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914World.com _ 914World Garage _ Small female spade connectors
Posted by: Literati914 Oct 3 2023, 07:30 PM
Several of the small female spade connectors on my car are connected to cracked wiring at about 1-2” up, in particular @ my license plate lights. So I need to do some splicing and renew those tiny connectors. They are smaller than the typical 1/4” hardware.. anyone know the correct sizing term to search for? Are they these ones? :
https://www.wurthusa.com/Electrical/Connectors/Uninsulated-Electrical-Connectors/Universal/Female-Spade-Connector-Non-Insulated-Sml-Gauge-18/p/05585029
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Posted by: aharder Oct 3 2023, 07:48 PM
Try Del city, delcity.net
Posted by: JeffBowlsby Oct 3 2023, 08:52 PM
Those look right.
Posted by: Geezer914 Oct 4 2023, 07:53 AM
Radio Shack, or any electronics parts store.
Posted by: 76-914 Oct 4 2023, 09:21 AM
Says they are out of stock at Wurthusa. Wurth says they are 1/8". Del City says theirs are .187". So what is the correct size as the original post asks? 
Posted by: JeffBowlsby Oct 4 2023, 09:56 AM
Here is one source. but its way too much to pay for this terminal. I know Napa has others but their site is too difficult for me to wade through right now.
https://www.napaonline.com/en/search?text=CRB217414&referer=v2
Posted by: Spoke Oct 4 2023, 10:31 AM
If they are 1/8 inch, Digikey has them. NAPA is making a fortune on that on at $4.99 each. These are $0.17.
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/te-connectivity-amp-connectors/63705-1/2284491
Posted by: 914sgofast2 Oct 4 2023, 11:01 AM
I second the recommendation of DigiKey. The site is a little difficult to navigate; it helps a lot if you know what the part is typically called in "Electronics World Speak".
Posted by: JeffBowlsby Oct 4 2023, 01:49 PM
Those terminals are not typically 0.125, they are 0.110 in. if I recall correctly.
Measure the existing terminals to replace them and use corrosion resistant material such solid brass where exposed to water.
Posted by: Spoke Oct 4 2023, 05:26 PM
Those terminals are not typically 0.125, they are 0.110 in. if I recall correctly.
Measure the existing terminals to replace them and use corrosion resistant material such solid brass where exposed to water.
There's more selection at Digikey for 0.110 in like this one. But none in copper.
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/te-connectivity-amp-connectors/42068-1/288399
Posted by: Literati914 Oct 4 2023, 06:08 PM
Those terminals are not typically 0.125, they are 0.110 in. if I recall correctly.
Measure the existing terminals to replace them and use corrosion resistant material such solid brass where exposed to water.
There's more selection at Digikey for 0.110 in like this one. But none in copper.
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/te-connectivity-amp-connectors/42068-1/288399
I saw that too. The one linked above ^ is actually brass as JeffBowlsby suggested but it’s coated with tin. Here is one that’s all brass (I need to see if there’s an all brass option that is insulated)
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/te-connectivity-amp-connectors/42068/293266
.
Posted by: Spoke Oct 4 2023, 06:44 PM
Those terminals are not typically 0.125, they are 0.110 in. if I recall correctly.
Measure the existing terminals to replace them and use corrosion resistant material such solid brass where exposed to water.
There's more selection at Digikey for 0.110 in like this one. But none in copper.
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/te-connectivity-amp-connectors/42068-1/288399
I saw that too. The one linked above ^ is actually brass as JeffBowlsby suggested but it’s coated with tin. Here is one that’s all brass (I need to see if there’s an all brass option that is insulated)
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/te-connectivity-amp-connectors/42068/293266
.
Not sure why I looked for copper instead of brass. Although brass won't corrode when exposed to water it will oxidize quite rapidly. A friend worked at Baldwin Brass in Reading PA and everything they made would be cleaned, buffed, and immediately lacquered so it wouldn't tarnish.
Posted by: Arkady Oct 4 2023, 07:38 PM
These connectors go by several names because a number of manufacturers produce them. (Amp, Molex, Packard Electric, Hella, etc...) The good news is that they are standardized by their width. There are three in general use plus one that's smaller.
Amp calls this series of connectors 'fastons'. They have widths of .250 (6.3mm), .188 (4.8 mm), .110 (2.8 mm) and the littlest, 0.87 (2.2 mm). They are available fully insulated with a barrel style crimp, insulated crimp only also with a barrel style crimp and a those with a 'U' style crimp.
An important thing to keep in mind is that whatever crimp style these connectors use, they require what is called a 'gas tight' crimp. This means the crimp fully yields both the connector and conductor (wire) material so there are no air spaces inside the crimp region. An air space eventually causes a form of galvanic corrosion that results in a higher electrical resistance connection. High resistance makes heat which speeds up the corrosion. Connector manufacturers make crimp tools that are designed to properly crimp their connectors and provide a gas tight crimp. A generic crimp tool often is a compromise to crimp several brands and may or may not provide a gas tight crimp on all brands.
Lastly, (whew!), many connectors of this style actually have two crimp regions. One for the conductor (discussed above) and a 'strain relief' crimp that grabs onto the wire's insulation. The strain relief crimp secures the wire's insulation and reduces the likelihood that wire movement will fatigue the wire's conductor at the conductor crimp. The connector manufacturer's crimp tooling usually has some means of adjustment for the wire's insulation diameter.
Sorry for getting this far in the weeds, but you'd be surprised how many manufacturers of all kinds of stuff ignore this, only to create unnecessary warranty claims and unhappy customers...
Posted by: Literati914 Oct 4 2023, 09:10 PM
These connectors go by several names because a number of manufacturers produce them. (Amp, Molex, Packard Electric, Hella, etc...) The good news is that they are standardized by their width. There are three in general use plus one that's smaller.
Amp calls this series of connectors 'fastons'. They have widths of .250 (6.3mm), .188 (4.8 mm), .110 (2.8 mm) and the littlest, 0.87 (2.2 mm). They are available fully insulated with a barrel style crimp, insulated crimp only also with a barrel style crimp and a those with a 'U' style crimp.
An important thing to keep in mind is that whatever crimp style these connectors use, they require what is called a 'gas tight' crimp. This means the crimp fully yields both the connector and conductor (wire) material so there are no air spaces inside the crimp region. An air space eventually causes a form of galvanic corrosion that results in a higher electrical resistance connection. High resistance makes heat which speeds up the corrosion. Connector manufacturers make crimp tools that are designed to properly crimp their connectors and provide a gas tight crimp. A generic crimp tool often is a compromise to crimp several brands and may or may not provide a gas tight crimp on all brands.
Lastly, (whew!), many connectors of this style actually have two crimp regions. One for the conductor (discussed above) and a 'strain relief' crimp that grabs onto the wire's insulation. The strain relief crimp secures the wire's insulation and reduces the likelihood that wire movement will fatigue the wire's conductor at the conductor crimp. The connector manufacturer's crimp tooling usually has some means of adjustment for the wire's insulation diameter.
Sorry for getting this far in the weeds, but you'd be surprised how many manufacturers of all kinds of stuff ignore this, only to create unnecessary warranty claims and unhappy customers...
Wow, good info - thanks.
Here’s another “interesting” question .. are there special sizing for the ones that get two wires into one connector? Maybe a larger barrel? With the cheap (red, blue, yellow) ones you can usually move up to blue from red when you have this (but hey, no gas tight crimp there either).
.
Posted by: Arkady Oct 5 2023, 07:06 PM
Sorry for the delay. Gotta work to eat... 
This gets a little deeper in the weeds...
Connector manufacturers design crimping tools to provide a gas tight crimp for a certain size wire. In the case of the faston style connectors, (and others too) with barrel crimps, there's a range of wire gages that are acceptable. This works because both the conductor and the connector yield (squish together) from the force exerted by the crimping tool. Yellow is good for 10 to 12 AWG, Blue is fine for 14 to 16, Red for 18 to 22. The cross sectional area of each size wire is what's important. If you decide to crimp two wires in a connector, the correct connector size will be determined by adding the cross sectional areas of the two wires and referring to the American Wire Gage chart to see what the equivalent wire gage becomes. Let's say you want to crimp two 18 AWG wires into a connector. The American Wire Gage chart says each 18 AWG wire has a cross sectional area of 1.62 Thousand Circular Mils, (kcmil). Adding the two together gives: 1.62 + 1.62 = 3.24 kcmil. The AWG chart shows that 3.24 kcmil is very close to 15 AWG, so this will determine the correct connector (Blue is for 14 to 16 AWG and will work).
Another way to do this is by using a helpful rule of thumb. For example, let's say you want to crimp the same two 18 AWG wires. The rule of thumb for getting the equivalent wire gage, is that doubling the cross sectional area results in dropping the gage number by three. So, two 18 AWG wires will have an equivalent gage number of (18 -3) = 15. This works for all sizes from 36 AWG through 0000 AWG. It's so because every numerical AWG size jump increases its cross sectional area by the same multiplier. Kinda cool in a 'nerdy' sort of way...
Posted by: JeffBowlsby Oct 5 2023, 07:49 PM
B…B…B…but Porsches live in the metric wire world. Is there a similar rule of thumb for metric wires?
Posted by: Arkady Oct 5 2023, 08:31 PM
Good point!
Happily, the American Wire Gage tables also list metric equivalents. Following, is an easy to use calculator to help with the conversions:
https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/wire/wire-gauge-chart.html
I'm not aware of a metric rule of thumb but that doesn't mean one doesn't exist.
Wire sizes and their many styles (Materials, Stranding, Temperature Ratings, Compatibility, Shielding, etc) can be confusing. I think that for our automotive uses, the conductor's cross sectional area, be it expressed in kcmil or square millimeters (mm²), is the measure we should use to find the correct sized terminal for the wires we may use.
Posted by: bkrantz Oct 5 2023, 08:40 PM
Belmetric, for this and other true metric connectors.
https://belmetric.com/small-female-spade-no-tab/
Posted by: Spoke Oct 5 2023, 09:43 PM
It is amazing how deep one can get into details of a $0.10 crimp connector.
Oops, European car; I meant a 0.095 Euro connector. 
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