To rewire, or to leave alone?

[billknny]

It depends...

Where are you going? If you are a local day sailor leave it alone. A failure isn't really all that critical.

If you are crossing oceans and going to remote locations, that's different. I'd not take a boat offshore if the wiring wasn't done neatly, and clearly labeled. When it comes time to trouble shoot it (and that time WILL come) having to trace every damn wire just to figure out what it does is a fools errand. Doing this "under fire" is not helpful.

My standard is simple. Every wire is labeled at each end, AND every time it goes though a bulkhead, or conduit. It avoids that silly game of tugging on a wire, and having to ask, "Is this it?" "No." "How about this one?" "No"

When it comes to the perennial discussion of solder/crimp I come down firmly in the side of crimp. I have seen wires fail at the "hard spot" at the end of the solder connection. Granted, these were in a high vibration location on an engine, but don't tell me it "never happens". The bigger danger however, is with a high-resistance connection which gets hot. The solder melts and the connection then breaks leaving a hot (thermally and electrically) wire floating around to cause all kinds of trouble.

Properly done crimped connections--sealed as required--are forever. Improperly done crimped connections are as bad as improperly done solder connections--terrible and dangerous. Connections that are allowed to get wet and corrode are going to fail--no matter how they are made.

If I was buying a boat and I liked it but the power supply wiring was extensively soldered, I would deduct the cost of rewiring from what I was willing to pay. Take it or leave it.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by billknny

When it comes to the perennial discussion of solder/crimp I come down firmly in the side of crimp.

I agree.

I grew up with soldering. At one time in my life I was space-qualified for soldering and ESD. I lived through the transition to wire wrap and then to crimps. There are still some things that soldering is still the best solution for. RF connections. Jewelry. Stained glass. Printed circuit boards (although hand soldering SMD is really hard).

For wires crimp is the way to go. Too bad white/clear crimps for really small wires is so hard to come by. Try harder.

[Frode]

Originally Posted by sdj

Without stress-relief, it point-loads the wire at the soldered joint

A properly soldered joint does not point-load the wire. Properly made, all forces are pure tension, distributed along the entire length of the soldered connection. There are no shear forces in this joint.

A crimped connection, however, has either single or double point-loading depending on crimper and/or crimping technique used.

Anyone truly interested in finding the strongest way to butt-join two wires can perform a simple experiment. Set up the various scenarios: Soldered joint, crimped butt connector, crimped ring connectors attached to terminal block. Now, pull on the end, while measuring the tension, until something gives.

What's the joining technique that will result in the wire breaking outside of the joint, and not within the joint itself, every time? Please come back and share your experience.

Want a deeper dive? Try variations of the soldered joint: straight overlapping, twisted, lineman/NASA/Western Union. Note tension required to break the wire compared with other joint techniques.

Also, while it's fine to have people share their opinions, it's experience and facts that should form the basis for knowledge.

[john61ct]

Solder connections **can** be just as good as crimped.

But it takes skills, training aptitude and practice. Some never get good enough.

Where with crimping, just a matter of buying quality supplies and the right tools, uniformly good, consistently repeatable results by anyone with minimal training.