Crimping Problems

brisgreat1 · Post by **brisgreat1** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:00 pm

I'm trying to crimp one four gauge power wire and two eight gauge ground wires and it's not working for me at all. My crimp tool only crimps to 10 gauge and I was wondering if there are any tricks you guys might know of so I can get these wires crimped and get some music in the car. Also does it matter if I follow specs on a distribution block? Like the Dblock tells me to input one 4ga and output two 8ga... I was thinking of just doing an 8ga input with two 8ga outputs. I read somewhere that it's good to have equal power going into your amp as you have going out. Wouldn't make sense to have 4ga going in and 8ga going out. Like usual any advice or feedback is appreciated.

Bwcad1 · Post by **Bwcad1** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:11 pm

hammer them against the ground.

brisgreat1 · Post by **brisgreat1** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:15 pm

yeah i tried that and i couldnt keep the wire in while i was trying to hammer... i might use some tape to keep it in. im gonna give it another go, thanks

sinister audio · Post by **sinister audio** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:29 pm

i use this and it works great. http://cgi.ebay.com/Hammer-On-Welding-C ... dZViewItem

brent · Post by **brent** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 2:21 pm

If you have access to a vice or pair of channel locks they work great as well. Hopefully I spelled channel locks right.

brisgreat1 · Post by **brisgreat1** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:00 pm

The hammering didn't go perfect but it works. It's at least a short term solution.. that hammer on welding crimper looks really cool, but I don't think I use 4/0 wire enough to buy it. This is the first time I ever used 4ga and I actually took my 4 ga and am running 8ga to the battery now. So I scrapped any and all use of 4ga, I'm gonna try crimping the 8ga in the 10ga slot and if it's no go I'll just hammer it out again I guess. Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys.

William from NOLA · Post by **William from NOLA** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:20 pm

You can hammer a screwdriver, I did that on my second time doing it. First time I had a nifty little tool just like the one in the link above.

Darthness · Post by **Darthness** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:36 pm

sinister audio wrote:i use this and it works great. http://cgi.ebay.com/Hammer-On-Welding-C ... dZViewItem

i use that as well, and it does work awesome.

Darthness · Post by **Darthness** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:38 pm

brisgreat1 wrote:The hammering didn't go perfect but it works. It's at least a short term solution.. that hammer on welding crimper looks really cool, but I don't think I use 4/0 wire enough to buy it. This is the first time I ever used 4ga and I actually took my 4 ga and am running 8ga to the battery now. So I scrapped any and all use of 4ga, I'm gonna try crimping the 8ga in the 10ga slot and if it's no go I'll just hammer it out again I guess. Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys.

meh, i wont ever use 4/0 but for anything bigger than 8guage its really nice to have, and its only $20. you'll spend more than that after you accidentally slip with your hammer and smash your finger trying to crimp 1/0 :P

brisgreat1 · Post by **brisgreat1** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:43 pm

Darthness wrote:meh, i wont ever use 4/0 but for anything bigger than 8guage its really nice to have, and its only $20. you'll spend more than that after you accidentally slip with your hammer and smash your finger trying to crimp 1/0 :P

its funny cause i almost whacked my finger real bad today, anyways i think i'll be able to crimp the 8ga in the 10ga slot... if not the hammer should do ok since it worked earlier for me on the 4ga.