well they leave a tiny raised dot, or set of dots that actually is used to certify the connection, say in Avionics or Military applications as well as industrial places that have crimps that CANNOT fail. Double crimp ratcheing pliers are used so little in the automotive industry I have actually known car wiring guys that don’t even know they exist. But now you do. These pliers are like ones first drink of whisky, a little weird at first, but once discovered one would NEVER go back.
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I have a feeling I will still be partial to soldering but, can you get a name and model number so I can look them up and figure out how they work.
I bought one like that to rob the Jaws off it of it for one that cost twice as much but has nicer grips. Institution Green rubber instead of red plastic. Funny, lots of companies sell this set of Crimpers with different names and prices. The selection of jaws you can buy for this is huge. The ones I really like are Amp/Tyco T heads, but unlike this set, they don’t have jaws/dies that change out. They are quite a bit more costly, but they do an unbelieveable job but heavy I have to say.. I wouldn’t work on wiring without at least one set of ratching crimpers of some sort, really.
I have no issue using crimps in the right situation. Any connection that goes to a computer I will solder. Anything at a joint I will solder. Other than that crimping is perfectly acceptable.
I like soldering too, but somebody pointed out there is no strain relief. I have included a link with the type of pliers I use.
[quote=”andrewbutton442″ post=126790]I like soldering too, but somebody pointed out there is no strain relief. I have included a link with the type of pliers I use.
A set of $2400 crimping pliers, huh? I thought I was bad about spending too much money on tools, but that’s really something. I will definitely investigate this type of pliers further.
Thats just the type to look for, not necessarily the price. They come cheaper. I have two pairs Amp T heads. Definatly worth the cost over the Harbor Freight style sold everywhere.
The leave a double crimp. One for the metal part of the connector, and one for the strain relief. They also leave a certification impression with a dot or series of dots on the crimp itself. The crimps have to meet a certain pull test poundage, and its quite high. I got mine from the Aircraft industry, where a crimp cannot fail, under ANY circumstances and has to be of course meet and FAA standard. Well worth the money. I have found that even with a high end set of Kline pliers, the crimps simply fail. I would say a good used set of Amp T head double ratcheting crimpers are worth several hundred used. New they are around 1200 I believe, which for the quality of crimp one gets and the sheer mass of that tool, is still not a bad deal, honestly. Thats not that much money in the real world especially regarding tools. And electronics guy who has probably forgotten more about wiring then I will ever know told me the disadvantage of a soldered connector is the lack of strain relief on the connector, where as the double ratcheting crimpers have a FORMED strain relief.
Would like to show you guys two different crimpers that are both aviation certified and that I have used for years.
The first is what is called “Red and Blue’s” and is made by AMP P/N 59250 these are the most popular and most used crimpers in aviation. They do not make a environmental seal so I would only use them in dry area’s. They are a double crimp style crimper that creates a strain relief and have been proven to be very reliable when used with the right type of splices and terminal ends.
The second crimper is an aviation crimper made by Raychem P/N1377 and is an environmental crimper that makes a water tight seal so it can be use in area’s that get wet.
AMP 59250
Amp terminal end
Amp splice
Raychem 1377 crimper
Raychem environmental splice
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