What an idiot
 

So I was a scientist for 32 years:) You want to mix some chemicals, weigh out some drugs (legal kind), perform some sensitivity tests, identify organisms, or grow some cultures; I'm your guy.
I never got the opportunity to be very good with my hands turning wrenches or even hammering nails:mad: But for the most part, I can get by with my limited knowledge of "handyman" stuff:D

So, the spreader light (attached to my rocket launcher) stops working. I take a tester down to the boat and figure I'll see if I have power to the light. My first thought was to see if I had power to the switch on the console. I opened the back of the console and peered into the dark cabinet. Ok, so I get a flashlight and find the back of the switch marked "Spreader". Now I try to hold the light and touch the two leads to the switch to see if I have power. Not without a third hand; it ain't happening for me. If I hadn't gotten so angry; I could have laughed at me trying to place the light where I could see, while also trying to touch the leads where they needed to go, while at the same time wiping sweat off my face and trying to think of more curse words than I already knew:mad:

F*@k it:eek: I'll just cut off the spreader light and hope I have power to the light. This is a big deal because the wire runs through my aluminum tubing and up to the rocket launcher. SUCCESS, the tester says I have power to the light (confirming the light itself has gone bad).
Off I go to buy another spreader light. Mine was a "lumatek" (sorry spelled wrong I know) and cost $150+ dollars:eek: Every led light on my boat is red/white. Red for nighttime viewing so it won't mess up your vision/or white for brightness. Flip the switch; its red. Flip it again; it's white.

Every West Marine on the east coast has white/blue in stock:mad::mad:

I order off the internet and the light arrives Saturday:) Today, I go down to install the light. A good friend of mine says, "Be sure to solder the wires. Don't just crimp them in a marine environment". Makes sense to me.
I strip back the wires. I slide two small shrink-wrap tubes over each wire, and then another large shrink-wrap tube over both of those tubes. So far, so good.
Now I make my first mistake. I twist red to red and black to black. But I didn't lay them horizontal to each other (if that makes sense). I now proceed to try to solder them on a rocking boat during Labor Day. I couldn't get the wires hot enough to "draw" the solder in, so I just attempted to "coat" them in solder. What a pain in the a$$. The solder would get hot enough to melt, form a little round ball, and proceed to run down the exposed wires and splatter on the deck:mad::mad: Why won't it attach itself to the wire???
Well I eventually got enough solder on the wires to say, ENOUGH. However, because the wires weren't twisted horizontal, the shrink tubing won't go over the wires.
Screw it, I wrapped them in electrical tape and called it a day. Almost 3 hours to do a job that should take 20 minutes. At least when I cut the wires from the light, they didn't go scurrying down the aluminum tubing and disappear.

I'll go back down tomorrow and redo my mess in a more efficient manner.

Anybody have a suggestion as to how I can get the solder to really infiltrate the wiring? Do I have to get the wires hot enough to draw the solder in?

I only get one more chance or I won't have enough wire length :eek::eek:
5th

OK - strip the wires about twice as long as you want the final splice to be - lay the bare wires together pointing in opposite directions so it looks like one wire with a bare spot in the middle - hold the bare section in the middle and twist one bare end around the other wire tightly until you've used the end up - do the same the in the other direction with the remaining stripped end - put the soldering gun/iron on the bare wire, touching the solder to the wire slightly away from the gun/iron until the solder starts to melt on the wire and gets sucked into the length of the splice. DO NOT put the solder on the gun, wait until the wire is hot enough to melt the solder.
Your old wire to the light probably has corrosion in it, if it looks black in/around the wire you need to spread the strands and scrape it with a knife blade or use sandpaper to try to remove as much of the corrosion as possible to get the solder to adhere, otherwise it will bead up and drop off without penetrating the strands.


Oh, another point - if you're using a test light you want to attach the clip to ground then touch the probe to the hot side of the switch, if it lights touch the probe to the other side of the switch and turn the switch on to see if it lights, if so your problem is either in the wiring from the switch to the light or the light itself.

Thanks, as soon as I thought about sliding the shrink tubbing over the wire; I thought "chit" I should have layer the wires horizontal before twisting them:eek:

I'm sure that tomorrow (when there is less boat traffic in our creek) I will be able to KEEP the soldering gun under the wires long enough to get them hot and "absorb" the solder.
I was trying to cheat and kept putting the solder on the tip of the gun and expected it to run as a liquid over the bare wire:mad:
Even a subtle wave makes me look like I have the shakes and keeps me from getting a good seal.

The light is working with electrical tape wrapped around it:D But I know it would corrode in a very short time if left in it's present condition.

I just marvel at how a 20 minute job will take me two days to complete. Nothing on the boat is done half-assed; I don't want to start now.

Thanks Mikie for confirming the proper way to do it:)
5th

If you can recall back to a time when you had to work for a living, I doubt those Marine mechanics were mixing up chemicals so why are you trying to fix stuff on your boat?? Bring it over to Tolchester Marina, they'll get you all fixed up and it may only take them 2 1/2 hours at $95/hr. :D. Margaret says would be a lot cheaper, but since you started to fix it yourself , there's the idiot surcharge. :eek: :p

I'll get it right tomorrow. I figure if I drink enough fireball, that should counterbalance the wave action and everything will be rock steady:D

Maybe I should try a real soldering iron instead of my old wood burning kit from when I was 8 years old:eek:
5th

You should not solder wiring like that on a boat. It creates a hard spot which becomes a point of failure. Use heat shrink butt connectors. You called us Mon or Tues on that light. You would have had it the next day!

You know I am ALWAYS around the corner all us gotta do is call.

The right butt connectors and a ratcheting crimp tool is the real answer.

Jim,
Thanks for the reply. I called BOE because you installed the light several years ago, so I took the chance that you might have the Red/White in stock. You know us Baby Boomers, we need instant gratification. I was willing to not only pay $150+ for the light, but pay the Bay Bridge toll and gas to pick it up the same day.
Because that wasn't an option, it didn't matter if it took one, two, or three days to arrive.
Thanks for talking me out of soldering the connection:D I'll hit a west Marine store for the "heat shrink butt connectors". Sounds like a job I can get done in four or five hours:eek:
If I worked for you, just look at all the "labor charges" you could get off simple jobs:):)
5th

Reds;
Thanks for the input. I guess I should have posted asking the "correct" way to connect the wiring in the first place. I should have known that some "old salts" like you would have had the experience to point me in the right direction.

5th