Quote Originally Posted by MikeFairbanks View Post
What you have to be careful of with these though is that there is not enough solder in that ring for bare wires... you need to tin your wires before using them. The ring is just to bond the tinned wires together. If you use them with bare wires it will probably stick them together, but the electrical connection will be questionable, and occasionally you'll be able to pull them apart. We used these on F/A-18's in the military, so if you use them right there is nothing wrong with them.
Be very careful here. The amount of solder in these sleeves is engineered to provide an electrical and mechanical connection without providing enough solder to wick up the wire and stiffen it beyond the glue ring. If you tin the wires before inserting then into the splice, there's a very good chance that you'll wick enough solder up the wire (inside the insulation) to defeat the purpose of the insulation support. This can result in a wire that breaks inside its insulation, making a difficult-to-troubleshoot intermittent fault.