He is right about 25W not being much power, but don't dip the tip in the flux. That will just cross contaminate and cook your flux. Take lint free tissue and clean the tip off before each time you use it and then add the small amount of solder to the tip. If you don't have lint free tissues, take paper towels and fold them up and wet them. Use this to clean the tip. The tip should be clean and silver looking each time you use it. You shouldn't have cooked on flux on the tip.

The Stahl adjustable soldering station is variable from 5-40W, which is good for this kind of work.

 

Practice practice practice....get the solder on the joint then you can smooth it out... Just make sure your heat shrink is on before you join the wires...

 

Did not read all this so here may be repeats. Most heat sink is fairly thin. I wrap with electrical tape and heat sink over it. If I know it's realy going to catch the weather I dab a bit of rtv in both ends to seal it from dirt. Depending on the crud, over time you can get minor voltage drains if its wet. FXD2003 must be an air craft mechanic or build Nuclear submarines, he's good?

 

In my experience the quality of the soldering gun makes all of the difference. With a good quality soldering gun the work goes fast and it doesn't bur anything. You don't want just raw wattage, but a control so that the tip stays the same temperature all of the time.

I used to use the cheapies and absolutely hated soldering. Now I've got access to an industrial one at work and it's so easy, The full industrial ones might be too expensive, but I'm sure they've got temperature controlled ones that consumers can buy.

 

All very good suggestions. One problem with motorcycle wires is that they get wet. Shrink wrap will not seal the solder joint from moisture and, in fact, will hold moisture and cause corrosion. Always a good idea to use shrink wrap in areas that are subject to abrasion but I seal the connection with liquid tape before overlaying with shrink wrap. This provides a moisture proof seal similar to the original plastic coating and helps prevent corrosion problems.

 

Do not twist or hook your wires in any way. Tin your wires then solder them together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE0pb...e_gdata_player

 

Why? (Sorry, can't watch the video here at work)

Unless I have to fit them through a smaller opening I usually put the wires next to each other and twist them together (Like a Y). Then solder, then I put a zip tie on the wires so that any pulling stress goes to the zip tie and not the solder joint.
Then, after that I usually do two layers of heat shrink. It's not as pretty as the original wire, but it's stout and make a good electrical connection that won't come apart if the wires are pulled on.