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Agreed. I don't see the point in what you did really. I thought you were tinning the wire when I first read through. With what you've done simply heat the connector and wire up again and if you've put enough solder on it will reflow and join. Might help to just touch a little bit more to it to help melt and add some more flux. Great write up though.Quote:
Originally Posted by iced
neat :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
i might give this a try myself. I might choose a different location for the grounding wire though heat shield and grounding wire arent mixing too well atm
Entertaining article,nice work!
However u might want to redo your ring terminals,as solder cold flows over time under pressure,so the wires will eventually become loose in the crimped connection,especially when vibration is present.
A quality crimped connection needs no solder & is a more reliable method,most things are mechanically connected these days.
Btw,most sparkies rely daily on the good ol stanley knife.
awsome DIY dude
did ths help at all withthe headlight dimming prob ??
ive done the exact same thing with my eg civic
volts were running low.
about 13 volts while the car was running with everything on, eg, headlihgts a/c, desmister it would drop to 12.5volts.
also the temp gauge would fluctuate.
i tried replacing the battery, alternator, and it still wouldn't charge properly, i checked my earths, and they seemed fine... SEEMED
but i decided to change the earthing cables anyways, too very fat 2 gauge cable.
fixed my problem. now charging at 14.2 with everything on, about 14 volts.
nice job~! aaron!!! but nah :P going to stick with my Pivot stabliser idea HAHAHA check the engine bay, neat and clean :P
cool read tho:D
Back. Time to anwer questions.
#1 issue. I tinned it so that the wires were stiffer. You might be right that there could be more resistance from the lead/tin solder, but from researching around, copper has a resistivity of 0.000000017 ohm/meter, while lead has 0.00000022 ohm/meter and tin 0.00000011 ohm/meter. As you can see, it will only come into play when you are playing with long lengths of cable. Since most of the ground cables that you will use in the engine bay would be less than 2 meters, increased resistance from the solder is not an issue.
With the cold flowing, I don't have any doubt about it, so I will check my crimping every few months.
Benefits? None that I could see. My lights still dim, and when cold starting, it still starts the same. Warm starting has seemed to improved a bit, but I'll have to keep a record first of how many struggling warm starts I have ever since upgrading the cables before claiming that it helps.
For electrical purposes, the common ground that all the sensors, ignition and electronics use is located under the intake header cover. I am going to run a cable from this point to the chassis ground and see if it improves anything.
If there is resistance by that minor amount then just add another earth to make up for it
I made my own too. Cost me $5.
soldering between the wire and the terminal is essential...not only for physical strength...but because it greatly reduces oxidation...what is oxidation...
if you haven't soldered...you may see a greenish residue on your cables...this residue if dripped onto the many rubber pipes that are in your engine bay can eat through them in no time...
gez i had mine on for ages not a single sign of oxidation, but then i think my earths have gold plating cos i got them from a sound place.