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Permanently splicing wires in a harness

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Vracktal
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PostPosted: 20:11 - 20 Nov 2015    Post subject: Permanently splicing wires in a harness Reply with quote

Finally traced what I think is the source of my bike's poor running: in the loom the four white wires pictured below were barely hanging together and peeling the electrical tape back revealed they were only held together by being twisted.

https://i.imgur.com/s0j5B7D.jpg

So I know the problem now, but does anyone know the best way I can permanently splice these three wires together with the fourth? The other wires are held together with some kind of copper clip, almost like a staple but I can't find anything on how to make that kind of join...?
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J4mes
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PostPosted: 20:14 - 20 Nov 2015    Post subject: Reply with quote

solder and heat shrink them Thumbs Up
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J.M.
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PostPosted: 20:29 - 20 Nov 2015    Post subject: Reply with quote

But practise soldering first. Otherwise they'll fail at some point and leave you stranfed If you don't do a good job.
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Kickstart
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PostPosted: 20:33 - 20 Nov 2015    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi

As above.

The copper clip sounds suspiciously like a scotch lock.

Those wires look far heavier grade than normally found on a bike beyond the main power feed from the battery and the wire to the starter motor. I would guess someone has already been at the loom more than you think. Strip back a bit more and find where the white wires are hacked in to the loom.

All the best

Katy
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Vracktal
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PostPosted: 20:42 - 20 Nov 2015    Post subject: Reply with quote

Kickstart wrote:
Hi

As above.

The copper clip sounds suspiciously like a scotch lock.

Those wires look far heavier grade than normally found on a bike beyond the main power feed from the battery and the wire to the starter motor. I would guess someone has already been at the loom more than you think. Strip back a bit more and find where the white wires are hacked in to the loom.

All the best

Katy


The wires aren't held together with a scotchlok, but something that just clips around the bare ends and holds them together. It's literally like a metal staple that's just wrapped around them all.

I'm tempted to just solder them together but the thing that worries me is that the harness needs to be flexed a lot to fit in the space it goes in, and I think that if I just solder it then it'll break when I reinstall the harness. Hoping to find whatever crimp method they used to create the copper staples and just replicate that...

Also after taking the photo, I stripped the rest of the tape off to trace the wires and the while ones run all the way to the connectors at either end without any further splicing.
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Raffles
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PostPosted: 21:38 - 20 Nov 2015    Post subject: Reply with quote

How about using something like this covered with heatshrink tubing?
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hmmmnz
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PostPosted: 00:17 - 24 Nov 2015    Post subject: Reply with quote

what you have is a factory crimp,
most bikes have them in the loom,
the general industry practice is to use them instead of solder because
solder "can" crack with movement (although ive never had it happen)

the bit you are after is called a splice crimp

myself, id solder them together in a line, and slide raychem over and shrink down
(raychem is heatshrink with a glue inside to water proof everything)
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Robby
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PostPosted: 08:54 - 24 Nov 2015    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have come across things a bit like brass staples in factory wiring looms, normally on the earth wires where you may have 3 wires joining on to one.

In your case, solder and heat shrink. Make sure you're soldering on to bright, clean metal. If the copper has oxidised and gone black, solder won't stick to it.

As Kickstart alluded to, those white wires may not be original so it is worth seeing where they join onto the loom. You may find another twist and tape job. I once did a similar job on an NTV loom, ended up finding 16 scotchlock connectors scattered around the loom.
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