How To Swap An E-Bike Connector

E-bike components such as throttles, motors and batteries always come with some form of plastic electrical connector at the end of the wire. These connectors plug in to the controller and make it easy to connect everything together.

 

These connectors make it easy to remove a component and put another in its place. But recently due to the lack of standards in e-bike connectors, most parts you get for replacement are going to have different connectors and when this occurs, having to add your new connector can be infuriating.

But not to worry, Today we’ll be learning how to easily change a connector.

Start by cutting off your old connector

Let’s take for example you have a throttle wire with a white three pin connector, while your old throttle has a smaller black three pin connector.

 

Firstly, you’d have to cut off the old connector, the black three pin connector so you can swap it onto your new throttle wire. Leave at least a couple inches of wire on your connector so you won’t have issues soldering it onto your new component’s wire. You’ll also want enough room to slide heat shrink over the connection as well.

 

Removing your new connector.

 

Next, you’d have to cut off your new throttle’s connector. It will be wise to save it in case you are ever in need of it again.

 

Stripping your wires

Strip your wires about one-eighth to one-fourth distally from the end of the wires on both the throttle and the connector wires.

 

Tinning your wires

There are different ideas on how to do this, but basically you need to coat the bare ends of the wires with solder. You’d want to apply the tip of the soldering iron to the copper wire to begin to heat the wire. Wait a few seconds then apply solder to the wire directly (not to the soldering iron) until the bare end of the wire is coated with solder.

 

Add heat shrink tubing

Heat shrink covers and separates electrical connections from one another. This is a very important step. If you don’t have heat shrink tubing, you can try wrapping the connection with electrical tape, but it’s better to use real heat shrink tubing.

 

Make your connections

Now that you’ve done the heat shrink tubing, you’re ready to start soldering your connections. If you did the previous step correctly then you should already have a nice solder-infused tip on both wires.

 

To join the two wires, simply align one next to the other with the length of the bare wire overlapping (not aligned tip to tip) and apply the soldering iron to both wires simultaneously. The solder will melt and join the two wires together.

 

Leave the soldering iron in place for an additional second or two after the solder melts to ensure good fusing of the two wires with wet solder, then remove the soldering iron. Allow the joint to cool before you move it so you don’t end up breaking the joint prematurely.

 

Sealing the heat shrink

Once the connections have been made, you’ll have to slide the heat shrink into place and seal it with a heat gun. Don’t try to use a hair dryer; you need an actual heat gun. If you don’t have one, you can get an inexpensive one which will be good for other projects like this in the future.