wiring loom.....strange request

Soldering is not usually recommended, as the wire tends to fail at the point where the solder ends.

In news: snipped-for-privacy@zhochaka.demon.co.uk, "David G. Bell" blithered:

Isn't that what I said happened?

Hmmmmm.... The vast majority of aircraft wiring is all crimped, whether at terminal strips or the connectors to gauges etc or the contacts inside multiplugs. A lot of this wiring is in relatively exposed areas (engine bays, undercarriage bays etc) and they don't suffer from crimps failing or becoming loose, any more than the odd occasion. (read very rare when compared to hours flown). In 1 year I have seen only one crimped connector fail, that was on an engine harness just a week or so ago! Bugger of an indication fault to trace, mind!

-- Badger. B.H.Engineering, Rover V8 engine specialists.

now live but still under construction,

Agreed. One of the worst faults I have found was in one of my instruments, where the overcrimping of the insulation had sheared the wires just on the entry to the crimp. 100% on test it was fine,but 1% on site it went wrong. Sod of a thing to spot.

Steve

Sorry, I wasn't clear. It was described to me as mechanical failure arising from the different flexing behaviour of soldered multi-strand wire, compared to a crimped joint.

yes please.

got a catalouge from the above. on the note of suppliers, theres a maplins opening up by me soon, has anybody used them?

been thinking about this today at work and a fuse box in "glove box" are by the wiper motor is looking likely. but what do i fuse and what do i relay? i was thinking about having a look at the way my daily driver is setup (vw golf) and getting an idea from there. e.g. fuse ratings, what relayed.... any pointers greatly appreciated

didn't think of this.... but not a bad idea... how much of the wiring could be done with this?

i'm now thinking of building the new one on top of the existing and loosely cable tying the new cable over the old to get an idea of lengths, make the necessary alterations as i go

another good idea, up till now i've been using masking tape, but that seems to get oily and messy fairly quickly...

thanks, i'm gona needs loads

Since the 'proper' colours are readily available from the likes of the source above, I will always try and use them.

Nick

It gets a bit expensive if you buy lots of reels of the proper colours (you need a lot of colours!), and its a bit of a logisitical challenge to work out exactly what lengths of each colour you need before you start if you decide to buy it per metre. It would be much nicer to have lots of colours available, but i dont think i could manage that unless i made wiring looms for a living and could justify it!

Maplins are useful for odds and ends, and do sometimes have stuff you wouldn't have thought of, but a good auto-electrics specialist is the better option.

The catalogues are worth having.

You can also get better labels than writing on a bit of tape.

where from?. I wanted some but couldnt find any.

No shops locally could help me, and vehicle wiring products dont seem to list any.

I wanted some like my 101 has (printed on little bands that go round the wires), with numbers and letter on

Like this?

In news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Tom Woods blithered:

Maplin under self adhesive wire markers

On or around Fri, 10 Sep 2004 14:17:14 +0100, Tom Woods enlightened us thusly:

they're cute, ain' they. I bet you have to be the MoD in order to buy 'em though. Got 'em on the big trailer, which is ex-nato, swedish built but probably in service in Germany, wot with stuff like "Max. Last" stencilled on it.

'course, if you have decent *permanent* (I assume they're heatshrunk on) labelling, you only need the one colour of wire, so long as you make a good wiring diagram which has the labelling on it and make sure you actually *do* label all the connection points, not only the ones at the ends.

A good tip, not always followed by manufacturers IME, is to have a means of separating the loom (muti-way rubber bullet blocks are probably best) on

On or around 10 Sep 2004 13:31:47 GMT, Simon Barr enlightened us thusly:

not quite, but they're functionally the same and have the advantage that they can be fitted retrospectively.

Yep. Like them!. When i rewire the 101, its gonna get some of them!

The 101 only has numbers. they wouldnt want the wiring to be too easy to understand!

Good idea. Hadnt thought of that, but will think about it if i ever wire anything into doors

Tom Woods wrote: from?. I wanted some but couldnt find any.

RS (rswww.com) sell coloured bands in standard resistor colours, (black brown, red orange yellow green blue violet grey white = 0--9) )with numbers on them too. I think these are better than the plain white bands, as in the 101, because you only need to read the colours thorugh the murk. They are also not stuck on, but are proper PVC rings of material.

rs part no. 557-017

Steve