Topic: Bullet connetors backing out?

[scartail]

I was stranded on a 90F+ day, with high huminity (So. Florida), pushing a 500 lb bike out of traffic. 30+ year old bike, I know. My brand new battery had ran out of juice.

Anyhow, I traced the problem down to the field coil connection. They had backed out during the ride some how.

Anyone know how I can prevent this?
Since this event, I clamped down on the female ends, and wrapped the joint with electrical tape. Anything else I can do? I don't want to cut the leads, and solder/crimp something new in. I may end up having to do this,  but some of you may have better ideas.

Thanks.

[HavocTurbo]

Sounds kinda stupid but....

I put dielectric grease in mine and they stopped coming apart.

I tried everything short of zip tying them together under tension.

That seemed to work for me.

[mystic_1]

Since this event, I clamped down on the female ends

That's the thing to do.  If you scrutinize the design you can make out how the retention feature works, there's a depression on the side of hte male end of the connector, and the female sockets have bumps that sit in these depressions. After time and/or repeated connecting/disconnecting the female socket spreads a little and the male end tends to want to fall out.  Squeezing the socket back closed works fine until or unless the female end cracks or becomes too corroded to clean.

mystic_1

[HavocTurbo]

*snip
...unless the female end cracks or becomes too corroded to clean.

mystic_1

That's what I was up against. Short of replacing all of mine with new (I wanted to ride) I tried to crimp them as best as I could. In the end the grease absorbed enough vibration that they stopped backing out.

[TwoTired]

You have only delayed the inevitable.  Retention is only one aspect of the connector.  It's primary purpose is electrical conductivity which improves with contact pressure.  Dielectric grease is NOT an electrical conductor.  Its purpose is to keep the contacts from oxidizing.
If you are not going to replace the broken/cracked contacts, then solder them, assuming you desire some sort of reliability.

Cheers,

[HavocTurbo]

The point for me is moot TT. Mine is in boxes awaiting 2 other projects to finish. I threw the sad excuse for a wiring harness away 3 years ago. I just remember what needed to be done to get it to the end of the season.

[HondaMan]

Go to www.vintageconnections.com, spend $3 for the connector and $30 for the crimper, all fixed! 

[mystic_1]

While you're in there with your needlenose pliers squeezing things together and hopefully not crushing them, you should be cleaning the connector components until they're shiny.  If you can't do that, replace them.  When I first got my bike they'd all gone to a nice dark patina that is considered attractive on antique brass and bronze relics and such but not so much in a wiring harness.  I ended up replacing most or all of them at the same time I rebuilt the rest of the harness to eliminate PO splices, broken wires, one bad solder joint inside the harness, and several melted connectors.  Did it all at once with bits of junk harness from the wreckers, no wiring problems since.  Total cost was around $15 IIRC for the junk harnesses and such.

But if I were doing it today I'd spring for new connectors.  Back when I did this the intraweb was not what it is today.

mystic_1