Cautionary tale on Chinese terminals

66furys

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So, who would think that the design and mfr of wire terminals would be difficult. And, have tried to get some from Amer Auto Wire, but got a bunch from amazon from our competitors. So, they look good, have a nice shrink tube on board, so used some for my new harness work. So the other day, I am working with the engine to adjust power steer, and she just quits. Hmmm, so spark or fuel, the hunt began. It ended with a new coil with somewhat low secondary resistance, but in the end has spark, but not happy about that, yet. But, found that my coil had no power....what the heck, over. Had been fine, new wire harness, new terminal end with nice shrink wrap, looks great. So, first I re-crimped a bit, and it then conducted. So, after the other mess done, decided to replace the terminal....which I did with another Napa one. Added the shrink. So, today, took the old terminal apart, and guess what I found. Both sides of the barrel had just snapped off, and the round portion that is to crimp was in half. So, I will just dump these in the trash, and try to find more from Napa or AAW. Now what I wonder, is how many more of these did I use in my harness replace.....oh well.
 
I've found that it's a bad idea to use any type of insulated crimp terminal. On jobs that matter I now use only the unisulated terminals, crimped and soldered, then I add a bit of shrink tubing over the joint unless it's a ground connection. For connectors I bought a decent sized Weather-Pak kit. I also keep the factory style terminals on hand for repairing the stock Chrysler connectors.

Jeff
 
I agree 100% and often have pulled off the nylon and used a bare connector on this job. I had found, years ago, napa solder or crimps with shrink that I did like.....but have been harder to find. I wish I had put more solder on my terminals here. I did solder the larger wire terminals....esp 10ga......but failed on the rest. Time will tell how bad this will be, but at least I am now on alert to check the terminals and not just assume they are good and conducting.....not fun. One good thing so far is that most of the wiring in the dash, to date, has been on open face terminals for connectors. I also used a lot of just metal connectors, with shrink over them. I continue to learn.
 
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