When I was installing the new Advance Auto WIre harness in TS 68368, I too had
difficulty keeping good contact between terminals and the tip of the Weller
gun. I found a small, gas pencil torch at the local Home Despot which provides
almost instant heat, and more importantly, doesn't require direct contact with
the parts being soldered. Made the task much faster and easier.
John
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Original Message
From: Dave1massey at cs.com
To: triumphs at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [TR] soldering
In a message dated 3/3/2012 10:00:42 PM Central Standard Time,
nafzigerg at yahoo.com writes:
> Do I need a larger soldering iron or do I need
> different solder? Is there a solder specifically for electrical
> connections
> in cars that has a lower melting point?
>
You have received a couple of well informed replies already but let me add
my technique to the list.
The secret to soldering is to get the parts hot enough to melt the solder.
I apply a small ammount of solder to the tip of the soldering gun/iron as
this will greatly improve heat transfer. Then I heat the bullet since this
is the largets mass. I then apply the solder to the bullet. When it gets
hot enough the solder will begin to melt and I feed the solder in to make the
joint. With that ammount of heat and the bullet hot enough the wire will
quickly heat up enough to take up the solder and the joint will be a solid
one.
I just made a dozen or so of these joints last weekend on my TR3 and the
biggest problem I had was caffine related. Trying to hold the soldering gun
sdeady for the 30 seconds or so on a bullet ballanced precariously on the end
of a small, wavering wire while trying to apply solder with the other
required much concentration for this old man.
It ain't easy and I have quite a bit of experience in electrical soldering.
Dave
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