Hey Iowa, I just used crimp-on blue butt splices and shrink tubing. Works great. Been using them for 25 years. Never had a problem.


Uh Oh I just found out that shrink tubing is made in more colors, crap, now I'm gonna have to change all my black out with green. Please make it stop.

 

Oh and if you can buy one of these. The ones that come with 1001 connectors should be tossed, you can never get the crimping power as one of these. Klein also makes good ones like the T&B as well as Ideal, you can usually find them at Home Depot or Lowe's. You will never be disappointed in the quality. The last ones you will ever buy.

 

Your local auto parts place has shrink tubing as well as Ace hardware and True Value. I'm not sure what places you have where you live, but it should be easy to find. Later man.

 

I'd recommend solder covered by heat shrink. Can't get much better than that. Cut about 1/2 inch of insulation away from the end. Pre-solder up both ends good. Put enough heat shrink over one wire to cover the splice but slide it down out of the way. Hold the ends together end to end overlapping, and with your third hand heat them together with the soldering iron until they melt thoroughly together. Let it cool a bit, then slide the heat shrink over and use a hot air gun to shrink it.

You can get heat shrink from radio shack and I think even most auto parts stores have it, like Autozone, etc.

 

I soldered mine with heat shrink because there is a connection for them under the seat for removal later if necessary.

 

Eventually you WILL have a problem, so I think you should plan on soldering them sooner rather than later. That's my opinion, anyway.

 

Dude, I've been using butt splice connectors since the late 70's and have never had any problems. Years later they still look good, and with the invention of shrink tubing their lifespan just went waaaaaaaaaay up. I'm just saying.

 

Oops, sorry, maybe its my bad.

After Nobrakes explaination, it sounded like he was just going to splice (i.e. twist) the wires without the butt connector or soldering, and then solder if he had problems later on. [:'(]

Yeah, I thinkcrimped onconnectors are fine, too. I got no problems with that approach ... I always appreciate a good butt!!!

And shrinkage is good, too ... as long as its tubing that we're talking about!