Splicing wires

Sep 17, 2024 Last reply: 1 year ago 43 Replies

I thought so. One of the two occasions I've needed an oscilloscope to deal with a car. The hardest part was getting the dashboard apart enough to get a probe on the speedo signal line. It was also the only time I've needed the wheels to rotate while the car was stationary.

The strap was a little too short and engine movement caused it to go tight over an edge of the engine. I soldered in an extra inch of braid, with a couple of layers of heatshrink added not to insulate the braid but to stiffen it a bit around the joints to reduce flexing at the edge of the solder. Fortunately the braid was long enough to keep the heatshrink cool during the soldering, with a couple of big pairs of pliers clamped on to help.

Yes, I could have ordered a new one, but the bolts on the end lugs looked a pig to get at, and my local Renault dealer never seemed to stock the parts I wanted, and it would have been a three week wait...

Back in the days of a (Mk3) Ford Cotina a common fault with the indicators and rear lights was a poor earth connection back to the chassis. In common with much of the rest of the car the connection to the chassis was prone to rusting :)

Never had that with my Mk3 and I kept it for 13 years. Rusting of front wings - certainly.

I had an issue where the ABS sensor that was giving an "implausible" output.

In this case Fords used a ring of magnets stuck onto a bearing to generate the signal. A scope showed some missing pulses from where parts of the material had come away and fallen off.

A change of wheel bearing solved the issue. Shame as the bearing itself was still good.

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