Poor connection in old copper wiring

[careymack]

A lot of my wiring is original plain copper and built into the boat. Where it exits there is often only a short length exposed and this is often heavily oxidised (black on the surface of the copper) Can any bright spark advise me if it is possible to get solder to take? Maybe by tinning it using Bakers fdluid?

 

[Sixpence]

If it's black it's most likely well past it , best bet is to renew completely with tinned copper strand , but others may offer an alternative idea

 

[careymack]

Many thanks for that. I fear you may be right. I'v replaced most of the wiring with tinned but the embedded ones are a pain. I'm just hoping that I might find a way to get get a reasonable connection.

 

[Sixpence]

Are the embedded ones moving freely enough to use as pull throughs ? or could you pull enough of them out to make enough room to do it ?

 

[Cornishman]

What others have said here is quite correct, but before you get involved in a major re-wire try cleaning the black, which might only be on the surface, with a gentle application of Brasso or similar. It is also quite likely that the covered parts are clean.

 

[mikefleetwood]

But don't use anything corrosive/acidic - you'll have no copper left after a while, no matter how much you try to rinse it off afterwards!

 

[Danny Jo]

I deleted my earlier reply because it is covered in the fuller discussion of the same question on the PBO forum.