Jim Ellis
Well Known Member
I have one E-Mag and one P-Mag installed on my engine. I have been extremely pleased with the performance of both for the last three years. Factory support has been outstanding. I say all this because I don?t want the following to be considered in any way as critical of E-Mag or its products.
E-Mag employs a type of pluggable terminal strip that uses captive screws to retain the connecting wires.
While performing an inspection of the engine I found what appeared to be fraying and breakage of the stranded wires at the E-Mag connector.
At the same time the wires going into the P-Mag connector appeared to be fine. There was some wire crushing, but no broken strands. The only difference I could see was there was a much bigger loop of unsupported cable going into the E-Mag than the P-Mag. It is possible that the combination of the crushed wire strands at the connector (I do have a tendency to over tighten fasteners!) and increased vibration movement of the wires led to the broken strands I found.
I started to think about how I could make a more durable connection between the stranded wire and the E-Mag connector block. As luck would have it I explained the situation to a friend in the hanger next door. He is an electrical engineer and had worked many years before as a telephone lineman. He knew exactly what I needed to do and I am passing his advice along.
He told me to purchase a ferrule crimping tool and the right size ferrules for the stranded wire. I went to the local electronics store, explained what I wanted, and was astounded when they handed me just what I needed. What they sold me for less than $15.00 was an Eclipse brand Economy Wire Ferrule Tool with 150 assorted sizes of ferrules in the package. The model number is Eclipse 300-016 and it seems to be available at many sources on-line.
I cut off the frayed wire ends, stripped the wire and crimped a metal ferrule onto each of the wires. The wire ends fit perfectly into the E-Mag connector block openings and will not crush no matter how much you tighten the screw in the connector.
The end result is a nice looking terminal end that appears to be far more robust than the bare stranded wire connection. This whole issue may not be consequential under your particular circumstances, but adding the ferrules to the stranded wires inserted into this type of connector just seems to be the right thing to do.
I hope that this information is useful to others that have E-Mag ignitions.
E-Mag employs a type of pluggable terminal strip that uses captive screws to retain the connecting wires.
While performing an inspection of the engine I found what appeared to be fraying and breakage of the stranded wires at the E-Mag connector.
At the same time the wires going into the P-Mag connector appeared to be fine. There was some wire crushing, but no broken strands. The only difference I could see was there was a much bigger loop of unsupported cable going into the E-Mag than the P-Mag. It is possible that the combination of the crushed wire strands at the connector (I do have a tendency to over tighten fasteners!) and increased vibration movement of the wires led to the broken strands I found.
I started to think about how I could make a more durable connection between the stranded wire and the E-Mag connector block. As luck would have it I explained the situation to a friend in the hanger next door. He is an electrical engineer and had worked many years before as a telephone lineman. He knew exactly what I needed to do and I am passing his advice along.
He told me to purchase a ferrule crimping tool and the right size ferrules for the stranded wire. I went to the local electronics store, explained what I wanted, and was astounded when they handed me just what I needed. What they sold me for less than $15.00 was an Eclipse brand Economy Wire Ferrule Tool with 150 assorted sizes of ferrules in the package. The model number is Eclipse 300-016 and it seems to be available at many sources on-line.
I cut off the frayed wire ends, stripped the wire and crimped a metal ferrule onto each of the wires. The wire ends fit perfectly into the E-Mag connector block openings and will not crush no matter how much you tighten the screw in the connector.
The end result is a nice looking terminal end that appears to be far more robust than the bare stranded wire connection. This whole issue may not be consequential under your particular circumstances, but adding the ferrules to the stranded wires inserted into this type of connector just seems to be the right thing to do.
I hope that this information is useful to others that have E-Mag ignitions.
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