Raber's warned me about crimped on connectors

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74JohnPlayer

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The headlamps, pilot lamps, horn, rear turn signals, and all of the dash lights are working now after chasing down numerous short circuits and bad connectors. The sub-harness for the headlamps and pilot lamps was apparently hand made at the factory using crimp-on bullet connectors and then plugged into the standard Commando wiring harness. Most of those crimped connectors were either loose, corroded, or both, causing poor contact - or no contact at all in several cases. I was able to touch up a couple with a soldering iron. But most were so messed up I just replaced them with solder on type.
Raber's warned me about crimped on connectors
 
Check out that stablemate to the Norton, the Aprilia. See how many solder connections you find.
 
FWIW, in the marine world, soldered connections are NOT approved for wiring, only crimp-on connectors. You also will not find any soldered wiring harness connections on a modern car. HOWEVER, crimped connections are done with approved devices, like ratchet crimp tools, etc, NOT the cheap A$$ pliers that are often part of a crimp kit sold in auto parts stores. A ratchet crimp tool will cost at least 50 bucks.
 
MexicoMike said:
FWIW, in the marine world, soldered connections are NOT approved for wiring, only crimp-on connectors. You also will not find any soldered wiring harness connections on a modern car. HOWEVER, crimped connections are done with approved devices, like ratchet crimp tools, etc, NOT the cheap A$$ pliers that are often part of a crimp kit sold in auto parts stores. A ratchet crimp tool will cost at least 50 bucks.
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And in the airplane world. And anywhere else you don't want the wire to break next to the solder joint. Crimps are best but use good connectors with insulation support. Jim
 
Crimped connections are widely used in avionic electronics assembly, where specialized tools, an experienced workforce, and an operating environment free of corrosive fluids together produce low connector failure rates. Many in this forum have cited the avionics result in support of crimped connectors for motorcycle wiring. However, the avionics result is simply not relevant, as it does not address the corrosion problem. Companies that deal with the design, manufacture, and operation of sub-surface instruments (several miles into the earth) are faced with shock, vibration, heat, AND corrosion uniformly require soldered connections in these instruments. While the surface components (shielded, like avionic electronics, in a dry environment) use crimped connections, only soldering is used where corrosion is a potential problem. Our soldered harnesses have survived 40 years; care to make a bet on what a modern crimped harness will look like in 2050?
 
Amen Rick, a walk around a bike bone yard reveals even at low cost production order good ole Lucas was/is about best there is in compactness and security and endurance. If Brit bikes had the aircraft level quality Lucas componets we still be bragging on em. Barbers museum buys new bikes as they know ain't no way in 20 yr when the plastic injection molded parts decay will they be able to find replacements or reproduce them.

Nothing survives vibration if not supported buffered even soldered at also stiffens the connection and make brittle. Bulk of modern multi conectors and appearance sucks to me.
 
Tough crowd. Thanks for your post, Rick. The bullets I bought were designed to be soldered on, and that's what I did. This isn't a boat or an airplane, though some might argue it's a boat anchor. When I see a bunch of crimped bullets that pull easily off the wires with green crud underneath, the new connectors are getting soldered onto clean wire. That's the way I've treated bike wiring for more than 30 years, and I have a pretty good track record. The Aprilia? There weren't any soldered connections when it was new. But after multiple crimp failures and melted connectors, that's changed. So much for modern, factory-crimped motorcycle harnesses. Some of the strangest problems I deal with are due to high resistance connections, usually due to loose crimps.

Stu
 
You say the harness is original?

So it is over 35 years old, it doesn't owe you anything and is or shortly will be the source of some very funky electrical behavior. Do your self a favor, buy or make a new harness, employ a few relays, if yoiu make one and keep the high current circuits as short as possible and away fron the headlight where they work with the steering head until they abraid and short. A good crimp on marine tinned wire with "seal a crimp" connectors is fast, easy and gets you a new harness in less than a day. I also suggest that you look at the Centech 5 fuze panel, at $29--->$39 its a bargin and will allow you to fuze high and low beams separately as well as keeping your ignition circuit separate.

Anyone riding with an OEM harness is riding on borrowed time.

RS
 
I'm riding on real borrowed time. I'm using my original harness, points, condensers, zener diode, lucas rectifier, coils, I did replace a few connections and fixed up a twisted wire, but so far it's all working fine. Of course a new AGM battery.

Is that dark cloth they used to cover the wires available too? I know the original coloured wires are.

Dave
69S
 
DogT said:
I'm riding on real borrowed time. I'm using my original harness, points, condensers, zener diode, lucas rectifier, coils, I did replace a few connections and fixed up a twisted wire, but so far it's all working fine. Of course a new AGM battery.

Is that dark cloth they used to cover the wires available too? I know the original coloured wires are.

Dave
69S
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I am sure that you are not alone...

RS
 
My 72 still is Lucas. Have most of the upgrades for a future resto. Tri-Spark, wiring harness, etc. The only problem I had a few times was the terminal wires breaking off at the crimp connectors from vibration to the 2MC Capacitor.
 
Keep riding non-gone through orginial harness and may also find its borrowed time to spend far away from shop in quality dead line diagnostics and bodging hobby.
I make my leads to coils and on points system wires extra long and then coiled around a pencil so mostly a coil spring between terminals bouncing in middle more than ends. Blade connectors down fall is lost grip long before corrosion gets to em like our old bullets. Solder or crimped bullets ain't so much the issue as the sharp edge at end of bullets flexing and getting tugged on to service over the decades.
Norton would of done better to stagger the front main connection collection for more streamlined handling and packing away. They left factory in fanned out pattern that looked and worked a treat until parted to handle then forgetabout even getting them to lay out nice again, unless you start from scratch and remove 1/3+ of excess police wire.
 
In the past 5 years of riding my EFI bike with all the datalog stuff [with a lot of connectors] I have had two connection failures. One was a soldered and potted connection inside the LED tailaight. It cracked a solder joint. The other was a bad factory crimp in one of the fuel injector connectors. That one was a bitch.
99 percent of the connectors on the bike are crimped and sealed. [Deutsch connectors] A few connectors on wires with a low voltage analogue signal are gold plated and soldered to avoid any resistance. Both methods have their place. Jim
 
A solder connection in a environment that has vibration is fine if it is stress relieved. Unfortunately, most solder connectors have no provision for stress relieving. Potting is one way of stress relieving. If the wire is fastened to a structural member, such as the frame, immediately on either side of the soldered connection it is stress relieved. Although solder is superior to crimping for conductivity and eliminating corrosion , having a solder connection flopping in the breeze is inviting disaster.
 
Time goes on and new production methods come along, the main reason they don't solder connections anymore has more to do with cost than reliability. As for reliability, manufacturers are looking more at making it past their warranty period rather than making something that will be trouble free for decades. Comparing planes to bikes is a futile exercise, planes have strict maintenance schedules and components that can or must be replaced on a regular basis yet many crashes can be attributed to faulty wiring the builders thought would last the design life of the plane.

That being said, I solder connections when possible and put a piece of shrink tubing over the lug/connector to act as a stress releif (and it covers the red/blue/yellow)

Jean
 
For trouble free operation and much longer life, Use dielectric grease on every connection. Grease the connecting points then make the connection. This will dramatically reduce the chance of corrosion/moisture problems. For the bullet connectors, fill the female fittings with grease then plug in the bullets. Dielectric grease is in any parts store, usually with the various gasket sealers/silicones, etc.
 
I used dielectric grease on EVERY connection and used a heat shrink strain relief on every bullet connection as well. Overkill perhaps but just being safe. Mine are all crimp on connections so we'll see how my home made harness lasts. I've got maybe 14 connections total and some more in the headlight bucket pigtailing off the harness so we'll have to see how vibration takes it's toll after some real milage over the next few years.
 
Jeandr said:
Time goes on and new production methods come along, the main reason they don't solder connections anymore has more to do with cost than reliability. As for reliability, manufacturers are looking more at making it past their warranty period rather than making something that will be trouble free for decades. Comparing planes to bikes is a futile exercise, planes have strict maintenance schedules and components that can or must be replaced on a regular basis yet many crashes can be attributed to faulty wiring the builders thought would last the design life of the plane.

That being said, I solder connections when possible and put a piece of shrink tubing over the lug/connector to act as a stress releif (and it covers the red/blue/yellow)

Jean
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A+++ to all of that. And the wiring on this bike doesn't move with the handlebars, nor is it exposed to flopping in the wind. It's all cable tied to the fairing stay behind the headlamps, which also creates strain relief.
 
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