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Teflon wire question

IowaRV9Dreamer

IowaRV9Dreamer

Well Known Member
I bought a couple small rolls of teflon wire M16878/4B. Some web seraching reveals that this is an older mil spec, but is a teflon wire. The only real difference I see is that it has 7 strands instead of 19 (in the M22759/16 Tefzel wire Stein sells).

Does anyone know if the 7 strand wire will work? I'm wondering about crimp connections, in Faston or D connector contacts.

If anyone is interested, here is an intersting teflon wire link:
http://www.logwell.com/tech/shdwe/teflon_wire.html
 
I cant think of a reason it would not work, but then, I think the best thing you could do is to contact Stein, or someone else in the business, and ask them.

As far as I know, the big advantage of higher strand count is flexibility.
 
Specifications

The specification for the wire you have is here -

http://www.everyspec.com/MIL-SPECS/MIL+SPECS+(MIL-W)/download.php?spec=MIL-W-16878-4C.005789.PDF

There should be a couple of more letters after the /4 to fully identify the wire.

The above spec. has a replacement table on page 4 giving the later specs. for similar wire. Some variants are equivalent to MIL-W-22579/11 or /22 wire depending on the exact part number of what you have.

Ther newer specs are listed in AC 43.13-1B as OK for "protected wiring" whereas MIL-W-22579/16 is listed for "open wiring". Check section 11.77 of the AC.

The specific application on your RV will really determine if it is OK...

PS the wire you have may be to an obsolete Mil spec. but it appears it is still being made -

http://www.jchwire.com/jchwire/catalog/HookUp183.htm
 
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Thanks Gil - I like the specs website a lot...

This wire is M16878/4BGB1, which is a silver plated copper 20AWG wire.

I'll check out the AC... if there is any question I'll end up buying new wire.

dave
 
There are a couple reasons not to use it. #1 is the fact that it's silver plated; which one would initially assume is better than tin, but in aircraft that is not necessarily so. The silver plating makes the wire quite brittle in comparison to tin plating and will not resist bents/vibration/etc.. very well because it's very stiff. #2 is the pure teflon coating. Not as bad as the silver plating, but if you clamp it or zip tie it tightly, the teflon will over time just cold flow around the fastening device. #3 is the fact that Teflon is so slippery it makes it a pain to work with as far as stripping, etc.. With Teflon you almost have to use the copression dies to do a good job.

Anyway, that's a short/quick version of the negatives. In the right instances it could be used, but overall I'd just avoid it. It's a very common suprlus wire....

My 2 cents as usual.

Cheers,
Stein
 
We use lots of 16878 for internal hook-up wire in our boxes here at work. The same "pinch" stripper dies are used for it and 22759. Tefzel (22759) is preferred for airframe wiring because it is less prone to cold-flow than straight Teflon. I went with 22759 on my plane.
 
Wire ident

I have bought wire from several sources over the past couple years. Some do not have any spec stamped along the wire that I can see (maybe I need a magnifying glass). All of it was bought through reputable online sources for aircraft use such as Van's, Steinair, B&C etc. How can I identify this wire? Should unstamped wire be avoided altogether?

Bevan
RV7A wiring
 
If it's mil-spec wire it should be inked every "x" number of inches with the spec. Often times it can be hard to read the imprints on colored wire, but I've yet to see a spool where it didn't exist at all. Since wire is no longer allowed to be stamped, it's usually lasered or inkjetted which means the lettering can possibly wear a bit, or is just plain darned hard to read. It may be difficult to find the writing in some short chunks, but in longer chunks you should be able to find it somewhere. We usually look over the spools when they arrive, but like I said we haven't found one yet that is totally missing a stamp. Ocassionally their labeline machine may miss a couple fee, but that is actually within spec. If it's lasered on dark colored wires it's near impossible to read unless it was coated to chemically show the etching. Green's, Browns, etc.. are all hard to see. White wire is usually pretty easy.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,
Stein
 
MIL-W-81044/12

Hey Stein or anyone else,

I know I'm rousing an older thread here, but what about 81044 wire? I've come into possession of some light gauge wire stamped with this spec and all I've found so far is the jacket is a cross-linked polyalkene (PVDF?) and it's been used in the past on some Boeing jets. I don't really know what all that means though. Is it inferior to Tefzel for general RV panel wiring?
 
That's not a horrible wire, in fact it's been used in lots of places in the heavy iron world for years - though it's not what we typically use in GA aircraft. It is typically a very fine/thin DUAL insulated wall wire which can make stripping it a wee bit of a pain over a single wall insulator without specific dies. That being said, within the Mil-W-1044 spec which that wire adheres to, there are again dozens upon dozens of variations so be sure of what you're getting as far as conductors and plating on the conductor.

Again, I'll say bluntly that unless the surplus wire is free and you know exactly what it is, don't waste lots of time and energy trying to be pennywise when it comes to wire. Total cost of hookup wire in your entire airplane will be in the low hundreds of $$'s at worst - not a significant expense on an $80K+/- airplane! Of course I admit that's a biased subjective answer, but a truism none the less.

Just my 2 cents as usual.

Cheers,
Stein
 
SteinAir said:
That's not a horrible wire, in fact it's been used in lots of places in the heavy iron world for years - though it's not what we typically use in GA aircraft. It is typically a very fine/thin DUAL insulated wall wire which can make stripping it a wee bit of a pain over a single wall insulator without specific dies. That being said, within the Mil-W-1044 spec which that wire adheres to, there are again dozens upon dozens of variations so be sure of what you're getting as far as conductors and plating on the conductor.

Again, I'll say bluntly that unless the surplus wire is free and you know exactly what it is, don't waste lots of time and energy trying to be pennywise when it comes to wire. Total cost of hookup wire in your entire airplane will be in the low hundreds of $$'s at worst - not a significant expense on an $80K+/- airplane! Of course I admit that's a biased subjective answer, but a truism none the less.

Just my 2 cents as usual.

Cheers,
Stein
Click to expand...

Stein,

He did mention 81044/12 in the heading of his post...

AC 43.13 puts this particular slash number in the "protected wiring" category, so it has the same problems as the initial post in this thread.

I don't think this one is dual wall, but it is sold as "light wall" and the 22 g stuff has an insulation thickness of 0.006.

http://www.awcwire.com/Part.aspx?code=367O31H6J3

Not the best stuff to use, even if free....:)
 
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Thanks for the info, Stein and Gil. Unfortunately I paid good money (almost what Stein charges for the good stuff - yeah, feel stupid about that) for this wire. Looks like it might be just fine inside some conduit though, so I might be able to use a little bit of it.

Yet another case of caveat emptor on the classifieds. Oh well, not the most expensive lesson I've ever learned....
 
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