Seek bullet connector assembly tutorial

[robertbarr]

... or a link to a video, perhaps. Otherwise, I'll pester Jim from Eastern Beaver.

I bought a set of male & female bullet connectors from them, shown on this page:

Photo in the top right of the web page. See the 4mm connector, male & female? The function of the clear soft sheath in the upper left of the photo is obvious. What the heck does the smaller one do, the one placed above the male connector?

I received a set of 10 male & 10 female, and both male & female include 10 of those little plastic things, bullet-shaped. Where do those little guys go? I need to learn how to assemble these.

I also need to learn how to crimp properly, but I'm still waiting on my Harbor Freight goodies to arrive.

Does anyone have a link to a tutorial? I've looked at about 15 on Youtube, and none of them do me any good. Google mainly provides sources to purchase from.

[tkent02]

They go on the male side behind the connector, to seal the hole after it's connected.

[cowboyup3371]

What Tom said, they act the same as the female side. Have you picked up your crimper yet? The one I mentioned before from Vintage Connections comes with decent instructions and it's not that hard. I'll see if I can find mine tomorrow and try to take a picture for you.

[robertbarr]

What Tom said, they act the same as the female side. Have you picked up your crimper yet? The one I mentioned before from Vintage Connections comes with decent instructions and it's not that hard. I'll see if I can find mine tomorrow and try to take a picture for you.

Well, that makes sense. Sort of a bottle stopper function.

In a moment of cheapskate weakness I ordered the low-$$ crimp tool from Harbor Freight about 10 days ago and it hasn't shown up yet, so just this minute -- after reading your reply -- I jumped over to Vintage Connections and ordered that tool. Once it arrives, I guess the education continues. I want to be able to create rock-solid permanent connections every single time, so I suppose it was money well spent.

Besides that, I'm not convinced that HF tool does the folding function, which is half the fun...

[cowboyup3371]

I'm sorry I took so long but here's a few pictures for you.

My crimper and the female bullet terminal



I found it's easier to place the terminal in first and clamp down with SLIGHT pressure - just enough to hold it but not to actually clamp it:



There are two small slots inside the crimp area - the rear or where you're looking at in the picture above is for the larger section of the terminal. Try to place it as far forward as possible without pulling it all the way through



Crimp down but only enough to hold it slightly.



Place your wire in from the left side and crimp. I have to use both hands to get a really good crimp so I'll hold the wire until I start to feel it crimp down and then use both hands to get it to the point where you hear the click. It's at that point the crimper will release on its own.

Now, I found a few things out by doing this. On some terminals it won't release on its own very well. I don't know why but I just push the release lever forward and I'm good. I also found out the female terminals will pull out of the slot just fine after crimping. However, I have to pull the male spade terminals out with pliers (turn the crimper over and pull up on the blade with the pliers). I don't know the reason for it and hopefully it was just bad technique on my part. Also with the male spade terminals, you'll need to straighten the two very small tabs towards the front if you don't have it pulled far enough through the tool when you crimp it. Those tabs help it slide into the regular connector.

Let me know if I confused you more or not.

Thanks

[robertbarr]

Thanks. I'm getting there.

My HF crimpers showed up, and I've concluded that there's almost nothing I can't ruin with 'em. Very versatile. Then I found this link: The references to 'butt cheeks' is the crumb of information I was looking for, and when I look very carefully at your crimper in action, I can see the shape they're talking about. Third photo down -- shows that 'w' shape. I think I have a prayer at doing this correctly!

Gracias.

[Killer2600]

Thanks. I'm getting there.

My HF crimpers showed up, and I've concluded that there's almost nothing I can't ruin with 'em. Very versatile. Then I found this link: The references to 'butt cheeks' is the crumb of information I was looking for, and when I look very carefully at your crimper in action, I can see the shape they're talking about. Third photo down -- shows that 'w' shape. I think I have a prayer at doing this correctly!

Gracias.

What item # harbor freight crimper did you pick up, I was not aware they had open barrel crimpers.

[cowboyup3371]

Probably this one?

http://www.harborfreight.com/ratcheting-crimping-tool-97420.html

[robertbarr]

I bought the one mentioned in this thread. I hadn't yet heard the term 'open barrel'...

That might explain some of the difficulty so far.

[koolaid_kid]

Open barrel means there is no insulating plastic on the connector, it is just bare metal. The HF link from cowboy shows the other kind of crimper. Red connectors are for 18-20 gauge, blue connectors 16-14 gauge, yellow for 12 gauge. Thus the colour coded places on the crimping tool. Easy mistake to make, and some crimpers allow you to switch plates so you can do both with one crimper.

[robertbarr]

AHA!


The crimper that Cowboyup recommended showed up already. Very fast service, and they included a little baggie of about a dozen ring terminals, and the baggie is hand-labeled "Practice Parts". I like their style!

Examining the die in this thing answers a lot of questions, and the instructions were thorough and helpful. The first few crimps went OK, and I'll be happily teaching myself this process this weekend. Finally!

Thanks for the suggestions!

I'll also be installing the Eastern Beaver headlight relay kit. After repairing four damaged harness sites where Scotchloks had bitten into the conductors, I gained about 0.4 volts to the headlight. Not dramatic, but it's moving in the right direction.

RB

[cowboyup3371]

Hey, I didn't get any practice thingies...I got robbed, maybe I should complain about how their customer service sucks!!!

Nah, I'll just go back to doing my work and riding the bike as that's much more fun.