The Service Dept

THE SERVICE DEPT

WALT FULTON

MAKING CONNECTIONS

In your December '74 article, "Honda XL175 Revisited," you said that all electrical connections were "silver-soldered." At the risk of being called a nit-picker, I must point out that there are better ways of making electrical connections.

Silver soldering requires temperatures high enough to anneal the wires and damage insulation. The acid-type flux promotes corrosion. This leads to a weak connection susceptible to breakage from vibration.

A much better splice can be made using techniques standard to the electronics industry. Go to your local electronics hobby store and get some 60/40 rosin core solder and some assorted heat shrink tubing. Pick up a soldering iron intended for electronic work if you don’t have one.

To make the splice, carefully strip at least one half inch of insulation from each wire. Choose a piece of heat shrink tubing the right size to shrink tightly against the wire insulation, and cut a piece long enough to overlap each side of the splice by one quarter inch. Slide the heat shrink tubing over one of the wires. Bring the two wires together end-to-end, overlapping the bare wire. Twist the conductors together and solder using only enough heat to get the solder to flow out and “wet” the wires. This is very easy if everything is kept clean. Now slip the heat shrink tubing over the splice and use heat from the soldering iron to shrink the tubing tightly to the wire. You now have a splice almost as strong as the original wire, and not much fatter. It is also safe from corrosion, and unaffected by gas and oil. Before starting on your motorcycle’s wiring, practice on some scrap wire.

Use heat shrink tubing when soldering to lugs also, to act as a strain relief on the wire, making it better able to take vibration. You can use these techniques for making any connections that you want to be reliable.

David J. Hajicek Electrical Engineer St. Paul, Minn.