That moment I stopped trusting the factory crimp settings

I was out at Paine Field last Tuesday working on a King Air panel swap. Had this terminal strip I was terminating by the book, using the exact factory setting on my DMC crimper like I always did. Pulled a wire to route it through a clamp and the terminal just slid right off the insulation. No grip at all. I stood there holding the wire and the loose terminal feeling like an idiot. Turns out that batch of terminals from the supply room had slightly thicker wall tubing than standard. Now I do a pull test on every single crimp before I button up a panel. Has anyone else run into terminal batches that don't match the spec sheet?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavinm891d ago

Oh man, "Pulled a wire to route it through a clamp and the terminal just slid right off the insulation." That's the kind of thing that makes you want to throw the whole toolbox across the hangar. I've had that same gut-punch moment with a batch of ring terminals that I swear were coated in butter or something. It's wild how you can trust the factory setting like it's gospel, then one batch of terminals shows up with thicker wall tubing and suddenly your crimp is just decorative. Now I'm paranoid too, I do a quick yank on every single crimp before I call it done. It's annoying but beats having to redo a whole panel because one terminal decided to ghost the wire.

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anna7581d ago

lol my buddy had this happen with some battery terminals on his project car. spent all day wiring it up, went to start it and the whole cable just slipped right off the post. he said it looked fine when he crimped it but I guess the terminal was just way too big for the wire.