Splice Connection Type Guide?

I?m planning a simple panel upgrade in the -4 and am looking for some basic guidance as to what type of splice connections are most appropriate. I have had bad experience with crimp on automotive spade and butt splices in cars and have switched to soldering everything in my truck as a result. The failures could have been from crappy connectors, crappy crimpers and / or crappy technique.

That said, I would actually like to be able to go with crimp on connectors due to speed and convenance but not at the expense of reliability.

The plan is to install a Sport EX and EchoUAT. The only thing other than the the EchoUAT and power / ground running to the Sport EX is the remote magnetometer so I have a pretty easy install; just need to make good splices.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thx

What about using solder sleeves?

for small wires, i use db pins with shrink tube over them. nice clean install and all you need to do to disconnect is slice the shrink tube.

bob burns
RV-4 N82RB

AMP PIDG terminals and a good AMP crimper is pretty much the industry standard.

Walt said:

AMP PIDG terminals and a good AMP crimper is pretty much the industry standard.

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To extend this thought, I like the blade type splice connectors and generally put heat shrink over the connections. I don't think I've ever had a problem with a connector.

For "splicing" wires, Raychem environmental butt splices are the industry standard. The splices come in 2 varieties, nickel plated or tin plated. The tin plated ones are fine for GA. But, you absolutely MUST used the correct crimper. The GMT 232 crimper, made by Daniels is available for $186. Each splice will set you back $1-$2 bucks apiece for the tin plated.

That's a bit spendy, so I try to minimize the number of splices in my airplane. But, I'd rather use a Raychem environmental splice than try to solder upside down and backwards under the instrument panel.