Outer Limits 4x4 Board

hey all im building a comp truck an i want to water proof all my wiring as ill be re wiring most of it anyway any suggestions on water proof products ideas? cheers

Wiring is pretty waterproof from the factory - It's one of the advantages of 12 volts - it will cope with water.

If you are really worried, up grade the connectors to GM weatherpak or equivalent. You can buy these from most parts places - Narva make versions they are quite good.

if you want to avoid connector problems though, solder everything, don't rely on a crimp connection.

Steve.

yea if you want to be real shmick with it solder everything possible then use a glue heat shrink that shit is the bomb and totally waterproof, can be hard to find it in smaller sizes tho, and make silicon your friend

Gwagensteve wrote:Wiring is pretty waterproof from the factory - It's one of the advantages of 12 volts - it will cope with water.

If you are really worried, up grade the connectors to GM weatherpak or equivalent. You can buy these from most parts places - Narva make versions they are quite good.

if you want to avoid connector problems though, solder everything, don't rely on a crimp connection.

Steve.

X2

Actually, a properly done crimp will be more reliable than a soldered joint.

Have a look over all your factory connections - they're crimped. Crimped connections are less likely to fail in high vibration environments. When you do a solder connection the solder will "wick" up the cable and this makes it brittle and susceptible to breaking from vibrations.

Aircraft wiring is crimped for this reason (I work on aircraft electricals/ electronics.)

The main issue with crimp connections is very few people spend the money and buy the proper crimping tool- and that's why the connection will fail.

do what i do. crimp and then solder

brendan_h wrote:do what i do. crimp and then solder

I do
never had a joint fail yet

that heat shrink with the glue is called resin sore u can get it from all electrical wholesalers in heaps of sizes

brendan_h wrote:do what i do. crimp and then solder

Then you're running the risk of the wire breaking from vibration fatigue as I mentioned earlier. There is no need to solder a properly crimped terminal.

Murcod, do you have any leads on where to get a hex crimping tool? I've been looking for ages and haven't been able to find one.

I am fairly retarded though.

v840 wrote:Murcod, do you have any leads on where to get a hex crimping tool? I've been looking for ages and haven't been able to find one.

I am fairly retarded though.

Any electrical wholesaler, AWM ,Middys L+H Auslec

What sort of crimps are you trying to do?

I bought a hydraulic hex crimping tool off Ebay recently that does a decent job- it was around $80 delivered (something like 8 tonne crimping pressure and 6mm2 to 70mm2 capacity.)

Jaycar also sell a crimping tool that has changeable jaw inserts. That's good for the non insulated terminals that you get in most auto plugs. You can also buy the jaws to suit the pre insulated (ie. red, blue, yellow) crimps terminals, plus various other styles of jaws.

I just modified loom for fitting G16B into sierra, and i just soldiered all the joints then used the heatshrink lined with hot melt glue that you can get from Jaycar (when the stupid bastards actually stock it that is), but as others have already said, it can vibrate the wire in half, but that wont be a problem if you secure everything properly. Dont just run a wire and leave it, make sure its both shielded (with conduit, electrical tape, external shielding provided with multicore wire, etc) and secured in many places so the wire cant actually move much or rub on anything.
Also be aware when running wiring from body to engine to leave a fair bit of slack. This allows for engine torquing/moving, and try not to have a soldier joint in the slack area.
Another thing to think about is that if youre running efi, where to put computer as far from water levels as possible, and when running wire to the computer, is to try and have the plugs on the bottom if possible and have the wiring loop down past computer, then back up to plugs. This helps any water that happens to get in down the loom say from the firewall grommet to drip off at lowest point in looped wiring, instead of flowing into the computer.

Look in 4wd monthly mag for an ad on a product called "plastidip" it's a paintable plastic coating that looks like it could come in handy, I considered this for making mine water proof. I want going to seal up the dizzy cap etc with it as it looks like it'll do the job but is easy enough to peal off when needed.

plasti dip rocks. When I had a stock dash I thinned some down and sprayed a few coats up under the dash. No more dramas once the dash is under. My sparky was not so enthusiastic once every wire, every conection and every component was blue.

I cannot stress this enough.

DI-ELECTRIC grease. water proof, non conductive, no corosove and self healing. You pull it apart and put it back together it reseals itslef, as it also excludeds air and moisture it stops corrosion forming and creating high resistance joints.

That'd be the stuff Daihatsu filled the engine bay fuse/ relay box with on my old Feroza.

Where can you buy it from?

I think 4wd megastores might stock it (tjm)

murcod wrote:That'd be the stuff Daihatsu filled the engine bay fuse/ relay box with on my old Feroza.

Where can you buy it from?

Maybe Jacar, but forklift spare parts retailers like EMC or TVH should stock it as most if not all cold storage electric forks have all they're major electrical components covered in this stuff. I'd highly recommend it.