Soldering some connections on an engine harness, can I use "silver bearing, electrical" wire to solder? or do I need to buy a copper one?

 

Yes silver solder will work fine.

 

awesome! is there such a thing as copper solder? i thought i saw it at home depot - you've soldered with the silver before on a harness then?

i just stripped a few wires and was about to solder - and i had to stop and stare and think for a second before i muck it all up

 

Silver solder is commonly used on electronics.

No copper containing solder.

 

Use uninsulated butt connectors and heat shrink tubing if you want to do it right. Solder makes the wire brittle and will likely break in the future. You want to use the rosin core tin/lead solder, not the silver solder.

 

Damn you, I just spent hella hours soldering my harness to come to the same realization of how brittle it is. Guess next weekend will be a long weekend crimping everything I just soldered...

 

Yeah, it's like how many soldered wires did the car come with from the factory? None? They didn't do that because it's cheap, they did it because it's more durable.

 

welllll shitttt, b/c i just soldered like 15 wires

 

I prefer soldering. Your average crimp connector doesn't came anywhere near matching the quality of the factory crimps.

 

Wire crimps can also corrode over time and break. When soldering, clean off the soldering iron with a wet paper towel, when its hot. And use high quality silver solder. Rosin core sucks ***. Use heat shrink, and 3M 33plus electrical tape.
None of my soldering work has ever broken on my car or customers cars.

 

I would agree that it takes practice and skill to do a crimp connection properly. However, if you are just splicing wires, like if you are doing a tuck, uninsulated butt connectors are about the easiest thing you can crimp and you don't need a fancy tool. The combination of a crimp connector and heat shrink tubing is immensely superior in electrical conductivity and strength to soldering and tape and looks a lot better.

Silver solder should not ever be used on an electrical connection in a car. It usually does not contain flux which is what keeps the connection clean while soldering and can lead to oxidation which will cause voltage drops. It is also too brittle and can lead to breakage.

 

Electrical silver solder should contain a rosin core, I've seen silver solder used for metal repair without. I feel as if a lead solder and shrink tube is your best neatest option. Tooany things that can go wrong with a crimp connection, including corrosion, over stressing the wire with an over crimped connector and loose inconsistent connections that are hard to locate.

I work in the electronics field that does a lot of military contracts and anything that isn't soldered uses a 300-500 crimped for that specific connector. Crimping can be done right but chances are a soldered connection is more idea and cost effective.

 

We build custom wire harnesses for cars, [hot rods] we use uninsulated crimp connectors of proper size, [do not "over crimp"] we then "fill" the connector with solder for an airtight seal, we then cover connection with liquid tape, let it set up a little and then cover with shrink tubing, the only thing better is no connection at all.

I use 60/40 resin core solder, and have for 35+ years without any problems.

As mentioned, a crimp connection can damage wiring if over crimped, it is not airtight so oxidization is always an issue, shrink tubing by itself will not make the connection airtight. 94

 

This is a good system. I think it's overkill for my climate though. We have heat shrink tubing with epoxy in it that melts and fills gaps so you don't need to use liquid tape.

This is a job I worked on recently. This is a suburban with a 1000 hp engine and every aftermarket electronic device available poorly installed by a stereo shop 4 years earlier. It was my job to rip everything out and wire it correctly. It took over 100 labor hours (@ $100/hr.). This is the 'before'.