Originally Posted by
RGMN
Never tin the wire prior to crimping in the contact. This guarantees you will not get a gas tight crimp. And get poor electrical contact as well. If you feel you need to solder the wire to "seal" them do it after crimping, not before. Or just use
blocked wire and not worry about it.
I just noticed the reference to blocked wire. It's probably overkill for bikes, but I have used it on construction equipment... some of the connectors end up under water for prolonged periods, despite the gear not being expressly designed for that. I've seen damage where water did wick up the strands of a length of water, cause corrosion of the circuit board, leading to the failure of the board.
One factor was that the electronic device had a volume of air in it. As things heated up and cooled down, it acted as an air pump, pulling in air or water via the wire strands. The device had a "pigtail" of wire that connected it to the outside world. In retrospect, we should have used a bulkhead connector to avoid that sort of problem.... although there are potential problems with that too.
Ahhh... part of the fun of design is finding out all of the ways to get yourself in trouble!
Steve in Peoria