Crimping A Wire Junction Together - Mercruiser MCM 260

[San_Diego_SeaRay]

Decided to replace the harness wiring on my 1981 Mercruiser MCM260 engine. I'll keep the harness plug and splice all the new wires into it, but everything else is getting new wire. I've come across a problem though. You can see from the picture how Mercruiser has created an inline "junction" by crimping a ferrous band around four wires (Picture 1). Problem is I don't know where to get these bands; maybe they don't make them anymore. So I went to Home Depot and found an aluminum ferrule set like the one pictured (Picture 2). But apparently copper and aluminum don't play well together and these shouldn't be used for crimping copper wire together. *If* these ferrules were steel, they'd be perfect. So two questions:

• Where do you think I can source steel ferrules locally? What kind of store would carry them?
• Is there a different, better, more modern method of creating this junction? Keep in mind this is in a harness and things like distribution blocks, etc. would not work well.

 

[Grandad]

If you can't find a crimp fitting approved for use on copper, you could use an anti-oxide compound such as Ideal's Noalox inside before crimping and a little on the outside after crimping. Remember though that it is a conductive compound and should be fully contained in a heat shrink tube or adequate tape so it doesn't begin to "track" voltage, though at 12 volts tracking shouldn't be too bad. It's also going to stain anything you get it on. - Grandad

 

[San_Diego_SeaRay]

If you can't find a crimp fitting approved for use on copper, you could use an anti-oxide compound such as Ideal's Noalox inside before crimping and a little on the outside after crimping. Remember though that it is a conductive compound and should be fully contained in a heat shrink tube or adequate tape so it doesn't begin to "track" voltage, though at 12 volts tracking shouldn't be too bad. It's also going to stain anything you get it on. - Grandad

Hmmm...good idea. A sleeve within a sleeve. I'll look into it.

 

[Bondo]

Hmmm...good idea. A sleeve within a sleeve. I'll look into it.

Ayuh,..... Look for crimp connectors for Big wire, like 8 or 6 gage to crimp a bunch of 14g.s, 'n 12g,s together,...

Maybe an automotive wirin' place, or a commercial type electrical shop,....

They're tin coated copper usually,....some with a plastic sleeve over 'em, others just bare metal,...

 

[Scott Danforth]

The splice bands are not available to the public, commercial use only. Simply buy a section of copper tube, crimp, solder, and heat shrink. Or buy a large wire butt splice

 

[StingrayMike]

Have you thought about soldering that joint? Much better than inline splice.
just solder, then heat shink, or splice tape.

 

[San_Diego_SeaRay]

Wow lots of great suggestions. I think the one I'll end up using is the large marine grade butt connector as Bondo and Scott Danforth suggested. Then some heat shrink tubing over all of it; then some Liquid Tape to seal the ends. Soldering is a good idea but that would require me to go out and buy one, so not as easy as a butt connector. The Noalox idea is ingenius, but I don't have experience with it. And the butt connector is about as simple and effective as you can get, I think.

Thanks again for all the replies.