Bayonet Body Cord problem

[Chafunkta]

So I decided to order a bunch of parts for foil body cords and make my own. I got the bayonet ends from Leon Paul, the three prongs ends from Mr. Chen (through Blue Gauntlet), some speaker wire from Home Depot (I want to say 18 gauge but I really don't remember), and the Alligator clips also from LP. The sockets I use are Leon Paul bayonet sockets.

However, I've been having some problems with these cords. I've been getting an intermittent white light with them. I've tried to clean out the socket with fingernail polish remover and/or acetone with a q-tip and got the same white lights. I even scraped out the inside of the socket and the top of the screw on the bayonet end to bring up some shiny new metal. However, none of this has seemed to work. I still get those white lights.

It is my suspicion that the problem is either in the body cord itself or the socket. I have rewired the weapons and they work; no problems with the tip screws being loose or off or with the barrel being loose, or any other weapon problem. When I move the bayonet plug around in the socket I can reproduce and off target light. Does anyone have a diagnosis?

[Purple Fencer]

Did you check the set screws in teh plug head itself? Those DO come loose on occasion.

Go through the cord itself rom stem to stern....make sure there are no wire breaks (unlikely in that design...at least less likely than the Uhlmann type) and that ALL the set screws are tight.

[Chafunkta]

For some reason, you're always the first to respond to any of my posts, Purple.

Well I checked the screws and went over everything from "stem to stern." Bad news is that everything looked good. All the screws were tight and there were no broken connections. I did take an extra precaution and pull some of the wire through to make another connection (i.e. stuck the wire in a different place with the pointy screw).

One thing that kinda worries me is the wire that I have. It's thicker than the LP bodycord wire, and whenever I pull it through the holes in the bayonet plug, some of the insulation strips off. It's not been enough insulation to expose the wire, though. I doubt that has anything to do with my white lights, but it may be somewhere to point a finger.

[yeoldearmourer]

One the pins are not make good contact with the wire. Leon Paul wire fits better and is design for the screw to good though the insulation which holds the stang together. Where as the thicker wire you going though just the strand and the wire is spreading apart though fore make intermittent contacts. Two you can have the B&C lead res. But it the thicker wire is the problems.

[Purple Fencer]

For some reason, you're always the first to respond to any of my posts, Purple. .

That's 'cause I have no life, so I vulture the armory part of the board!

Tim's comment about the wire is interesting. Tim...I would think that the insulation would make it impossible for the wire to spread away from the set screw...wouldn't that be mroe a function of teh thicker insulation?? The screw couldn;t project as far into the wire....THAT I could see.

BTW, Chafunkta....I'm amazed you were able to get the wire through the rubber boot in the first place....I've oinly been able to do it with LP wire....never with a German...

[Chafunkta]

The problem wasn't getting it through the rubber boot; the problem is when I have to stick it through the holes in the screw brackets of the bayonet plug. That's when some of the insulation gets stripped off (because I'm pulling it through with a pair of needle-nose pliers). I don't know what you mean by German wire. I didn't think there was a specific "German" wire for a body cord.

And I don't think the problem is with the screws not piercing through the insulation to make good contact with the wire. After pulling the wire through, I looked at the holes that screws had made in the wire that they were previously piercing through and there was definitely enough room for a good electrical contact.

[KD5MDK]

If you take the weapon off entirely and just short the connectors to each other, do you still get white lights? That would rule out a weapon problem.

When you short the B & C lines at the 3 prong end, does that end the white lights? If not, then the problem is between the box and the BC.

Past that, I can't really say since I don't fiddle with bayonet sockets.