Best way to join electrical wiring?

Ok,

So for some reason the main loom of my 90 was cut near the rear cross member, probably to do the cross member in the first place.

Now, while wiring up my rear lights etc after i removed the tub for welding, the lights and indicators started playing up big time. I've traced the faults back to were the loom was cut and joined. Each cable was joined with the standard crimp part, the wee blue ones, and the water has got in and rotted them out!

What is the best way for me to tidy this up? I was thinking that some sort of a waterproof connector would do the job smartly but what would you guys do?

heatshrink tubing and solder... perfect slim joints

lerk said:

heatshrink tubing and solder... perfect slim joints

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that go hard and crack when flexed causing high resistance

G-man said:

that go hard and crack when flexed causing high resistance

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Hopefully shouldn't be any flexing to the loom under there

I would tend to agree with LERK. Get urself a gas soldering iron and some heat shrink and solder it one by one. The solder you can get get is self cleaning with added flux, when it gets hot the flux melts at the same time and cleans the wires your soldering.

The strongest part of a soldered joint is the solder itself, the wires are still prone to breaking either side of it so what is the answer? Needs to be strong and flexible. Answer is no joints then no problems, rewire the lot

you need to join the wires without heating them as the wire goes brittle when you heat it (more specifically when it cools) hence the reason most car manufacturers won't use soldiered joints and will void the cars warranty if the loom isn't repaired to their guidelines ( i know it doesn't apply here i'm just saying) the best connections are heatshrink crimp connectors where you crimp then use a heat gun to shrink it

soldering is ok if done properly and use adhesive lined heatshrink well past the solder joints coz it seals the joint and stiffens the wire, thereby removing the stress build up at the solder/wire interface.

The Mad Hat Man said:

soldering is ok if done properly and use adhesive lined heatshrink well past the solder joints coz it seals the joint and stiffens the wire, thereby removing the stress build up at the solder/wire interface.

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What he said Had to do some remedial work today myself, as I found a collection of Scotch-blocks behind one of my headlamps.

Cheers for the replys guys, heat shrink and soldering iron it is then. I'll be able to wrap some tape along the finshed repairs and make it look nice again, rather than having all those crimp blocks hanging out of it