Re-attaching cable to power connector on GA-20C gun

[Bushytails]

I needed to do some work on my GA-20C gun, and had to disconnect the cable in the whip from the power/gas/etc connector, by unscrewing the nut on it. Now, when trying to put it back together, I can't get the wire to stay in place. I have the nut over the wire, push the connector down into the gas line, then go to tighten the nut... But as I try to get the nut to the threads, it compresses the wire, either squishing the strands back out or pushing the power connector forwards. I've tried pushing on it, I've tried maintaining constant pressure while turning, and everything else I can think of, but every time I end up with no wire in the connector by the time I get the nut to the threads. What's the trick for getting these together?

Here's a photo, if it helps anyone see what I'm talking about:


Thanks!
--Bushytails

[cruizer]

See all that extra copper you have there, what you want to do is use an exacto knife and cut the copper off. Then stick the end in a vice and spin on the end nut. The cable and end nut will spin at the same time until rather tight

[Bushytails]

That isn't actually extra... one of the many things I attempted to make it work was to shove the gas tube as far up the whip as possible, to see if having more copper helped.

I've tried with every length of braid sticking out I could, and none of them helped... Every time the nut just spins on easily, and the wire falls out the back.

I've probably tried 20-30 different ways of making it go on now...

--Bushytails

[cruizer]

you don't want any braid sticking out. To make it quick, I crazy glue the gas nipple to the hose so that no clamp is needed.

The whole job of cutting back the gun from start to finnish should take a novice less than 20 minutes.

Now if your really, really stuck, you can discard the bras nut, put the braid on the nipple and then lock it on with aircraft quality stainless steel tye wire. This aircraft stuff has a bit of nickel in it so it dosen't work harden or break when twisted

[Bushytails]

I've wasted another hour on this, and am starting to get rather annoyed... Pissed off, even. So far it's taken more time putting this fitting back together than the entire rest of this project combined, including tracking down and replacing the bad optocoupler on the feeder board. This shouldn't take more than five minutes!

No matter what I try, how long or short the wire is, etc, the nut never actually clamps to anything, and the wire just pulls out the back. I'm going to try soldering a ring of thin wire around it now and see if it can grab onto that...

--Bushytails

[Bushytails]

Soldering a ring of #18 around it didn't work, as it was too thick to fit between the nut and the power pin... so removed the ring, leaving a bunch of solder in the braid - which seems to have done the trick! Gave it something thick it could clamp down onto. I'm not positive every strand is clamped equally tightly, but it's not pulling out of the nut, so I'm going to call it good enough, as I'm very, very sick of arguing with it.

--Bushytails

[cruizer]

Unfortunately its rather difficult to explain word wise. If I was there to show you, the repair is very simple and quick. I repair and have to cut back probably 20 guns a week

[Bushytails]

It seems to have worked pretty well - I can bend it around without it seeming like it's trying to pull out at all.

The longevity of the gun is questionable anyway... The power pin was broken, so I drilled it, tapped it, slimed it with flux, screwed it back together with a pipe nipple, then soldered it. It seems solid, but as repairs go, it's not one of those "like new" jobs. Plus the whip was badly damaged in the middle where it was caught, with one of the trigger wires completely cut, so now there's an ugly electrical tape lump... But, I'm not rich, so I fix what I can get!

I got this gun attached (kinda, given the broken pin...) to a S-32S voltage-sensing feeder. Started working on the feeder first - found it was completely dead. Tracked it down to a bad optocoupler. Fixed that, feeder seems to work great now, but needed to fix the gun. Gun seems like it should work now (wire liner is somewhat kinked, but I'll give it a try before ordering a new one), so as soon as I find a pair of used/cheap drive rollers, should be ready to go. I cracked the aluminum housing slightly hammering out the broken power connector, but it isn't too bad...

So, short version: It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to work.

--Bushytails