Splicing and soldering

So while performing surgery on my st 120 a few weeks back I noticed that I just wasn’t happy with the solder connections on quad cap lugs. Issue is, a lot of the wires have already been cut fairly short so Unsoldering them to get a better mechanical connection may be a bit tough.

So I was thinking: why not just get some wire and splice it to extend the wire and then get a good mechanical connection to the lugs and solder?

Any thoughts on this? Was definitely going to use the 20 gauge solid core where appropriate (I.e the scm)Wasn’t sure what type of wire was used coming off the power transformers however. Figured I’d use a combination of heat shrink tubing as well as electrical tape to wrap. Any thoughts are appreciated!

I did exactly as you are talking about.  My transformer wires were all too short after burns and resoldering etc.  So completely rebuilt my amp (see my M125 thread) using:

Tefzel 18AWG stranded. 600V rating and HTFE - tinned copper.



Stuff above is awesome.

You can also see my thread on AK:

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/yellow-paper-mod-vta-m125s-did-it-help-my-situation.985784/

I also bought some 18AWG stranded tinned 300V in many colors: JMS822-01G - Jameco along with their 20AWG solid tinned copper - but I mostly used the Tefzel.

rebellovw wrote:I did exactly as you are talking about.  My transformer wires were all too short after burns and resoldering etc.  So completely rebuilt my amp (see my M125 thread) using:

Tefzel 18AWG stranded. 600V rating and HTFE - tinned copper.



Stuff above is awesome.

You can also see my thread on AK:

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/yellow-paper-mod-vta-m125s-did-it-help-my-situation.985784/

I also bought some 18AWG stranded tinned 300V in many colors:  JMS822-01G - Jameco along with their 20AWG solid tinned copper - but I mostly used the Tefzel.

Thanks for the suggestions!

When I built my custom version of the M125s I had to get creative with some of the transformer wires that were cut for the original chassis.  I use Kimber TCSS 19awg Teflon insulated wire to extend the blue and green wires as well as the red/black wire.

rebellovw wrote:I did exactly as you are talking about.  My transformer wires were all too short after burns and resoldering etc.  So completely rebuilt my amp (see my M125 thread) using:

Tefzel 18AWG stranded. 600V rating and HTFE - tinned copper.



Stuff above is awesome.

You can also see my thread on AK:

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/yellow-paper-mod-vta-m125s-did-it-help-my-situation.985784/

I also bought some 18AWG stranded tinned 300V in many colors:  JMS822-01G - Jameco along with their 20AWG solid tinned copper - but I mostly used the Tefzel.

Meant to ask earlier: I noticed that some of the wires inside the amp are threaded and some are solid core. Do I need to splice and Solder threaded to only threaded and solid core to only solid core?

Jlskey wrote:

rebellovw wrote:I did exactly as you are talking about.  My transformer wires were all too short after burns and resoldering etc.  So completely rebuilt my amp (see my M125 thread) using:

Tefzel 18AWG stranded. 600V rating and HTFE - tinned copper.



Stuff above is awesome.

You can also see my thread on AK:

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/yellow-paper-mod-vta-m125s-did-it-help-my-situation.985784/

I also bought some 18AWG stranded tinned 300V in many colors:  JMS822-01G - Jameco along with their 20AWG solid tinned copper - but I mostly used the Tefzel.

Meant to ask earlier:  I noticed that some of the wires inside the amp are threaded and some are solid core. Do I need to splice and Solder threaded to only threaded and solid core to only solid core?

The only ones I spliced (if needed) were the transformer leads or the choke leads - everything else I replaced completely.  Those leads were all stranded.

Thanks.