A question about swapping wire colors and wire crimping

E

EvilNick

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 14, 2004
Messages
149
Here's the situation: The 20pin ATX connector on my PSU has become worn and loose with time. This has resulted in a poor connection which in turn caused slight overheating with the pins and connector getting discoloured brown. So what I want to do now is:

- Cut off the whole connector at the wires
- Strip the ends of the newly cut wires
- Crimp new pins to those ends
- Put them all in a new plastic connector

My questions are:

1. There are multiple red connectors in the 20pin. Are they interchangeable? Or must they be put back in the same positions? How bout other colors? I know the black wires are interchangeable since they're all ground and lead to the same place right?

2. What do I need to crimp the bare pins to the bare wires properly? Picture of tool would help, sorry for my inadequate knowledge in electronic equipment. :) Also, after crimping, is soldering still required?

Thanks a bunch for any help. :D
 
You will need a pair of crimpers specifically for those those pins. The crimpers run from $50-$500 depending on the quality. DO NOT use pliers. They will simply crush the connector.

If you look on the connector, 1 of the orange wires will be a "double orange", or an orange with a brown wire shoved into the same pin. Some power supplies will have a double red, double orange, double yellow, and sometimes a double blue. Those are the only wires that must be put into the exact same position. Other than those, and red wire may be put into any place a red wire came from, black may be put into any place a black wire came from, etc....

Also remember the pins aren't cheap either.

So, all-in-all, it will be cheaper (and a hell of a lot easier) to just buy a new power supply.
 
Well I already have 20 new pins and a new plastic connector housing, all of which only cost about RM15 which is roughly US$5. So the only cost I'll incur is for the crimper.

Obviously I'd rather get a new PSU, but I'm short on cash and I'd want to fix this one up too because I'd need to sell this one to afford a new one.
 
hey I like having tools, I'd use something like this as an excuse to buy a crimper so I can use it on other things.
 
Alright, thanks for the help, gonna go out and look for a pair soon. Hope I don't mess up my PSU lol. :D First time using crimpers ahha.
 
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