Amateur? or Professional?

you can use electrical tape but you want to solder it first if you decide to do that. Just putting tape on it... not going to last very long.

 

on a side note.. why are there gauges on the floor board lol.

 

lol so the wires were just twisted and taped...no firm mechanical connection??

 

Even if you do solder them why not use heat shrink?

That is pretty funny though, I like it when people use wire nuts from the hardware store.

 

I just twisted and taped the wires on my pioneer deck because i'm real lazy lol. Other than it not lasting too long and can cause problems if it rattles loose...Would i gain any extra noticeable power if i soldered them and i guess it would be harder on the deck because of more resistance in the connections. I will go out with my soldering gun if i have to i guess, drag myself out there kicking and screaming lol.

 

You will NOT notice any power difference by soldering the wires.

You WILL notice less fire and less blown head units from wires coming loose, corroding, shorting and sparking.

And you will have the satisfaction of a job well done.

why not just use quick crimp connectors? - they arent the best, but they are better than wire nuts or tape. They are insulated, and rarely come loose if crimped correctly.

 

I'm gonna assume you've never worked in an audio store, much less, a busy audio store. At our shop twist and tape would just take too much time. Inlines and crimp caps. Solder and heat shrink takes too much time. I have a full day planned 2 to 3 days in advance. We stay busy from the time we get there to the time we leave.

Now for your picture, those employees (they are not installers) are a joke. I guess they have plenty of time to fix things they messed up. How can that shop have a good reputation? Why would anyone take a car to a shop with a reputation for sub standard work?

 

Hmm...maybe this was the shops "free install special"

 

So there isn't any disadvantage to solder and heat shrink. It seems to me that would give you a good conection.

 

sure its a good connection , just takes a while to do is all. Crimp caps are the quickest way to go about connections. Little twist of the wire, place cap on.. smash.. check hold.. move to the next one.

 

For all intents and purposes, crimps, stac-ons, butt connectors, whatever ya wanna call them are the easiest, most reliable, and fastest method for wiring in the 12 volt world. Out of the literally THOUSANDS of connections I have madde this way,maybe, MAYBE, .05% ever caused any issues. Soldering is good too, but you must KNOW how too solder, alot of folks dont know the right way to do it. The only times I soldered up connections in the car were for the remote starters, then only on the ignition and starter leads, I wanted absolutely NO chance of any failure, and never saw one either. For all you folks out there, stick with the "butt connectors".....they are simple and easy and reliable. But I must add this also, you need a good quality crimping tool. That cheap POS that is sold at the auto supply stores and the likes of wallyworld will work, but BARELY. Get a nice set of crimpers from Snap-on (under the blue point name) or from , er, crap, whats the name of the other company???????? anyway the look like these.........http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/cha909.html


That is a set of crimpers! Not these, these are complete CRAP.....http://www.iboats.com/mall/index.cgi?view_id=164119&dz=4493


Do as i say dammit.....

 

thats weird that you say that vik.i've had my crimping tool for over 17 years now,(western auto)but i also know what i'm doing and i double even triple check all my crimps.

 

I am gonna pick me up a nice blue point crimping tool soon...Snap On guy comes to the shop near me once a week.

My friend has one...very nice

 

If you have alot of extra time then solder and heat shrink by all means. Every connection in my truck is soldered, but what I do for customers in an hour, takes me the better part of a day in my truck. Customers don't want to pay me that much more labor. Also make sure you know and can see the difference between a good and cold (bad ) solder connection. A cold solder joint is even worse than twist and tape

I like Klein Crimpers check out #1005 or #1006

 

Um...where could get pick up some Klein Crimpers??

 

Here's a question for All Y'all.

How many soldered connectors do you see in factory wiring looms. Rare I see any at all. When I do a wiring repair, I use butt connectors without the plastic coating. Then I heat shrink them. I do use Thomas and Betts crimper's, which are very much like the Klein crimper's that Ranger prefers.

If you think about it, soldering can be a brittle connection subject to adverse effects from vibration. Also, if one isn't adept at it, it can mess with the wiring up or downstream from the use of too much heat.

This is just my opinion. But, as a flatrate tech, I don't get paid for re-do's. And, (knocking on wood) I do not see comebacks on my wiring repairs.

 

http://www.kleintools.com/

I think you should find a search thingee where you enter your zip code and it tells you where you might find Klein Tools. Snap-On and Blue Point have better cutters but the Kleins have a much better "bite" when it comes to crimping.

Also Throttle is right, no solder connections in modern cars. Molex Crimps are used in most plugs that I see. I also get paid to do the job once.

 

i didn't solder but i did use female and male ends on each of the wires. then tightened them so they wouldn't come out. then electric taped over that. would that be good enough? i figured it would.

 

more connectors than necessary....doing that would add more resistance than using crimp caps, butt connectors. or soldering...nothing noticeable though. Also doing that takes longer than soldering

edited for grammer lol