Thread: i messed up, i ripped a wire .what do i do?

i was helping my brother out with taking out his alternator from his RV, and while i was going to put it back in . the positive wire going to the back of the alternator ripped while i was trying to shimmy back in place the alternator. what the hell do i do? all that tape you see was from the previous owner. it looks like he ripped it as well and tried to duct tape it back together.

There's enough wire on both ends, go get a insulated wire crimp. Put it back together and grab a beer

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i tried to goto autozone to get a butt crimp but one was too big and the other was too small. i was thinking about soldering it.

Soldering would be fine but make sure you put some heat shrink over it first...or you could cut it further back, to get fresh clean wires, and add a new piece of wire cut to the length you want. That way you could re-route the wire so that this doesn't happen again...match up a new round lug for the end and put that on last so you can slip heat shrink over the wire easier. If no heat shrink, I guess electrical tape is the best option?

There might be other janky wires in that duct-taped loom. I would give it a look...

Good luck!

Just use a yellow butt connector. Its ok if its too big. You can just double the end of the wire over to make for a snug fit. Or you can use a blue one, just trim some of the wire strands. I wouldn't solder it though.

^^^^ Exactly what he said ^^^^

Since this is an alternator wire, I'm not sure that I would solder it as a permanent fix. Running a brand new wire is really what you want to do, go just a bit larger than what was there, and route it properly as mentioned above. That wire is what charges the battery and keeps all the electronics running while the vehicle is running, a poor connection there will add extra resistance, meaning more current/heat in the wire, and could lead to a bad situation later. It may also mean your vehicle isn't getting enough power, which could cause any number of problems. Depending on the RV, there could be a lot of juice being used, so it's best to make sure that this wire is in good shape when you're done.

I'm also against overly taping wires, it just makes it that much harder the next time you have to get in there and work on it, but I definitely understand the need for a quick fix at times, but these so often are 'good enough' and often you never get back to doing it right. You're dealing with that now from looking at those pics.

might be helpful for your situation

i would but there's too many wires everywhere. i don't want to mess up again.

My bro just lives in the RV he doesn't ride around it . he only moves it for street cleaning. So i thought soldering it would be o.k.