Trying to solder

[bigrank916 72]

So Ive bought and returned every solder gun in home depot and none of them work for what Im doing. I want to solder the ring terminals to my 0/1 wire but the guns dont heat it up enough. Where do i get a decent solder gun for doing 0/1 wire and how many watts should it be? The highest I found at home depot was 75. Two weekends in a row now its starting to get frickin annoying. Any ideas?

[inkfx 3]

Are you using any solder wire or are you just trying to melt the 1/0?

[bigrank916 72]

Are you using any solder wire or are you just trying to melt the 1/0?

Funny but yes Im using solder. The wire wont get hot enough to melt the solder.

[mwerling1212 1]

get a torch. i bought a weller 100 watt soldering iron for 20 bucks and it took way to long to melt the solder and "soak" in. torches work better i think.

[bigrank916 72]

get a torch. i bought a weller 100 watt soldering iron for 20 bucks and it took way to long to melt the solder and "soak" in. torches work better i think.

I thought about that but i didnt want the jacket on the wire to melt. I figured it would be the only way to do it but I wanted to see if someone had another way of doing it. Maybe Im just being too careful and a bit scurred of ruining my chit. Does everybody use a torch?

[mwerling1212 1]

i couldnt seem to get the solder to melt to the ring terminals when i first tried soldering. someone told me that you just have to hold the soldering iron on the 1/0, then let the solder melt into the 1/0, and that worked for me. I torched some of mine also. you just have to be careful you dont burn the jacket when you torch it. the torch will also melt the solder immediately, so make sure you put the solder on the 1/0 first. i figured that out the hard way and burnt myself. lol.

[Lancer_Lot02 0]

Use a Torch, Even Walmart carries a 2 piece kit for around 15 bucks.

And If you want to avoid melting the jacket, drill a Hole in the ring terminal on the side of the ring, so the solder melts and falls down into the wire. Make sure you leave the Jacket side down so Gravity does it's job pulling the solder down.

[shizzzon 461]

make sure the wire is plenty long for this. If it isnt long enough to each the other end of the terminal, u might wanna use as much silver in the solder as possible to get good conductivity.

Anyways, you do hold the iron to the point of contact. This lets the iron heat up the point(terminal). You then brush the solder slowly over the terminal\wire and it will immediately melt in place.

If your problem is when it melts it doesnt stay, u only need to hold the iron in place for a couple seconds at a time. holding it there will damage the terminal.

Also, if it flowed on the wire but didnt stay after the iron was removed, you will need flux but at this point.... i'd just get a vice.

[RobClay 20]

As someone else said, get a torch and put the flame on the back of the terminal and feed the solder on the opposite side.

Should run down in the terminal and leave a nice puddle. And for a better connection you could also put the flame down there by

the wire jacket on the very bottom of the terminal and all the solder should go through the whole terminal, then put a puddle on top for the hell of it.

[inkfx 3]

Are you using any solder wire or are you just trying to melt the 1/0?

Funny but yes Im using solder. The wire wont get hot enough to melt the solder.

Sorry wasn't tryin to be a douche. You just never know these days. lol. But ya try a torch like others have said. That should definitely do it.

[bigrank916 72]

Are you using any solder wire or are you just trying to melt the 1/0?

Funny but yes Im using solder. The wire wont get hot enough to melt the solder.

Sorry wasn't tryin to be a douche. You just never know these days. lol. But ya try a torch like others have said. That should definitely do it.

ya i know u were just askin cause u never know what people might do. It did give me a laugh though. So I guess I'll try my torch and use some of these techniques u guys talked about. Thanks for the replies fellas and I'll let u know how it goes.

[bigrank916 72]

Well I got 2 outta 3 so far last weekend. I did get a torch and it works pretty well too. I just couldnt seem to get a lot of solder to run down into the ring terminal though. So I got as much down there as I could, then soldered around the outside where they meet.

One more to go and it is the batt pos to the alt pos. Im going to install my new alt and belt this weekend also. I hope to get my new dig cam in the mail by this weekend so...finally some pics of the install and current system.

[Duran 387]

You should crimp it too.

[bigrank916 72]

You should crimp it too.

There was only one ring terminal I didnt crimp. I had already soldered it up before I realized it wasnt crimped. Thats what I get for going to fast.

[Duran 387]

You should crimp it too.

There was only one ring terminal I didnt crimp. I had already soldered it up before I realized it wasnt crimped. Thats what I get for going to fast.

The connection is weaker, 1/0 is hard to get totally soldered.

[bigrank916 72]

You should crimp it too.

There was only one ring terminal I didnt crimp. I had already soldered it up before I realized it wasnt crimped. Thats what I get for going to fast.

The connection is weaker, 1/0 is hard to get totally soldered.

I was afraid of that. If it makes any difference it was on a ground. Ya, it was kinda pissin me off. That combined with the norcal heat...it was beer thirty!

[Duran 387]

You should crimp it too.

There was only one ring terminal I didnt crimp. I had already soldered it up before I realized it wasnt crimped. Thats what I get for going to fast.

The connection is weaker, 1/0 is hard to get totally soldered.

I was afraid of that. If it makes any difference it was on a ground. Ya, it was kinda pissin me off. That combined with the norcal heat...it was beer thirty!

Ouch that makes it worse. You can never have too much ground.

[latorgator 0]

I originally started dueing this after I read it on www.*****.com in one of his build logs...

I never crimp any of my connections anymore just solder, What I due is put the ring terminal on the 0/1 guage wire, I then heat up the top of the ring terminal (top of hole were bolt goes through) I usually let it heat up about 3 or 4 minutes. I then take my solder and push it down on top of the wire slowly (after a few minutes of heating up terminal with torch it makes the copper strands hot enough) The solder then is basically sucked into the wire and it will make a very solid connection in the end, alot stronger than crimping (also it looks a hell of alot better)

I will try to find meades log on it and due some link for ya

[Duran 387]

I originally started dueing this after I read it on www.stevemeadedesigns.com in one of his build logs...

I never crimp any of my connections anymore just solder, What I due is put the ring terminal on the 0/1 guage wire, I then heat up the top of the ring terminal (top of hole were bolt goes through) I usually let it heat up about 3 or 4 minutes. I then take my solder and push it down on top of the wire slowly (after a few minutes of heating up terminal with torch it makes the copper strands hot enough) The solder then is basically sucked into the wire and it will make a very solid connection in the end, alot stronger than crimping (also it looks a hell of alot better)

I will try to find meades log on it and due some link for ya

I'm talking about soldering and crimping.

[bigrank916 72]

I finished the big 3 this weekend and all went well. The soldering went well and the wires look better than I thought they would. I ended up welding 2 new bolts to my frame under the hood so the ground is very accessable. The batt pos to the alt pos worked out well and looks the best of the 3 if you ask me. Still waiting for my new dig cam as it didnt arrive when I thought it would so i dont have the pics yet. Cant tell you how much it helped though cause I installed my new alt from mechman as well. What I can tell you is that my stock voltage meter on the dash doesnt go below 14 anymore.