Sealing electrical connectors

[xjwmx]

I have a friend who is joining wires with wire nuts and he's wrapping the bottom part of the nut with black tape and continuing the wrap down onto the wires, to seal out the elements.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to seal your XS connectors where the wires go in with white silicone and wrap the connector with black tape where the two halves join. Most places it might not be necessary but living here I have sand and mud and dirt caked in all my connectors.

 

[the_nutt]

It wouldn't be a bad idea to use solder and heat shrink...

 

[jd750ace]

I don't think I'd use household wire nuts on my bike, personally. There is an environmental grade of heat shrink that has a sealer in it that melts and seals the joint, commonly used over a solder joint. There are also hermetically sealed solder in splice connections. Not as cheap as a big bucket of wire nuts at big lots, but a lot more appropriate for the job.
Just my $0.01.

 

[jayel]

dedicated connections = solder and shrink tubing, regular snap in connections = di-electric grease

 

[xjwmx]

I'm not suggesting using wire nuts on your bike. I'm suggesting using the normal connectors with his concept of sealing out the environment.

 

[Paulrxs650]

I solder and heat shrink everything - it keeps out the best of the English weather no problem

 

[gggGary]

Hows the weather in the oil field XJ? Hope you're stayin' warm and dry.

 

[Downeaster]

As you may recall, I'm retired from the Navy. I was an electronics tech for 22 years. I learned a bit about weather-proofing electrical connections.

Electrical tape, particularly the cheapo vinyl stuff, is NOT your friend. Better than nothing, but only just.

IMHO the heat-shrinkable solder splices with the sealing goo are the most cost effective solution to reliable splices for our application. Crimp on versions of the same are next, and are about on a par with properly soldered, cleaned and heat-shrinked (is that a word?) connections.

Notice I said "CLEANED". Soldering without flux is asking for a high resistance connection. Leaving flux on a soldered joint is asking for corrosion. Clean all soldered joints thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol.

JMHO, YMMV, void where prohibited, etc. etc.

 

[grepper]

Clean all soldered joints thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol.

Good tip!

 

[xjwmx]

Well, everything is a compromise - it's not practical or advisable to solder and shrink wrap every connection. My troubleshooting consists in large part of switching out parts.

It's a good idea to keep water and mud and crud and sand out of your connectors. I would suggest black tape where the two halves join and since tape is less workable on the lead ends of the connectors, I'd suggest plugging the holes with silicone (neatly please). Personally I hate to see shrink wrap on anything I have to work on because I have to know what's under it and it's much harder to get off than tape.

Downeaster - have you tried to use that new lead-free solder? I think it's about 90-something% tin. It's about all you see in stores now. I tried to solder some wires with it and it just would not flow right at all, with nice clean sanded parts. Luckily I have a little bit of 60% tin /40% lead with me, which worked fine. They settled on that age old proportion for a reason! Changing it definitely didn't improve it.

gggGary - thanks for askin. See the weather thread in the Lounge. The days crawl by, but the weeks fly by. It's do-able I think.

Ah - a tidbit on the subject of connectors. When I was in Austin I had the pleasure of pawing around in an old Cray supercomputer that was in a "museum". Nobody was around to care so I pawed around in it to see what was there; since they were legendary when I was coming up and were worth a fortune at that time. Affordable to government and a few research institutions.

Wouldn't you know that it was chocked full of the most hated connector on the internet, The kind where you stick two or three insulated wires in and squeeze the metal part down with pliers. You know the one I mean. The one Joe Blow wouldn't use to splice in a car part.

 

[TwoJugs]

I don't think silicone is a good idea. It has a good acid content that will actually cause corrosion over time with the copper wire. There was a special no acid silicone made by Dow just for electrical but I havn't seen it for a while. I have used 3M 5200 that is a marine sealant. It is extra messy to work with but is the best for adhesion and sealing. I would inject into the terminal end then use my crimper. I would never think about using a wire nut on a bike. Tape is better then nothing but pretty weak in sealing. Solder can be okay but not the best or easiest. The best I've used is epoxy injected wire crimp ons. When you heat shrink them they release expoxy that both seals and helps with the strenght of the connection. I slao set up a standard motorcycle connector kit that works in most cases. You can get the stuff from vintageconnectors.com and it is the same stuff as original but be sure to spend the money for the special crimpers if you want them to work correctly.

 

[Jezuz]

Ive heard from dragrace fellows that never ever solder wires, only crimp connections because vibration cuts wires next to solder.
Good water resistant is silicone grease if connectors are somehow water resistant like amphenol superseal, that trick is learned from food industry where i work daily, inviroment is usually cold wet and lots of pressurize washing with hard chemicals so that water goes everywhere no matter how good seals are!!

And those superseal connector are really good, ive got 95 duc and it got those from factory and internals are like new, not like couple other connectors that are replaced few times now.

 

[TwoJugs]

Ive heard from dragrace fellows that never ever solder wires, only crimp connections because vibration cuts wires next to solder.
Good water resistant is silicone grease if connectors are somehow water resistant like amphenol superseal, that trick is learned from food industry where i work daily, inviroment is usually cold wet and lots of pressurize washing with hard chemicals so that water goes everywhere no matter how good seals are!!

And those superseal connector are really good, ive got 95 duc and it got those from factory and internals are like new, not like couple other connectors that are replaced few times now.

Yes. Soldering wire connections were off limits in the aircraft industry for that reason. Solder makes the wire stiff and prone to cracking from vibration. All aircraft connections are crimped. I honestly feel that it would not be such a problem on a motorcycle though. We all know that the XS has no vibrations...

 

[jd750ace]

Yes. Soldering wire connections were off limits in the aircraft industry for that reason. Solder makes the wire stiff and prone to cracking from vibration. All aircraft connections are crimped. I honestly feel that it would not be such a problem on a motorcycle though. We all know that the XS has no vibrations...

Not all aircraft connections are crimped. Many, many connections in switches and indicating lights are solder joints. Many joints in environmentally sensitive areas use the solder splice.

 

[nj1639]

XJ, we had a newbie catv installer many years ago that mixed silicone for di-electric on the fittings at the taps....sucked the water in with corrosive results.

To add...we use the di-electric when two dissimilar metals are connected where microvolts exist to prevent welding. Dunno, its what the experts say....

 

[xjwmx]

people put silicone sealer on gaskets all day and it doesn't cause corrosion where it touches the metal of the head or the block or the water pump or the thermostat or,,,

With what I'm proposing the sealer doesn't touch the actual blades anyway;; use grease there as usual.

 

[Downeaster]

xjwmx: Yes, I've seen the new "lead free" solder. It's crap, like most of the treehugger-imposed eco-friendly products.

Wait until you try the new "water soluble oil" oil-based paints. I was in the lumber/hardware business before I retired, and we could no longer get true oil-based paint in Maine. About 90% of the water soluble stuff came back with a "stick it up your exhaust pipe" evaluation.

Fortunately, I have a considerable stash of real solder.

 

[nj1639]

people put silicone sealer on gaskets all day and it doesn't cause corrosion where it touches the metal of the head or the block or the water pump or the thermostat or,,,

With what I'm proposing the sealer doesn't touch the actual blades anyway;; use grease there as usual.

Sounds reasonable.

 

[weekendrider]

The local ACE hardware still has 60/40 if you are looking.
Would the high tin content solder have a higher chance of breaking with vibration?

XJ my dad always wrapped his connections like you discribed even in the house.

 

[XSLeo]

I have some of the liquid tape. One can with a brush and one can of aerosol. That's what I used when building my LED turnsignals. I suppose it wouyld work to seal other connections.
Leo