Quoted from Pin_Guy:This drives me crazy every time I see a post like this as it really doesn't tell you how to go about making this change.
You can do this, but keep in mind that since the plug you are talking about contains thru wires, you are going to have to deal with two wires for 1 Molex pin. Since Molex does not recommend crimping more than one wire per pin, they do not give you any information on how to go about doing so. You have three options:
1) you cut both wires and add a third wire to the bunch, then solder them together with the new wire going to the Molex connector
2) you just do it and crimp multiple wires into the Molex connector, the odds of either breaking the pin, or ending up with a bad crimp at this point are fairly good.
3) you can calculate the new AWG for the pair of wires. In order to do this you need to know the radius of the wire and your old friend pi (π)...as in A=πr^2. Lets assume the wires are 22 gauge and have a diameter of .0253", then the radius (r) of the wire would be equal to half the diameter (D/2), or .01265" the area of this wire would come out be 5.027e-4. We would then multiply that by the number of wires, in this case 2, and come up with an combined area = .001. we can then reverse the formula to determine the diameter of the pair of wires D=2√(A/π) and end up with a value of 0.0357" This would correlate to an AWG equivalent of 19 gague, so in order to properly crimp a pair of 22 gauge wires into a molex pin. you will need a pin that supports your housing and accepts a 19 gauge wire, and dont forget to set your crimp tool accordingly.
It just seems easier to just use an IDC
Hey Pin_Guy,
We really appreciate the feed back. We have decided to go with new IDC connectors as we have definitely isolated the issue to the connection. As you have suggested, we are going to reseat the wires in all the connections first, and then if the lights still do not work correctly we will fit new connectors. As you have stated there are some wires that continue to other connectors.
Our machines are in a home environment. We do our best to keep as much of the electrical (except for LEDs) as standard as we can. We have purchased the tools and IDC connections, we are waiting for them to arrive in the post. We want everything on all our machines clean and working.
Thanks
Louisville, KY
Melbourne, ON
