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Possible to repair braided wire on Struthers-Dunn relay?

I believe there was a short in my OpenEVSE due to one of the 240V supply wires coming loose from the screw terminal on the relay. Likely a bad install on my part, which I feel lucky did not cause a more serious problem, and I have ordered the new Packard C240C relay + harness + a ferrule set and crimper to replace and upgrade.


However, I'm curious for myself (and for posterity) if repairing the braided connection on the relay is possible and advisable.

 

image


It looks like I would need to solder a short section of the braid back together or solder in a short section of wire (and I'm comfortable doing that), as well as clean the contacts. From reading some other sources, it sounds like US electrical code allows soldered wire connections generally (lead solder melting temperature is well above rated wire temperatures). And then also pull in more of the supply wire so I can remove the damaged section and add ferrule ring terminations.


On the other hand, I don't want to mess around with potentially damanged electrical components, create a fire hazard, etc. So my most likely course of action is just wait and install the new relay.


Good god that thing looks toast.  Just replace any part that got cooked.  It is not worth trying to repair such critical high voltage/amperage components.  


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Switched to the Packard relay and re-terminated all my wires. I'm a big fan of ferrules, much nicer to work with!


I'm still glad to hear about repair options for the other relay, but just out of curiosity at this point.


image

 

Old relay is toast, contacts look bad and everything overheated. The issue was not a short, just a loose connection that generated tremendous heat.


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