Alternate to Soldering

[BaldEagle]

As I had to get into my wiring loom this weekend I needed to reconnect some wires I had soldered and some I had used insulated butt connectors.

As many of you know from doing any wiring soldering generally takes 3 hands and the shorter the wire or more wires you have the more difficult it can be. Insulated butt connectors are great, but they are HUGE when trying to do anything with a motorcycle. If you have ever ventured into the Honda factory wiring loom you will see that many of the hot and ground wires are connected with a wire clamp and tape wrapped...which gave me an idea.

A picture says a thousand words so...

Use a connector that is the size appropriate for the size or number of wires you need.
http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n513/i2imartialarts/VLX%20Shadow%20Mods/2012-02-04142329.jpg

Cut the insulation off the connector:
http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n513/i2imartialarts/VLX%20Shadow%20Mods/2012-02-04142412.jpg

http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n513/i2imartialarts/VLX%20Shadow%20Mods/2012-02-04142450.jpg

Then remove the head of the connector:
http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n513/i2imartialarts/VLX%20Shadow%20Mods/2012-02-04142914.jpg

Trim your wires to proper length and put the now modified connector around one of the wires.

NOTE: The end you did not cut the connector off of will slide over the wires with greater ease and less potential restriction.

http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n513/i2imartialarts/VLX%20Shadow%20Mods/2012-02-04143016.jpg

NOTE: You may want to use heat shrink, put it on the other wire or behind the newly barrel crimp you have just created.

My lighter was out of fluid and I would loom these wires as well so I just used electrical tape.
Crimp the connector:
http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n513/i2imartialarts/VLX%20Shadow%20Mods/2012-02-04143227.jpg

When you are finished you will have a good connection that you did not have to call your lazy brother-in-law over to have help hold the wires and drink all your beer.

http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n513/i2imartialarts/VLX%20Shadow%20Mods/2012-02-04143445.jpg

As I said above, this is pretty much how your stock wiring is put together so if it is good enough for factory...well you know.

Hope that helps you keep your sanity if you need to connect wiring and 1) don't have experience or assistance to solder and 2) need something that will not be huge and bulky like insulated butt connectors.

[BaldEagle]

And btw...that is a special setting I have on my smart phone camera that focuses everything in the picture except what you are trying to capture for the picture...wth? Sorry, pics looked better smaller...you get the idea.

[Road Rash]

And btw...that is a special setting I have on my smart phone camera that focuses everything in the picture except what you are trying to capture for the picture...wth? Sorry, pics looked better smaller...you get the idea.


Aparently, the smart phone ain't so smart when it comes to photography! LOL! Good tip, though.

[Kitulu]

Similar to the hard splices we use to repair wire on the Apache, except ours hase solder inside an insulation sleeve...when you shrink down the sleeve with a heat source, the solder melts and joins the wires, or we have a crimpable splice with seperate sleeve that does the same thing without solder.

[chopaholic]

You know what truly amazed me about these harnesses is the amount of splices and the fact that they used blue electrical tape to cover em.

I've been building my minimal harness and its all solder and heat shrink. Overkill? Yeah probably. But anything worth doing is worth overkilling.

I have a bag of the non-insulated wire connectors and I use em all the time. They're strong and clean. you can slide heat shrink over em and seal em up with out having to worry about the elements getting to the wire. I use them a lot for trailer wiring, lawn equipment, and the ATV.

[BaldEagle]

I would have typically used heat shrink and I think the reason the factory ones are not is that they are also covered in a sealed loom so chances of them being affected by the elements are slim to none unless you are trying to ride through a pond...then you are going to have other issues.

I agree it is very surprising how many wires are spliced in that factory loom.

[chopaholic]

Nah just need to add a snorkel kit.