Waterproof connectors

[Snowboy]

Wondering if I cut off some weather pack connectors from a tail lamp, both male and female ends and leave a good amount of a pig tail on them and then solder them onto my pig tails from my lights and heat shrink the weld is water going to get under the heat shrink and or will salt effect the heat shrink?

Dave.

[snonut12]

Your best bet is to get uninsulated butt crimp-ons and then dual wall heat shrink which forms sealing glue thus waterproofing it. I think that as long as you properly shrink the tube, I wouldn't expect any problem with salt, etc.

[wyldman]

Stephen pretty much nailed it.

Uninsulated butt connectors can be had at Radio Shack.

Install and lightly crimp them,just enough to temporarily hold the wire.Do not crimp tight,as it can stress the wire (leading to breakage),and it makes the next step difficult.

Solder the connector fully,and make sure any exposed wire is fully tinned.This will prevent much corrosion if the heatshrink fails\leaks.

Finally seal it up with good double wall polyoliefin heat shrink.The red stuff is best.Wurth has it in handy six packs (6 inches long).It must also be adhesive lined,or it won't seal well.

The weatherpack connectors are great.You might want to just use new ones,and crimp them right on.No splicing,and having two connections instead of one.

[Snowboy]

Thanks guys..


Weather pack connectors are hard to come by. I have gone to Napa and they dont know much about them. I saw a kit on Ebay but thats from the USA i dont wana pay postadge custom fees and broadge fee's.

Chris you got any of that heat shrink at the shop? When i bring my truck in i can buy it off ya then?

Who sells the black split wire loom by the foot Chris.

Dave..

[wyldman]

Yes,I have the good heat shrink. ;) You can pick some up next time your in for service.

Canadian Tire has the split loom in various sizes.Princess auto has it too.

[CT18fireman]

The weatherpack kits are a great investment, if you have the use for them.

Most auto parts stores are clueless about them.

If you only need a couple, go to a good truck upfitter or mechanic and convince them to sell you a couple.

[Got Grass]

Not knowing what your going to be doing exactly would using a 2 or 4 pin trailer connector work? A lot of us use them for our warning lights to easily disconnect.

[Alan]

Originally posted by Got Grass
Not knowing what your going to be doing exactly would using a 2 or 4 pin trailer connector work? A lot of us use them for our warning lights to easily disconnect.

I used to use the trailer connectors, knowing that they had a finite lifespan. I have converted to weatherpacks on new installations and am using them as replacements as the trailer connectors rot off.

I think it's Federal-Mogul, using the "Power Path" trademark that markets weatherpack housings, contacts and seals here in the US. Possibly a Canadian store might be able to order them if they already carry the Power Path line. I used to buy from them until I got onto Del City and Waytek as suppliers for electrical stuff.

www.delcity.net

www.waytekwire.com

To make up the connectors you need a crimper for "open barrel" fittings. You have to make two crimps per connector, one on the conductor and the other onto the terminal seal. There is a pricey tool for that purpose but I found a regular open barrel terminal crimper works fine, if a bit slower.

I have housings, terminals and seals on hand, housings for 1,2,3,4 & 6 conductors along with pins and seals for 14-6 & 18-20 guage wire. I can put what you need in an envelope and send them to you.

You can raid junkyard housings and pop the terminals out, there is a special tool required, which costs about $5, to remove the terminals. The housings are re-usable and those are the biggest part to send. If it was just the innards we could probably slip them right through customs as a regular letter.

[Snowboy]

Thanks Alan for the offer. I will see what i can find here and how many lights im gona put on. Hope to get this stuff on soon so i can work outside in the driway while its still reasonable warm out.

How many parts are there to the weather pack.. terminal then a plasctic shield and then the houseing to which 2, 3 or 4 of the metal jackets sit in?

If someone had a good pic of how one of those goes togther and what the tools look like that would be great.


In the mean time I will avoid UAP NAPA and look for the moog stuff.. Keep ya posted Alan.

Dave.

[Alan]

Dave,

Send me your snail mail address and I'll get some information out to you. I've got an old Del City catalog that I was going to throw out, I'll cut out the pages dealing with weatherpacks and put them in an envelope. They have pretty good illustrations of the terminals and seals and a brief explanation of how to assemble them.

Here's what an open barrel crimper looks like. They make a dedicated w'pack tool but it's around $150 US. For occasional use I got this crimper and make two crimps, one with the appropriate jaw for the wire size and a second with the biggest jaw to crimp the connector to the seal.

[Alan]

The parts. Each connector half uses the appropriate housing for the number of connectors. Then there is a terminal and a seal for each wire. Crimp the terminals to wire and seal and push the assembly into the housing until it snaps in place.

The longer green thing is a plug for sealing unused holes in a housing.

The screwdriver looking gadget is the terminal removal tool. It is just a hollow shaft that slips over the terminals and presses the locking ears in. To use it you open the back of the housing and slip the tool over the contact, twist and push and the contact/wire will be forced out the back of the housing. In my experience there is no other way to dismantle a w'pack without destroying the housing.

[Alan]

You can see the wings that retain the connector inside the housing. They are right at the tip of the removal tool.

There is another type of tool made by Lisle (sp) that has the right tip for w'pack as well as most other styles of factory connectors. It's a green hex shaped disc with a different set of widgets on each flat of the hex, each one has an application on some type of snapped together terminal system. Mine is out on loan right now so I couldn't get a picture of it

[Snowboy]

Thanks Alan for the pics. I have a better understanding of how it works and i see sorta why the Napa nobs didnt want to help me.

Dave..

[Alan]

Here's a link to the Lisle terminal tool.

http://www.lislecorp.com/tool_detail.cfm?detail=95

I just found a second one on the Lisle site, I think this is the one I have.

http://www.lislecorp.com/tool_detail.cfm?detail=969

[Alan]

Dave, here's a potential source for w'pack components. He seems to have the housings in most flavors but only has terminals and seals for 18-20 ga. Prices aren't bad for only a couple connectors. I'm going to get some Series 56 stuff from him, I don't use those very often and don't want to have to buy big quantities.

http://search.stores.ebay.com/ws/search/StoreItemSearch?catref=C2&coaction=compare&coentrypage=search&copagenum=1&from=R10&satitle=delphi+packard&sbrexp=WD1S&sif=1&socolumnlayout=3&sofp=4&ssPageName=WD1S

[Snowboy]

Thanks Alan.

I went to a scrap yard this week to see what i could find and i came up empty handed. No trucks to be found of the GM nature. I looked on Chevy cars there as well as Saturns anything of the GM Chev nature nada..

I might go with Chris's idea of useing the butt connectors solder the wire's in then use the plactic looking heat shrink.

Need to find a canadian source i will try Traction the heavy duty truck division of UAP/NAPA.

Thanks for the help.


Dave.