Rant: A simple crimp job ate 4 hours because of a bad pin insertion tool

I was replacing a connector on a Garmin GNS 530 tray last week and kept getting intermittent continuity on pin 23. Turns out my old DMC tool was slightly out of spec and wasn't seating the pins fully (I checked 3 times before realizing). Has anyone else had a tool go bad on them without any obvious signs?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_charles21d ago

Honestly I gotta push back a little on that. If your old DMC tool was seating pins but just barely, that sounds more like operator technique than a bad tool. I've used the same cheap manual crimper for like 8 years on hundreds of pins and never had a single issue. Too many people blame the tool when they're not fully inserting the wire into the barrel before squeezing. Pin 23 on a Garmin tray is also a real pain to reach so half the time it's just bad access not bad crimping.

spencerm4621d ago

Ugh, I feel your pain. Same thing happened to me with a cheap Amazon pin tool on a King radio harness. It looked fine but I kept getting high resistance on one pin. I finally swapped to a Daniels manual crimper and it seated every pin perfectly on the first try. Those old DMC tools can get worn out on the die jaws over time even if they look clean. Bet you were ready to throw that Garmin tray out the window.

laura_black3120d ago

Right, nothing worse than that moment when you swear the tool's fine but it just won't grab right.