Check your connectors!!!

[tkent02]

Silver colored spade terminals are typically brass with a tin or lead-tin outer coating. Tin alloyed with lead used to be standard plating (and still standard for high reliability type connections such as used in aerospace and medical equipment) but pure tin has become the defacto standard these days since lead is being phased out.

Whatever it is it seems to work fine and last a long time.
Aren't the female halves of spade connectors made of some form of steel??

[J_C]

Thanks so much for the explanation!!

I know what you're saying about what was available. I kept looking to find some connectors with waterproofing material on them like basscliff's, but I couldn't find any. What's a good alternative? Electrical tape?

[Nessism]

Whatever it is it seems to work fine and last a long time.
Aren't the female halves of spade connectors made of some form of steel??

I'm almost certain they are either tin/tin-lead plated brass/copper or aluminum.

[tkent02]

Thanks so much for the explanation!!

I know what you're saying about what was available. I kept looking to find some connectors with waterproofing material on them like basscliff's, but I couldn't find any. What's a good alternative? Electrical tape?

I like to use uninsulated connectors, and use heat shrink tubing to insulate/waterproof them. I put a small tube over each crimp, push the two halves together and use a bigger piece of shrink around the fat part of the connector.

On connectors that must be disconnected occasionally I put the larger shrink only up to the end of the female half, on the ones that will only stay connected I put it out 3/16" or so past both ends of the sliding part.

Electrical tape is fair if you get the good stuff, not as reliable as shrink.

[J_C]

Gotcha, thanks!

[duaneage]

Interestingly, it has a Suzuki rectifier and a Mitsubishi regulator. WTF?

This is a call for a Honda RR Kit.
(shameless plug alert)

[tkent02]

This is a call for a Honda RR Kit.
(shameless plug alert)

But it works perfectly!
And I have an entire bag of rectifiers, regulators and RR units!
twenty or so of them from a lot on ebay..
When they are all used up I will get back with you.

[PAULYBOY]

Speaking of connectors, for those that are wiring and using permanent connectors, Mercedes is using a butt type connector that has a ball of solder in the middle. The body is made of a shrinking type plastic, heat activated of course, so when you mate the 2 wires inside and heat it, it solders them together and shrinks itself around these all in one step. The techs here love these for wiring repair in headlight circuits as well as other types. They look like they come in the same gauges that the blue, yellow and red butt connectors would handle.

[scottp8113]

any idea where to find them other than doing some favors for a mercedes mechanic?

[Nessism]

any idea where to find them other than doing some favors for a mercedes mechanic?

NAPA sells connectors like that. They are killer expensive but very nice.

[scottp8113]

will definitely have to check that out when i go to do the inspection of the wiring this weekend... never actually hoped to have to fix wiring before...

[tkent02]

will definitely have to check that out when i go to do the inspection of the wiring this weekend... never actually hoped to have to fix wiring before...

We tries them at an avionics shop I worked at a long time ago, they quite often didn't work, not a good electrical connection. We quit using them, too unreliable.

Maybe they are better now.

[jknappsax]

I hardwired all the connections for the R/R

I prefer this to connectors; way more reliable, and not to difficult to disconnect if you ever need to. I wired all three phases this way, then made direct positive and negative connections to the battery. I coated the soldered connections with dielectric grease (heat sink compound) and used shrinktubing over that; waterproof and reliable. Or you could use marine shrinktubing, which has a waterproof adhesive inside that bonds waterproof when you shrink it. There are also some electrical tapes that are self-sealing i.e. they bond chemically to themselves, so you can apply them over connections that you can't put a piece of heatshrink tubing over that create a waterproof bond, or use liquid electrical tape, which you paint on liberally over soldered connections. The self-sealing tape is available at most electronics supply houses, such as www.mcmelectronics.com, the marine heatshrink at places like West Marine or BoatUS. Good spade or bullet connectors are not too bad for low-current circuits, but I like the reliability of hardwired connections for charging circuits, headlights, and other high-current circuits.

Note from Frank (8/16/21)

I received an email from Emily Moore who let me know that MCM Electronics is no longer in business. Here is a link to a story explaining what happened to them. https://www.icrfq.com/blog/what-happ...ectronics.html

They mention a company named Newark. I used to order tons of parts from them in my old computer hardware days and they are still around. Check them out at https://www.newark.com/