hardlanding7

I have been trying for the past half an hour to solder an wire that was on an alligator clip to a banana clip, and it simply will not attach! Even if the solder is right on top of both of them, it just breaks away when I try to pick it up. WIll solder only attach to certain metals, or should I roughen up the banana clip where I'm going to attach it a bit or what?

I want to solder on a banana clip because having to take the panel off my flight box every time I need to use a starter would get to be a pain.

volkan

first heat the plug (alot). then fill the whole of the plug with hot solder, this is done by, stick the nib of the iron into the hole. then feed the solder to it. the the plug is hot, the solder should stay there. then before the solder hardens, remove the iron, and put the cable in.

tell me if it works

hardlanding7

I'll try it, but the solder hardens as the second you take the gun away, so that might be hard. I might have to get some extra help.

twostroke

My Feedback: (6)

Did you use flux and tin it first if not give that a try.

David Cutler

All the banana clips I have used have been chromed or some other surface coating. Try filing the surface away to the brass underneath then soldering again.

-David C.

hardlanding7

Yeah it's chrome. Unfortunatly there is only a very small space that the solder could attache to, so I'll have to work on that. Does solder attach to brass and not chrome or something?

David Cutler

Yes, it's extremely difficult to solder to a chrome surface, and the brass underneath is easy to solder to if you tin it first with lots of flux and solder.

You could either drill into the hole you are trying to solder into or use a small round file to break into the surface to expose the brass, both in the hole and on the outer flat surface. Then it should be fairly easy to solder the wire to it.

It beats my why the manufacturers of the plug chrome it in the first place!

-David C.