The exhortation to “solder and shrink-wrap it” was drilled into my head as well during many of the electrical service training classes I sat through as a journeyman tech. At the time, a soldered joint was considered superior, more professional and certainly more durable than simply twisting the wires together and covering them with electrical tape or using one of the pliers-operated plastic splice connectors of the day. Much has changed since then, which is why many vehicle manufacturers recommend crimped, rather than soldered connections when it becomes necessary to make a repair to a wiring harness. Let’s look at some of the reasons for this change in policy. The first that comes to mind is electronics. Soldering takes heat, and many electronic components can be damaged by being exposed to too much of it. If your soldering takes place near an electronic component, heat sinks must be used to absorb excess heat and shield the adjacent component from damage. There are many locations where this just isn’t practical, which is why a crimped connection is preferred. In a soldered connection, the wires are stuck together by the solder. In a crimped connection, the pressure of the crimp removes the gaps between the wires and literally fuses them together. Though crimping effectively reduces the cross section of a wire by about 20%, the small resistance added amounts to an essentially unimpeded electrical flow across the crimp. With a soldered joint, there is only minimal contact between adjoining wires. Consequently, the main electrical path is through the solder, rather than the wire. The solder has more resistance than the copper wire, which means the solder joint creates a small voltage drop at that point. In large-gauge solder joints that handle high current loads, this voltage drop may create a “spark-gap” condition, where the heat generated by the solder’s resistance could be enough to melt the surrounding insulation and set it aflame. The heat of soldering also causes wire embrittlement, strand fatigue and corrosion. Wires tend to flex near soldered joints, increasing the chance of breakage and corrosion, particularly after heating. This set of circumstances probably caused the second failure of the wiring repair on your customer’s station wagon. The crimping pliers should grip the crimp connector, then compress it in a controlled fashion that fuses the wires into a solid mass. The wrong crimping tool may smash the connector instead, possibly damaging the crimped wire in the process and setting things up for a repeat failure. Prepare the wire for the splice. Remove only enough insulation to allow a snug fit of the exposed wire in the crimp connector. The wire must be clean and bright, and free of any corrosion or other contamination. The crimp connector must match the wire gauge of the wire to be crimped. If the crimp connector is too large, the crimping pliers won’t be able to crimp the connector sufficiently to create an effective joint. Smashing a too-large crimp connector in an attempt to match it to a smaller wire gauge won’t work. Use an uninsulated crimp connector and cover the finished crimp with shrink tubing. The tubing’s main job is to keep out moisture and electrically isolate the joint, but it also provides a measure of mechanical strength to the wire section it protects. A crimp joint protected by shrink tubing is less likely to flex and break. There are certain cases where no type of wiring repair, be it soldering or crimping, should be attempted. This would include air bag and ABS wiring, as well as shielded wiring for such components as speed or knock sensors. In the case of safety systems, damaged wiring must always be replaced with an undamaged wiring harness, to assure that the system will perform as designed under emergency circumstances. Simply put, your shop should not assume the liability for a safety system failure brought about by a faulty wiring harness repair. If the harness is damaged, insist on harness replacement and decline the repair if the vehicle owner objects. News source: Motor
Electronic Whiskers
When metals such as tin, zinc and cadmium are placed under mechanical stress, one way the stress is relieved is by the sprouting of tiny threads or sticks of metal called whiskers. The whiskers are thinner than a human hair and can “grow” over a period of months or years at a rate of up to a millimeter a year. Most are less than a millimeter in length. The distance between electronic components is often very small. The gaps may be small enough for the tiny whiskers to bridge them and cause unintentional shorts and equipment failures. At frequencies above 6GHz or in fast digital circuits, the whiskers also can act as miniature antennas, affecting the circuit impedance and causing reflections. The whisker problem was first identified in the late 1940s, and soon after it was determined that adding lead to tin plating and solder mitigated the issue. Until fairly recently, the standard solder mixture for electronics work was 60% tin and 40% lead. Other ingredients have also been added to the alloy for specific purposes, like the rosin placed in some solders to remove impurities from the solder joint while soldering. Despite its advantageous properties, lead has also been linked to serious health concerns. Consequently, efforts have been made to remove lead from as many products as possible, including solder. But until a suitable substitute for lead is developed, problems with solder whiskers are likely to continue. In the aerospace industry, whiskers have grown in pure tin-plated electromagnetic relays, with expensive results. In one example, both the primary and backup processors on the $250 million Galaxy IV geostationary communications satellite were rendered inoperative by whisker growth. The satellite was responsible for carrying millions of pager signals, as well as the broadcast feeds for the NPR and CBS networks, and had been in service for only a few years when it failed in 1998. Millions of tin whiskers were found during an inspection of the space shuttle Endeavor , due to the use of pure tin-coated clamps to hold circuit boards in place. The electronics were made in the 1980s, before NASA adopted its current rule requiring a small amount of lead in its tin coatings. A chronicle of documented tin whisker-induced failures can be found on the NASA website at [url”>http://nepp.nasa.gov/whisker/failures/index.htm . In 2003, the EU enacted a directive called Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), which stated that by 2006, most electronic products made or sold within the EU could not contain more than a very small amount of lead, cadmium, mercury and a few other hazardous chemicals. Similar measures are being considered or are already in place in other countries, including Japan , China , South Korea , Argentina , Australia and the United States . Due to the high cost of maintaining separate production lines, many electronics manufacturers have already gone lead-free and converted to producing RoHS-compliant materials. So even though the U.S. has not instituted a policy concerning lead or other hazardous chemicals in electronic components, it may soon become difficult to purchase solder and other electronic components containing lead. The only commonly available RoHS-compliant solder contains about 96% tin and 2% silver, and costs about 50% more than lead-bearing solder. It’s not known whether solder joints made with RoHS-compliant solder will suffer from whisker growth problems. Consider the current uncertainties regarding the future of lead in solder in this country, then review the comparison of crimped vs. soldered electrical connections in last month’s column. After that, I hope you’ll be convinced that crimped electrical connections are the way to go in the majority of automotive situations. News source: Motor
Heater Core
The heater core works in conjunction with your engine’s cooling system. The function of the cooling system is to remove heat from the engine, and it does this for the most part by sending the heated anti-freeze to the radiator located in the front of the car. The position of the radiator allows outside air to blow across the radiator thus cooling the anti-freeze. The anti-freeze is then sent back to the engine. Hot anti-freeze is circulated throughout the cooling system by the radiator and heater hoses. Think of the heater core as a small radiator located inside the dashboard of your vehicle. Click for picture. Anti-freeze is constantly being circulated throughout the engine, radiator, and yes even the heater core regardless of whether you have the heater dashboard switch on.When the heater is turned on by the driver, a diverter door opens to the heater core area in the dashboard. A small fan (commonly referred to as the a/c fan or blower) blows air across the hot heater core into the duct work of the dashboard and into the interior of your car. When the heater core leaks (it leaks anti-freeze of course) it will usually leak inside the car on the passenger floorboard under the carpet. If your heater isn’t working properly, or if you smell a sweet odor, investigate the passenger-side floorboard for signs of anti-freeze leakage. A leaking heater core may also cause a greasy film on the inside of the windows.So what causes the heater core to leak in the first place? Usually the main culprit is rust build up caused from lack of cooling system flushes. Anti-freeze acts as a lubricant and rust inhibitor as well as a temperature controlling substance. Anti-freeze should be flushed and replaced periodically to keep the cooling system in good working order. Rusty anti-freeze is usually a sign of a coolant leak somewhere in the cooling system that has allowed air to enter the system. It may be a leaky radiator hose, water pump, heater core, radiator, etc. Rust build up can be just as damaging to the radiator and other internal engine parts.How do you stop the anti-freeze from leaking onto the floor board? Obviously you can replace the leaking heater core itself, which is the correct fix and is what your mechanic recommended. You can also try a can of radiator stop leak additive to see if it will patch the hole (this might be an acceptable temporary repair), or you can cut off the flow of anti-freeze to the heater core all together. There are two heater hoses that are attached to the heater core from under the hood. Click for picture. These hoses can be cut and blocked off with a hose clamp, or a small hose splice can be inserted between the two hoses to create a loop thus avoiding the heater core all together. This works great to temporarily repair a leaking heater in the summer time.Another cause of a heater that is not leaking but is not heating properly can be a faulty thermostat. The thermostat is calibrated to keep the anti-freeze inside the engine at a constant temperature. A faulty thermostat might not allow the engine temperature to get hot enough to heat the anti-freeze. Thermostats generally do not need periodic replacement unless there is an under- or over-heating situation. When replacing the thermostat, make sure to install the proper heat range recommended by the manufacturer. Proper engine temperature plays a vital role in fuel economy and overall running condition of the engine, as well as regulating cooling system temperature.Low anti-freeze levels or poor circulation of anti-freeze throughout the cooling system will hamper heater performance as well. If there is not enough hot anti-freeze to circulate and deliver to the heater core, heater efficiency will be greatly reduced. If you suspect a problem with your heater, first check the anti-freeze level in the radiator and make sure the fluid is in good shape and of proper color (either green or orange/red if you’re using one of the new extended life products on the market).To check anti-freeze color, dip some out and look at it in a glass container. (We use an anti-freeze hydrometer, which is basically an expensive turkey baster.) When you are looking at the anti-freeze in the radiator, you can only see the top surface color, and it will usually look okay even if it’s not.If low or contaminated fluid is not the problem, feel the two heater hoses going from the engine to the heater to make sure they are hot (the engine needs to be at normal operating temperature). If the heater hoses are not hot, inspect the radiator hoses for internal cooling system blockage.With the engine at normal operating temperature, the upper radiator hose should be very hot, and the lower radiator hose should be just slightly less hot. If there is a substantial temperature variation, a blockage or restriction is probably present. A faulty thermostat and a radiator or heater core that is full of calcium deposits or rust build up are a few causes of cooling system restrictions. News source: Trusty Mechanic
Dodge Truck Bumpers Offer Protection
Among the great many parts and components of a Dodge truck, the Dodge Truck Bumper is the one part of the vehicle that is specifically designed to bear the brunt of any impact that may result in the event of frontal collisions. In circumstances of this sort, the Dodge Truck bumper minimizes the damage to the frame as well as the body of the truck This not only keeps repair costs to a minimum, it also ensures passenger safety. Reduced impact prevents passengers from getting injuries worse than a few bumps and scratches. As with the case of a number of bumpers, Dodge Truck bumpers have undergone a lot of enhancements over the years. Dodge Truck Bumpers, for one, have already incorporated brush guards and push bars to heighten the safety features of the truck bumper. Though bumpers have been traditionally made of heavy steel, there are models available in a variety of types: rubber bumpers, plastic bumpers as well as painted light metal. As an aside, it is quite interesting to note that the term “streamlining” applies to bumpers since some bumpers are primarily crafted to facilitate better air flow into the engine while the car is in motion. Thus, installing the right bumper model can either improve the speed of the truck or slow it down. This is not a problem for drivers of Dodge trucks though since, with Dodge Trucks Bumpers, they have auto parts that not only improves car speed but also serves as effective safety features for the car. Yes, it’s quite a welcome bit of good news. What is more, Dodge develops as well as manufactures their bumpers with the most durable materials available in the market at present. This is why Dodge Truck Bumpers are quite capable of withstanding tremendous collision impact or why Dodge Truck Bumpers just a wee bit longer than a run of other truck bumper models available in the market in this day and age. This, of course, is not surprising. With over 79 years in the car industry, Dodge and Dodge auto parts have proven to be one of the most leading brands and trusted products that consumers rely on. News source: USA.NET
Jimmy is the Champ
Jimmy Johnson is the Champion for the final year of the NEXTEL reign and we send our congratulations to him. I still think he is either bending the rules or cheating but he is the Champ. [b”>90 DAYS TO DAYTONA[/b”>
Gas Prices and coffee
Have read several articles on the impact gas prices are going to have on the economy I won’t reprint them here as I do not agree with all of the information they contain. One fact I do agree with is the impact the prices are having on auto repair shops and parts suppliers mainly aftermarket. Many of the aftermarket chains are seeing a drastic drop in sales and thus a rise in inventory. I don’t know what the answer is but I am sure we will see prices rise as a result. When they have to pay taxes on this inventory increase the money has to come from somewhere. I have seen some specials come from the major aftermarket repair facilities that make me glad I am no longer in the business. The second is Starbucks and many specialty shops are getting nervous. Who is going to pay $4.00 for a cup of coffee (I never would) after they pay $50 and up to fill their tank. Also I think many of these overpriced business are due a wake-up call. I only hope the few honest shops can stay true to their values and not resort to over selling to stay afloat. When gas prices first approached $3 I thought the major oil companies would drop the price down to $2 or so and we would think we were getting a bargain but usage never fell off so why let the price go down. I am just as guilty I haven’t changed my driving habits as the price has risen and I know of very few people who have. I don’t know what the answer and I normally don’t complain unless I have a cure but in this case I had to after I read the article on Starbucks and visited with folks in the repair and parts business. Crew Chief Happy Turkey day
Chryslers Last Stand
After 17 years selling cars in West Palm Beach, Fla., James Arrigo knows a thing or two about what consumers want. “There shouldn’t be 1,000 ways to order a minivan,” he says. And he’s tired of watching Chrysler botch the launch of critical new models like the Sebring, a midsize sedan. “It should be a front-runner in that segment, but because of quality and marketing issues, it doesn’t compete.”For years Arrigo and outspoken dealers like him have offered suggestions for how Chrysler could sell more vehicles and improve its image. Too often, especially in recent years, when Chrysler was owned by Germany’s Daimler, those ideas took a back seat to concerns about cost control or factory productivity.Now Chrysler has a new owner, new bosses and a newfound interest in what its dealers are saying. Between now and the end of the year Chrysler’s executives are hitting the road for a series of “fireside chats” with dealers to solicit feedback on how the company can turn its business around and simultaneously help dealers improve their profits.The discussions are needed to repair dealer relations after a disastrous 2006. Chrysler built more cars than it could sell, forcing dealers into a financial bind: They had to pay higher borrowing costs to carry the extra inventory yet offer bigger discounts to move unsold cars off their lots. “We couldn’t make any money,” explained Arrigo, who is president of the Chrysler-Jeep Dealer Council. As inventories piled up, he says, “dealers lost faith in the company.”The frosty relationship started to thaw in January, after Chrysler ousted its top sales and marketing executive and began putting in place more dealer-friendly policies. Under Cerberus Chrysler has accelerated those efforts. For example, Chrysler killed a controversial sales bonus program that pitted dealers against one another in price wars. Then it tripled the “goodwill allowance” dealers receive to take care of customer complaints after a car’s warranty has expired.”We need to reestablish a partnership with our dealers,” says Chief Executive Robert Nardelli. “Their objective has to be our objective. They’re an extension of our company. If they’re not profitable, we’re not profitable.”Arrigo is impressed with Cerberus’ moves so far. “They said, ‘We know we’ve got a problem with marketing –let’s hire the right people.'” Among them: Toyota veterans Deborah Wahl Meyer, now Chrysler’s chief marketing officer, and the folksy sales chief James Press, who pushed for these new meetings with dealers.Arrigo has plenty of advice. “I think we’ve got way too many products–products that overlap,” he says. Dodge, though, needs more entry-level vehicles. “So do we need these sport utilities that we’re not doing a great job with, like the Durango? Do we need an Aspen for Chrysler? Maybe Dodge has an eight-passenger SUV, and Chrysler has a seven-passenger, so there’s no overlap,” he says. Likewise, maybe Chrysler doesn’t need both a Dodge Nitro and a Jeep Liberty SUV. “Do we need hybrids? Yes. Diesels? Probably.”Noting that 70% of Chrysler’s sales are of trucks, SUVs and minivans, Arrigo says: “There’s a huge passenger-car market that we haven’t even begun to touch.”For all the problems, however, Arrigo is more optimistic than he’s ever been as a Chrysler dealer. “This new management understands that the consumer drives everything. The way you treat consumers today will determine the future of this company News source: Forbes
Lug Nuts & A Shotgun
In our relentless endeavor to bring faithful Outdoor Newshound readers stories they simply won’t find anywhere else, we offer you the tale of a Washington man who tried a shotgun approach to car repair this weekend.That’s shotgun used as a noun, and not an adjective.The Kitsap County sheriff’s department reports that a 66-year-old man received serious leg injuries on Saturday when he tried to loosen a stubborn lug nut on his Lincoln Continental using a 12-guage shotgun loaded with buckshot.Deputy Scott Wilson told the Kitsap Sun that the unnamed man, apparently frustrated by not being able to remove the final nut on the right rear wheel, blasted it with “a shell of double-ought from arm’s length.”The deputy described the man’s legs as “peppered” from his feet to his mid-abdomen with pellets, pieces of the wheel and other debris.He was transported by medics to a Tacoma-area hospital, where his injuries were described as serious, but non-life threatening.If you’re wondering what would drive someone to take such action, you can rule out adult beverages.“He wasn’t intoxicated,” Wilson said.While decidedly remiss in his choice of tools, one can’t fault the man’s resolve to finish the job he’d started. News source: Outdoor Life
600K Ford Falcon
POLICE are seeking witnesses to the theft of a unique $600,000 Falcon Sedan from an auto repair workshop in Collingwood St, Osborne Park.The car, which is a red 1971 Phase III GT HO Falcon Sedan registration number 71 HO, is valued in excess of $600,000 and is a unique collector’s item within Australia. The car also has distinctive 15-inch Bathurst Globe mag wheels. A 600K Falcon How far are classsic car prices going to go I have to say it again a 600K Falcon
Jimmy Johnson
You have got to be kidding Jimmy Johnson has won 4 in a row. He has got to be cheating. I was at the Daytona 500 a year ago when he was caught cheating and I really think he is again where is NASCAR I would think they would do a inspection of this car