Anderson Plugs

Brian. They will lock into each other. I would assume they are not put together correctly if they do not. Check to see if you have the lugs around the right way. :-) Cheers Tony

Hi Brian,

Would I be safe in assuming you haven't put the pins into the shells yet? In effect you are asembling a pair of empty shells.

If so, yep, they don't lock at all like that. They require the whole of both plugs to be assembled before they will lock and lock they will!

Geoff

Hi. They wont lock in until the terminals are pushed "home" into the housing first. Before that you need to crimp or solder your wires (the merits of either were discussed recently on another post) into the terminals. Once that is done and the terminals inserted fully they should lock together. Regards,Bob.

Hi Brian,
We have the anderson plugs for charging while driving. They are fairly hard to push in and do not come apart. If yours simply come apart then i would say you have a problem. Check that the lugs inside are in properly. The only time I have had trouble was when I forget to plug them in and drove off. Not much plug left at the other end.

Josh

Where do you get the red T shaped handles that attach to the side of the moveable plug to make it easier to unplug, does anyone know?

Thanks for the quick replies guys, I thought that not having the wire terminations in would stop them locking in but after mucking round with them a bit and realising that the wtermination can be clipped in and out easily I still find that the dont lock together as such, guess its back to the supplier to be shown what I've done wrong....

Hi Brian

I must also mention that you must not deform the shape of the lug when crimping it.

If you look at the lug you will see it has a very slight 'bow' but is almost straight.

When crimping the lug it is best to crimp it in the mid section of the cavity and not deform it in any way. Using a crimp tool is best.

If done correctly the plug will push together and 'snap' into place, tension held by the stainless steel springs.

If done wrong the plugs are hard to push together and hard to pull apart.

Keep the contacts clean to prevent dust wearing the silver coating away as the plugs are connected.

Regards

Derek from ABR

Hi Brian,

Have a look at thread 67184 on 25-03-09 when i asked almost exactly the same question and got some very helpful replies.

Cheers,

John

Derek and John, thank you for those bits of info, like many others it seems I was putting them together wrongnow they lock into each other beautifully.
Cheers
Brian T

The only time I've had problems with Anderson Connectors is if the contact hasn't gone in correctly and the spring can't push the contact in the right position. This has only happened on the smaller Red/Black 30 amp connectors where the is less space around the wire sleeve.

I've seen people put the contact in upside-down - then you definitely will have no locking force - and the wire will pull out easily.

I had a problem like that when I was too enthusiastic with the soldering iron and some solder got onto to lug. I didnt see it at first and it took a bit of swearing and cursing before I realized my error.

Owen