i am trying like hell to solder my 4 ga wire into the ring terminal. it gets super hot but i think its not enough.. the solder melts great on the tip of my iron but thats it. nothing but cold solder joints everywhere the tip touches. i held two different irons on it. first my little 25 watt (good for 16 guage stuff) and got nowhere. i moved up to my 120 watt iron and still the same results. i know some solder got in the wire because i cant pull it out of the rign terminal now. any tips please!!! how do you other guys wire 4 guage from the battery to the alternator and the battery to the amp?? thank.s

david

 

i forgot to put

 

Flame

I used a small pencil torch to solder the rings on my 8awg when I did it. Carefull use of a plubmers torch might be required for that big 4awg. Use some heat shrink if you think u melted the insulation too much in spots, also try heating the wire then sliding the ring on and heating them both, its hard to heat the wire and ring at the same time

good luck with it man

 

thanks. i dont know what a pencil torch is but i can imagine it. i need another tool anyway.

david

 

I have a very small butane thing, bought it at a dollar store

 

I've used the mini butane torches available at most hardware stores; they work pretty well for the smaller stuff, up to 4Ga...

For the BIG stuff like I'm running, the 2Ga, and 00Ga it's a MAPP Gas torch with a very small blue flame...

No matter what you are soldering you NEED to flux both the wire and inside of the fitting every time. W/O this it won't solder at all. And be prepared to use a LOT of solder, typically I end up using a good foot of the thick electronic solder.

 

Did you crimp the ring connector before you tried to solder it together? You'll get better heat transfer if the ring is crimped first. I use a 150W soldering gun all the time without any problems.

I use one of these when crimping large ring connectors...

Impact Crimper

 

i didnt do any crimping at all. that was a neat looking punch tool. where can i pick that up?? hopefully my local home depot?? thanks.

david

 

I've had mine for years. For $30 they're not exactly cheap. Mine gets lots of use though. It may not be worth it for someone that only uses it once in a while.

Impact Crimper

 

soldering is not a necessity, I have been doing this for many years now, and I have never soldered on ring terminals. Home Depot has a nice set of channel lock crimpers for $18. These last about a year for me, and I use them every day. I only replace them because the cutters on the tip dull out, and can not be sharpened. One would think that soldering, crimping, or getting the best connection possible is important.. not really. If you take the back cover off of the amp, your 4 gauge wire and ring terminal quickly degrade to 8-10 gauge leads feeding the power supply, which is probably wound with the same, if not smaller.

 

Yes but they aren't carrying the same amount of current for 15 or more feet like the 4AWG wire is. Any small guage wire can carry a LOT of current if it's only for a short distance.

 

that is true about using larger gauge wire, and especially if you are powering more than one amplifier, running through another battery, capacitor, or distribution block. At the terminal on the amplifier, less than an inch from where it steps down will not slow or distort the current flow.

 

i borrowed an mopp or mapp torch from a guy at work. it was kick a$$!! i heated that terminal and wire up in like 10 seconds. the solder just flowed in once removed the flame. convertz was dead right about that. thanks for the tips guys. it all came out great.

david