How hot does my soldering iron have to be? I think my iron goes to 140 watts, but I can't get my Stay-Brite silver solder to flow into my solder clevis, the flux just sizzles away. What am I doing wrong?

well you might be getting it to hot. Id clean every thing again apply new flux turn the iron all the way up hold the solder at the joint hold the iron to the clevis as soon as it hits the right temp the solder will flow into the clevis and your done.
Danny

That should be plenty hot, I'm using the cheapie 60W Hobbico iron with success.

The key is to get both sides equally hot & to get a good heat transfer. In general I flux both sides of what I'm soldering & lay the iron as close to the joint as possible. Pretty much all the flux sizzles away as the metal heats up. I then touch the solder to the edge of the iron & the clevis at the same time to build a heat bridge to allow better heat transfer.
Once the heat bridge sets up the solder will turn to liquid on the joint & flow right in. Sometimes I'll leave the iron on and twist it around & back and forth to ensure full coating of the surfaces. remove the iron & allow to air cool and you'll have a nice strong joint.

Oh, you'll also want to make sure your placing your stuff on a non heat absorbing material. For example, if you lay them on a metal bench the bench will suck away all the heat. I have a concrete brick I put on my bench to solder on and it doesn't suck any heat away.

Good luck

Do all of the above plus clean the rod with sandpaper until it's shiny

Minn is correct. There's no such thing as "too clean" when you're soldering.

I think tinning is the key. I apply solder to the rod and clevis seperately, then after they cool, stick them together and re-solder. Very thin coat, so the rod still fits.

If you're using a new iron, you need to make sure the tip is clean and has been properly tinned. Jim

I forgot, what's the best way to clean the tip?

If your iron has already been tinned, you can simply flow new solder onto it and wipe it off with a clean rag. If for some reason it hasn't been tinned, you may have to get a little more aggressive and use a Scotch pad or 220 grit paper. Clean it up really good (no fingerprints), and then go about tinning it. An untinned iron will not solder. As noted above, cleanliness is very important. Jim

All good points , but try not to heat the Flux , as you know it just melts away . Try to keep applying flux -make it thick so that the solder will stick .

Thanks guys, I took everyones advice and it worked out perfect. The best soldering job I ever did! Thanks