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Best way to protect a splice

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Old Mar 6, 2012 | 07:17 AM
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Default Best way to protect a splice

Hey guys
I've made some splices under the hood with blinkers and headlights. I was curious what is the best way to protect splice joints from the elements/corrosion?

What I did was cover any exposed copper with solder. I then taped joints with electrical tape and finally put heat shrink around the joint
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Old Mar 6, 2012 | 09:43 AM
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Solder or Butt connectors and then shrink wrap.

.

Last edited by LS6427; Mar 6, 2012 at 10:55 AM.
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Old Mar 6, 2012 | 09:53 AM
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Originally Posted by LS6427
Solder, Butt connectors and shrink wrap.

.
If you solder the wires together why would you use the connectors? Or did you mean either/or? (I've heard of some people doing some strange things)

Soldering the wires together and putting shrink wrap over the wires and splice the best you can, and then maybe some electrical tape over that if you so desire.
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Old Mar 6, 2012 | 10:45 AM
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Hmm I don't see why you would need the electrical tape if you had the right sized heat shrink on it. If your soldering is good that should be all you need.

Now if I wanted to add the tape I would put it over the heat shrink as the outer layer. But it shouldn't be necessary.
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Old Mar 6, 2012 | 10:54 AM
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Originally Posted by runtwrestlin
If you solder the wires together why would you use the connectors? Or did you mean either/or? (I've heard of some people doing some strange things)

Soldering the wires together and putting shrink wrap over the wires and splice the best you can, and then maybe some electrical tape over that if you so desire.

Oops......yes....either or.......

I like butt connectors. Solder can crack over time from vibration.

Yea.....no need for electrical tape at all if you use good shrink wrap. Electrical tape gets all nasty and gooey over time too. Chrysler makes the best shrink wrappers, they have a hardening type of glue inside that makes its like a rock when it cools off..

.
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Old Mar 6, 2012 | 12:25 PM
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GM makes a special weather tight crimp connector for this type of situation. It has an integral shrink tube over the butt connector, that oozes a glue when you heat it. That glue seals up what the shrink tube does not. See the pages labeled "Page 17" and "Page 18" of this document for a procedure on how the connector gets attached: http://www.weber.edu/wsuimages/autom...%20Booklet.pdf

"Page 19" has the part numbers and wire gauges listed. (You'll have to convert mm2 to gauge at the bottom of the page.)

They work great. I just recently needed some to repair a cut headlight door motor wire.
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Old Mar 6, 2012 | 06:29 PM
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Thanks for the info guys. I guess I wasn't far off at all from sealing them up correctly
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Old Mar 7, 2012 | 10:34 AM
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Yea, LS6427's comment on soldering is key. A connection that is only soldered won't hold up on a car because of the vibration. You'll need to have a mechanical connection.
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