Light repairs – Connection lead fail

A hoy hoy

My 3 year old Chinese jobbies developed an intermittent fault on last nights ride. The problem is the connection on the battery side where it connects to the light lead. Is OK provide I only look left.

Can you get replacement connectors and is it a relatively simple fix to swop the connectors over? If yes, where from and what am I looking for please?

I say Chinese jobbies, was from MTB Batteries so better than the average tat I suspect. Battery and light still good so don’t won’t to replace if I can help it.

Keen to fix or if need by replace ASAP as I use them for helmet duties (snigger) and was surprised how much I missed it the second it failed. Have a Lumicycle bar mounted jobby so not the end of the world. Hmm, think I’m going into too much detail.

Had a solid bowl movement this morning, yep.

Yep should be straight forward to fix. Pop into your local Maplin store where you should find a suitable connector. Solder a small length of new cable to the new connector. The guys in Maplins should be able to advise you on a suitable cable. Then cut the old connector off and solder the new connector to the battery. Cover the join using heat shrink.

Hmmm, the mention of soldering and heat shrink has my comfort zone senses tingling.

Probably don’t even need to replace connectors. One of the cable must be disconnected, open the connector, solder cable back on and electrical tape.

Frankly the cable used on most of the Chinese lights is utter pants. The actual conductor is about the width of a hair. Wrap the excess around the bars or top tube and it soon fractures.

We had to do a field repair on mine in the middle of nowhere a few weeks back.There was a break internally close to the power connectors. I can confirm that a first aid kit is a trail essential and that plasters are good insulators.

I can’t see a suitable cable on the Maplins website, so RS or Farnells might be another option for cable and connectors.

Hth

Marko

Hmmm, the mention of soldering and heat shrink has my comfort zone senses tingling.

This is very basic soldering and is absolutely something a total beginner can attempt. Have a look on You Tube I’m sure there will many soldering tutorial videos to watch.

The only problem is if you don’t have any of the tools you can spend ~£30 on something OK ish when you can probably pick up a new battery pack for not much more. Do you know anyone with an soldering iron that can give you a hand? The whole job shouldn’t take more than 30mins even for a beginner.

If the light was from MTB batteries i’d pop mark an email.

He is a really decent guy to deal with and may be able to fix your cable problem.

I replaced the cable and plugs on my Chinese jobs, just used silicone cable which is more flexible and better at lower temps than PVC and model RC battery connectors, cost less than a tenner to sort including a few bits of heat shrink and cable sheath, all from ebay….

could use these plugs:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/05147-DC-Power-Plug-Male-Socket-Female-Inline-Chassis-Metal-Plastic-/290808937720?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item43b5903cf8

Thanks for your advice guys, friend located with soldering iron. Happy to give most things a go but a good kit will be £25+
Connectors purchased from Matlin.