Help with Anderson plugs (1 Viewer)

[lx570westtexas]

Hello all,

I did something wrong when I wired up some Anderson style connectors (am I getting the vernacular right?) with my main battery. I was tired of removing the LX plastic panels when I needed to use my compressor so I wired up a breaker and another connection to my battery. It works great...except the connection doesn't seat all the way. If I really press it together it stays enough to work but I'm worried about having a solid connection and don't exactly know what I did wrong. I want to do more with these type of connections so please help me learn!

 

[gnob]

they look right. the crimp may be tweeked not settling the terminal in the housing properly. disassemble and reinstall

 

[80t0ylc]

@lx570westtexas , IME pins would not have seated in the connector if the crimp was tweaked. I just looked at one of my connectors, pic included. You may have to use more force to seat the connectors together. The lobe on the pin's mating surface can make it difficult to seat and unseat connectors but also help keep the connectors seated. Your connectors and pins look assembled correctly, as @gnob mentioned.

Edit: I should also mention that in the 1st pics, your connectors are not fully seated. That's why I suggest to use more muscle to seat connectors.

 

[e9999]

the connectors appear to be installed OK, with the lip over the spring. But they seem very high and maybe fatter than originals. I take it this is just a generic chinese version? Maybe just poor quality control. Or are the connectors maybe intended for a heavier duty housing? They do seem kind of chunky. Either way, you really want this seated properly, there are already what looks like burn marks likely due to sparking on yours.

 

[80t0ylc]

Where blue arrow shows in pic, shows that connectors are not seated. The burn marks, as @e9999 mentions are an indication of the poor connection when not seated and will eventually deform pins so they will have to be replaced. Also as he mentions, the OP's pins are larger which will require more force to seat connectors.

 

[lx570westtexas]

the connectors appear to be installed OK, with the lip over the spring. But they seem very high and maybe fatter than originals. I take it this is just a generic chinese version? Maybe just poor quality control. Or are the connectors maybe intended for a heavier duty housing, they do seem kind of chunky? Either way, you really want this seated properly, there are already what looks like burn marks likely due to sparking on yours.

I used 4 ga wire.

And a connection pack.

 

[e9999]

the gap between the 2 halves when together suggests that the contact surfaces likely did not climb over each other and are just touching on the front. Not good. You may just need to push the heck out of them to seat them properly and then hope you never need them disconnected again... You should watch for a snap feel of sorts after some resistance when you push them together.
Or you could try and see if you can bend the springs down a bit

 

[george_tlc]

Looks like you have the 'pins' in 180 degrees wrong. Look carefully at your RED connector pictures and the 'pins' and compare to the grey connector pins.

cheers,
george.

 

[Shoredreamer]

Looks like those are SB175s so a larger lug vs an SB50 lug. Just confirm the lug has fully seated into the connector. You should get a positive click when it does and to confirm pull hard on the wires to ensure both the cable and lug are installed correctly and the crimp or solder is solid. If that all checks out and you still aren’t able to connect 2 connectors, I’d add a small amount of dielectric grease to help reduce friction, or file the contact points on the lugs to get optimal connection.

 

[george_tlc]

Will write it again, the contacts are in 180 degrees off. The sloping down part of the contact should face UP to mate to the slope part of the contact of the other half. It's pretty obvious if you compare the structure/slope of the pins in the red connector pics with the ones in the grey connector.

No matter of pushing or dielectric grease will correct the issue. Pull the contacts out, rotate them 180 degrees and push them back in till they click. There is a small groove if you have the pins in the correct way around that will mate and catch with the spring leafs in the plastic housings.

Though, it appears the OP has left the room...

cheers,
george.

 

[lx570westtexas]

Will write it again, the contacts are in 180 degrees off. The sloping down part of the contact should face UP to mate to the slope part of the contact of the other half. It's pretty obvious if you compare the structure/slope of the pins in the red connector pics with the ones in the grey connector.

No matter of pushing or dielectric grease will correct the issue. Pull the contacts out, rotate them 180 degrees and push them back in till they click. There is a small groove if you have the pins in the correct way around that will mate and catch with the spring leafs in the plastic housings.

Though, it appears the OP has left the room...

cheers,
george.T

Thanks to all! Been out of pocket lately but will report back for future users once I adjust

 

[LandLocked93]

+1 the lugs might be in upside down in one of the housings.
But also...

Note the red circles - they are highlighting the metal "prong" upon which the lugs rest and by which the lugs are secured in the housing. The left lug is seated correctly. The right lug is not - it needs to be pushed further into the housing. That prong will make a click sound when the lug is fully seated.

 

[e9999]

I don't know what you guys are saying about the 180 off. The "lip" on the spring side is much shorter and sharper than the longer bump on the other side where the 2 prongs are contacting.
It just looks to me like the red plug connectors are big.

 

[george_tlc]

Look at the contacts on the grey connector, look at the ones on the red connector. The red has them upside down. The bump on the contact should NOT be facing towards the surface of the mating contact. 'tis obvious if you look closely.

cheers,
george.

 

[e9999]

There is a lip on the spring side and a bump on the mating side. The lip is smaller and sharper. It is intended to just lock over the spring blade. The other side is for both connector mating surfaces to -well- mate symmetrically. As in the cross-section below:

When the 2 prongs are being connected, they should slide over each other, with the springs flexing slightly (I imagine) for the bumps to slide past each other, with the bumps then overlapping and providing hopefully good contact on the cable side of the bump. The "snap" is when the prong bumps are going over each other and then springing back in place. The insertion is facilitated by the shallow angle slope at the front of the bump on the connection surface.

The final position of the connecting surfaces should be something like this:

this is all exceptionally clever, IMO. Brilliant design.



So, no, I don't see the connectors being upside down. I see the big bumps on the upper side as they should be, with the expected shallow slopes visible. I am happy to be corrected if wrong, of course.
As to LL's point about it not being fully engaged on one side, that seems possible but it could be an optical effect too. Easy to find out, just check and see if the lip is fully down against the blade.

 

[Tesota]

It just looks to me like the red plug connectors are big.

I agree, they're just huge and kind of a pain. You've really got to shove the SB 175 connectors together to get it to fully engage. If possible, hard mounting one of them to something might help you get a better handle on it.

 

[Tesota]

Also some of the SB 175s are keyed, recommend that you check that there's not something going on with that. If they mixed up a keyed and non-keyed connector when your order shipped that might be the issue.

 

[e9999]

and, unfortunately, all bets are off with chinese copies of much size-critical stuff like this...

 

[Jason YY]

It looks like two different brand connectors ?

 

[ntsqd]

Looks like those are SB175s so a larger lug vs an SB50 lug. Just confirm the lug has fully seated into the connector. You should get a positive click when it does and to confirm pull hard on the wires to ensure both the cable and lug are installed correctly and the crimp or solder is solid. If that all checks out and you still aren’t able to connect 2 connectors, I’d add a small amount of dielectric grease to help reduce friction, or file the contact points on the lugs to get optimal connection.

um, no, do not file the contacts. They are plated for corrosion resistance, which is very, very important in an electrical connector. Even a little corrosion is a disaster in the making.

Assuming that this assembly are real Anderson parts they will work as intended when assembled correctly. These connectors, particularly the bigger series, do require some force to connect and disconnect. This is because of their ampacity, the force on the contacts must be high enough to conduct the current without heating up. If they are not real Anderson parts then it's been an expensive lesson.