[kmcclary]

Another issue is HOW you wire the primary power leads on the Victor.

If for example you have any wires wound around the screw instead of using ring tongue lugs, you can easily jam the screw. A piece of stranded wire can "lock up" the screw, making it FEEL like it has bottomed out, when it has NOT. This is especially true of the thin fan wiring. This causes a loose primary wire, creating erratic operation as the robot wiring vibrates from accelerations. This condition may be evidenced by watching the lights on the Victor. If the light glitches out as you're driving around, you most likely have a bad primary power connection somewhere.

You should NEVER have a wire wound around the screw. ALWAYS use RING TONGUE LUGS. In addition, they need BOTH the proper hole size for the screw, AND the proper wire gauge size for the crimp end. Attempting to use an oversized hole lug can also create a dancing robot situation.

The way WE wire them, that has NEVER had a "dancing robot" problem, consists of the following procedure:

1) CLEAN THE SURFACES OF ALL LUGS, to remove any oxidation from storage. Sometimes, lugs have been sitting on the store shelves for years or even DECADES due to bad stock rotation rituals. It may LOOK clean, but often there is a slight, nearly invisible oxide coating that can interfere with good metal to metal contact. I use a few strokes of 600-1200 grit sandpaper to "polish the flats", and a stroke or two with a piece rolled up in a tube to "polish the wire hole". This action removes the oxides. It is important NOT to remove the coating, though. Just a SLIGHT cleaning action is all that is needed. In bad cases, I've used a TINY touch with a Dremel ultrafine sanding disk, but you risk coating removal with that method. (I've also used the paper peeled off of the "ultrafine" side of a cheap two sided fingernail sanding stick.) Now clean off the contact with some alcohol or contact cleaner/degreaser to remove any grit and oil (or you may be WORSE off than doing nothing at all!)

2) Trim the fan wires to length to get rid of the excess. Attach the appropriate sized ring tongue lugs to them. Since the fan wiring is SO thin, and the most common "small" ring lug is only 20-24 gauge ("red" coded insulator) we double up the bare end (strip to double bare length, then fold the end back), to thicken it slightly. This insures a GOOD crimp contact.

3) Crimp on the appropriate gauge wiring ring tongue lugs to the primary power wiring.

4) Remove the left (raw power) screws from the Victor. Inspect the Victor's case clips. They're normally NEW, but if you're reusing old Victors from previous years, be sure THEY are clean as well. If there is any oxide coating, remove it as well. Ditto with the screws. Hold the screw with a pair of lock jaw pliers, and use a small wire wheel to clean off the threads and the underside of the head. Don't put chemicals into the Victor, though. Use a clean cloth moistened slightly with your alcohol or contact cleaner/degreaser and wipe it instead of spraying it. I also hold the Victor "upside down" while polishing their bare contacts, then vacuum, to insure metal flakes don't drop into the screw holes and get into the internal works. (Make sure Gravity is your FRIEND...)

5) Stacking order: Place the FAN wires on the screw FIRST, THEN an "internal star lock washer", THEN the power wiring. All Reds go on the "+" screw, All Blacks go on the "-" screw. Reattach the screws. From the BOTTOM UP, your stack should now be: Frame contact on Victor, POWER lead wiring, internal star lock washer, FAN lead wiring, screw head.

(An "internal star" lock washer is different from a "split" lock washer. Instead of a cut circle bent to look like one turn of a helix, this looks like a solid ring, with spokes pointing toward the CENTER of the screw, each twisted slightly to bite on BOTH the upper and lower surfaces.)

This order guarantees that the POWER wire is HARD DOCKED to the contact on the case of the Victor, and there are NO loose wires from the fan to jam the screw. The lock washer also acts a a "tensioning spring" to insure it won't vibrate loose. The INTERNAL teeth make NUMEROUS bites around the perimeter of the lug, forcing GOOD contact (an EXTERNAL star may not bite the lugs AT ALL).

If you stacked in the REVERSE order, it forces the current THROUGH the fan lug, adding additional surface to surface contacts. If clean, it doesn't matter, but IF NOT, and there is corrosion on ANY of these surfaces, it WILL add resistance, and/or cause intermittent operation.

To reiterate: The most important things are: NO raw wires (only connect using the RIGHT sized lugs), ALL contact surfaces and connectors are CLEAN and FREE of oxides, and the POWER wire lug is against the Victor's frame contact (NOT the FAN wire).

This MAY sound like OVERKILL to some, but trust me, THIS WORKS. Once you get into this ritual HABIT, it only takes a few seconds per lug to do, and you've guaranteed they're all clean and have fantastic electrical contact.

I hope this helps!

- Keith