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Old 02-15-2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by soulesailor View Post
What causes a vibration so large that electrical wires would break off at the solder joint? Internal engine (which I don't have so I'm not too familiar with its vibration)? Sailing to windward for long stretches? Stuff banging into the wires? Seems like wires breaking due to vibration would be A LOT of vibration. Just wondering, haven't experienced this yet.
Boat in general vibrate. Even sitting at the slip with a strong wind whipping through the rigging will cause vibration. Start that crack-pot diesel (which is probably mounted right on the stringers, with or without rubber feet) and it REALLY vibrates. Multiply that times hours, days, years...

It is not something that will happen immediately. It happens over time. THese joints were between 10-20 years old. HOWEVER, that does not mean it took them 10-20 years to fail. They were likely already at the point of failure some time back. My guess is that they were already showing a lot of resistance and V/A drop. I suspect a nice storm offshore or anything else to put a good stress on the boat would have taken its toll on them. And incidentally, that is exactly when you DON'T want them to fail. All the more reason to crimp.

- CD
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