Need help with crimper

I bought a ratcheting terminal crimper for Amp PDIG style terminals. Those are the plastic insulated automotive looking ring terminals and other crimped terminals. I have the die with the red blue and yellow openings to fit the handles. Which way does the connector go into the crimp die? It looks like it would make a difference. The end of the terminal (ring or spade) could face the side with the colored markings or the wire could come out of the side with the colored markings. Boy, there is nothing simple when it comes to wiring. Hey Stein, HELP!

I was told the split goes towards the crimping surface

I don't have the crimper but

PIDG (permanent insulated diamond grip) came out of AMP MANY

years ago and people were having trouble with the orientation. AMP put on a brief course at McDonnell Aircraft in about 1959 to make sure all of the electrical personnel fully understood the design and application. The terminals at that time included three parts (1) the conductor barrel and tongue (or ring if you prefer), (2) the insulation gripping barrel that was roughly twice as long as the conductor barrel and its forward end was located at the forward end of the conductor barrel (so it extended back about twice as far as the conductor barrel) and it had tabs folded back inside the rear of itself, (3) the colored plastic insulation sleeve.



The wire had to be stripped so that the exposed conductor would extend slightly through the forward end of the conductor barrel but not so far as to interfere with the fastener hardware (washer, etc.).

The stripped wire was inserted into the terminal and the terminal inserted into the crimper so that:
- the conductor crimp would go across the conductor barrel slightly back from the leading edge of the barrel
- the tongue of the terminal is flat at the bottom of the crimp opening
- the conductor is extending through the conductor barrel with the wire insulation bottomed out against the trailing edge of the conductor barrel

Squeeze the crimper. The ratcheting function of the crimper was intended to assure that the correct minimum crimping pressure was applied before release.

When properly crimped there were was a crimp impressions in the plastic across the forward end of the terminal deforming the area of the terminal containing all three parts of the terminal and the wire conductor and two longitudinal crimps at the rear of the terminal forming a diamond shaped opening around the insulation and deflecting the folded in trailing edge tabs into the wire insulation. The theory was the insulation crimp should help support the terminal/wire interface under tension loads.

Us electrical inspectors would buy off PIDG crimps if the wire/terminal positioning was correct, a single clean set of conductor and insulation crimp impressions were visible, the crimp impression code indicated the proper sized crimper was used for the wire gage and terminal color involved, the wire conductor was deformed indicating a secure installation and no conductor was visible behind the terminal.

If you have a true PIDG crimper one end of the crimp will be relatively flat and the other will appear more like the edges are being pinched. These are the conductor and insulation crimps respectively.

These are used in similar fashion for butt splices. For coaxes, large gauge power wires and avionic crimp pins different crimpers an acceptance criteria apply. Always use the right crimpers. They are painfully expensive but essential for reliable connections.

Bob Axsom

Bob answered with all sorts of stuff I didn't know (interesting!).

One additional bit of data - if you are using an Ideal brand crimper the colored dot goes towards the wire (per Bob's comments about which side is meant to clamp down on the insulation). I also labeled my crimper with a paint marker to remind me "connector side" vs "wire side".

Thanks Guys,
My crimper is not an Ideal brand but an Eclipse. Maybe they are the same. Here is what I have according to what you've said.
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Jim,

I can't say for sure that it's right, but that's definitely how I did mine. I'm happy to report that so far my electrical system has thousands of trouble free hours (sitting in my garage without an engine, battery, etc.)

The way I think about it is this: The end near the ring/tonque/spade gets crimped more than the open end. If you look at the dies on the crimper, you'll notice one side is smaller than the other. Arrange accordingly.

The extra info from Bob is good. I didn't know "leading edge" and "trailing edge" could be applied to electrical wiring.