new loaner tool for the OC? Beru plug wire crimper

When I saw something about this subject on RL I looked at the BERU site and studied their $375 crimper. I see that it will put about five sharp longways crimps in the large barrel of the BERU threaded wire ends, all at one time. I also saw that they sell the wire ends for about $70 for a hundred; so I ordered some. They actually sent 114 in the plastic container.

Then I looked on eBay for some kind of spark plug wire crimper and found one that is somewhat smaller than the BERU one looks like and it comes with two sets of crimping heads. With two heads ( and I think both are needed) it is just under $80, and as I recall, with free shipping. I bought one. It is a compound action kind of crimper.

Then I went to the NAPA store and priced some good quality spark plug wire. It is about $50 for a 100 foot roll in black and $150 for that same roll in white. I think I like the white, but I bought a short piece of black to test the crimper with.

The eBay crimper puts only one sharp indent/crimp into the brass wire barrel, but if you crimp it more times you get more crimps. My pictures show the result. I think I put five crimps in the end, but will liikely use six when I build a wire set.

The next thing I have to do is modify the second set of crimping dies so that I can crimp the threaded shaft of the wire-end onto the wire end that is now inside it. It will take only one crimp. However, with the dies provided for that I see that I will need to grind off part of the crimp so that it does not upset the threads when the unthreaded part of the shaft is crimped. I haven't done that yet. See the picture where the pen is pointing to the part of the die that will have to be ground down for clearance.

With this set-up I think I can build a set of wires for myself for the intiial investment of less than $200, but this will be for a set without new connectors one that will require reuse fo the originals or buying new ones somewhere. However, the second set will cost me only about $12.50, assuming that I can get four sets out of 100 feet of wire and I use black wire. The white wire set(s) will run about $37.50 a set, as long as the wire ends hold out. Add in the cost of some more brass ends, or averaging their cost, brings cost up about $15 additional per set.

If I average the cost of the crimper over several sets of wires I suppose the cost of a nice new set of wires only will be about $50 (white). I think that sure justifies buying the crimper on an individual basis rather than messing with the $375 one from BERU and trying to manage the loan program, at least if you have more than one car to deal with, or you do this in a small local group.

Jerry Feather

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So If a member has one or two wires on his car that are in good condition and he pulled off the crimped end while working on his car and all he wants to do is replace the bad end, you're saying its cheaper for him to search out e-bay for that crimp tool you bought for $70 and then modify the dies to give his end a similar type crimp, buy a box of 100 ends and fix his wires, instead of just calling the club and pay to ship the tool to him and use it?

Hi Ed.

So, if a member has one or two (or maybe more, or even all) wires on his car that are in good condition and he pulled off the crimped end(s)

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Why doesn't he save all that shipping and delay, while you are waiting for the tool to come back from maybe you don't remember where, and just send you the wire(s) for you to simply trim the end and crimp on a new brass ferrel and simply send it back?

You could have the Club stock you with the BERU ends, and that would be a logical and economic way to do the whole project.

In fact, the Club could supply you with several rolls of Spark Plug Wire and you could simply make and send out as many wires as a given member might need and that would be much cheaper than sending you a used wire to fix and return. Now, that is where the project starts to make some sense. We would not a borrower or lender be; and I think there is some Biblical merit to that.

You wouldn't be spending much more time doing the wires on order than you would be shipping the tool(s) around the world, and the time involved would be a great benefit the the overall membership, especially the ones needing any number of wires.

Now the project is starting to come into focus, at least for me.

Jerry Feather

Just caught up on this one..

Thanks everyone for running with this.

I believe it will add value to many members, as long as the word of this opportunity is made known to everyone.

jadz928;10588 wrote: I believe it will add value to many members, as long as the word of this opportunity is made known to everyone.

That is the purpose of these forums, to communicate to the members. The forum relative to this matter is forums.928oc.org/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=16 (where tools are to be listed). I do have to add the 928 diag tool, as it was purchased long before the forum, but an new tools will be listed there, depending on the future leadership of the club's decisions of course.

Stan, where is the list of tools that we have?
can we get to it from the main page?