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If you have ever undertaken a D.I.Y. project on your 4WD then you have probably had to connect, terminate or splice some wiring at some stage, if you’ve bought a dual battery setup, a set of LED Driving Lights, or even a DC-DC charger mounted to a 12V Control Box you have probably needed to join a wire or two, to either a terminal or another wire. If you’ve ever bought a second hand vehicle which someone else got their grubby mitts on, you may have even found a bit of dodgy wiring fixes such as the old “twist and tape”, “Scotch locks” and even crimp together terminals that are squished onto the wires completing the circuit.

Have no fear, there are many who have succumbed to the temptations of less than adequate wiring connections, but we are here to show you just how to correctly fasten two conductors together using solder for secure and strong joins which will give the best connection, and trouble free operation for years to come.

Soldering is a skill that everyone should know, while it seems tricky, once you have a hand on the basics you will have no problems fastening all your connections!

CHOOSING A SOLDERING IRON

Because this is a tool that is used in many industries from aviation to electrician, and just about everything in between, there is almost an infinite supply of differently designed soldering irons, that will get the job done.

If you are new to this the most expensive units are not necessary, and really come into their own with day to day use and during complex and intricate work that requires the expensive features found in the top of the line units. With that being said the cheapest soldering tools out there may not provide enough heat to get the job done, so an affordable mid-range unit is a good way to get into joining wires like a pro, by doing a bit of research into what makes an iron good you will walk away with a better understanding of what you are buying.

There are many choices between 240V units for use at home, 12v units for use in the bush or on the road, and even gas units for use when you cant run a cable to where you are working. These different devices offer a range of features like temperature control and even higher or lower heat outputs, usually defined as wattage.

In our opinion a 240V 60W soldering iron is the perfect allrounder, ideal for use on home jobs, automotive applications and other 12v setups and couples up greatly with a 1mm thick 60/40 – tin/lead solder with a flux core – this will melt at a much lower temperature than a thicker diameter solder wire and with great properties for learning how to solder.

STARTING OUT

First thing is first, inspect the condition of your soldering iron, if you are borrowing one, older less cared for units can accumulate a coating of oxidized lead and burned up resin core, this makes heating wires very difficult, by running a file over your soldering iron you can clean up any burs and make sure you are starting with a bright shiny surface. With the iron ready to start using it is recommended that you open up the windows and turn on a fan, this will allow the area to be well ventilated, because we are using lead and resins, we should take as many precautions as possible to prevent breathing in fumes from the soldering process.

Warm up and Tinning

Begin by heating up your soldering iron, this will bring it up to the correct temperature to not only melt your solder but also to begin joining wires. Before you do anything with wires, you need to make sure your iron has a liberal coating of solder on the tip, this is called tinning. Tinning does a handful of different things, when you heat up the tip of your soldering iron the heat changes the metals chemistry, and in very short order can oxidize or corrode the end resulting in far shorter service life.

Additionally, when a soldering iron tip is tinned (or wet) it makes melting solder much easier and quicker meaning you are less likely to melt your wiring insulation and allows solder to flow much easier into the wires strands and create the perfect electrical connection.

 

Solder on

Despite what your buddy told you solder doesn’t connect the wires, rather it makes sure the mechanical bond you have given the wires is coated with a high conductivity metal providing the best possible electrical connection and resistance to loosening with vibration, makes soldering one of the best ways to connect wires together.

PIGS TAIL/RATS TAIL
The most common, way that people join 2 wires together, is to simply strip the insulation off both wires run them parallel grip both strands of copper and twist them together just like a pigs tail.

TWIST JOINT

The twist joint, this is similar to the pigs tail, except you orient the two wires facing one another and twist the strands together like a bit of rope. If you overlap the copper wires, with quite a bit of excess copper, by bending the wires at perpendiculars and hooking them together, you now have a secure anchoring point. The excess tails then need to be twisted around the opposing wires creating a copper wire knot like a fishermans knot.

MESH SPLICE

Whilst the twist methods are good, they aren’t as mechanically strong, start your bond like the twist join. Except instead of two equal lengths of copper exposed, have one side of the exposed wires measuring around 10mm and the other twice as long measuring 20mm. On the 20mm side pull out 2 or three of the individual wire strands and separate them from the rest of the wires, you can now cut the remaining strands to be equal in length to the other side.

This is where the name comes from, mesh the two wire bundles together evenly and then wrap the longer loose wires around the meshed bundles firmly to secure the copper wires together.

We are now ready to solder!

 

MELTING!

Depending on the join you may need to pre tin the wires to begin the join, this pre-tinning allows the solder to flow into the joint easier by preimpregnating the wires, this means the actual joining process is much quicker and easier.

Once your iron is up to temp hold it against your wire to heat the wire up to the appropriate temp, once the wire is hot enough dab your solder (lead/tin) onto the warm wire, it should melt like butter on hot toast, with a good even coating of solder on both pieces of wire (don’t glob it on too thick) you are now ready to join the two wires together, simply align the two wires, wrap an individual strand of copper wire around the two, and then heat them both together and feed in a small amount of solder, it should fill in the gaps and make sure the join is nice and strong.

Finally, you have heat shrink tubing, this is available in many sizes and simply slides over the wire (before you begin soldering) cut a piece that is double the length of the final join, this way it will overlap the insulation on the wires and seal the join from water ingress which can cause corrosion and fatigue over time.

With the heat shrink slid into place, all you have to do is warm it up with a cig lighter or a mini blowtorch, this will make it tightly wrap your electrical join and prevent it from coming loose.



If you want to learn more about the best way to upgrade your 4WD with top shelf gear for affordable prices head to www.4WDSupacentre.com.au call us on 1800 88 39 64 or visit one of our showrooms to see the gear in person and ask one of our professional team for the best tips and tricks for your next upgrade!