INSULATING

[Roger Borg]

I have a bare wire leading from a speed coil to a switch. It's original, and likely pretty brittle, so electric tape is out of the question. I bought some spray on electric insulation a long time ago, and tried spraying that on a piece of cardboard and transferring it to the wire, but it is very very runny, and I'm not all that confident in its insulating nature unless I do this 10 times or so, now having read the reviews.

That said, I wanted to know if anyone has ever used silicone as an electrical insulator. From what I've read, and in my experience with HV, it can be used. But I didn't know if anyone had ever done so in a similar situation, or if there is some side effect that I'm not considering. Thanks...

[Dave McManaman]

Could you just use new wire, soldering on to one end and then shrink wrapping that connection?

[Roger Borg]

Because the original wire was still intact, I wanted to preserve it rather than chop apart and splice.

Silly I know, but seemed better to resheath the original than cut it apart.

Either way, still fragile stuff. Will post a pic tomorrow...

[Stan Adams]

I use really thin heatshrink

[Chris Krenke]

I would try liquid electrical tape

[Craig Meier]

Why don’t you cut it slip some heat shrink over it soldier it back together. 

[Anthony Lindsey]

was the wire bare to begin with?    I see many bare wires from the speed coil to the switch selector that were left bare when new.

[Roger Borg]

Anthony, yes the wires were covered with braided cloth.

Everything appears untouched. I've put 10 coats of the spray liquid electric tape onto the bare wire, and get no continuity reading when I touch either side of the sprayed wire, so seems this was sufficient to insulate it. Anything I'm not considering, or will this be ok long term? Still would prefer not to cut and solder and shrink wrap if the original connection is fine.

That said, on another note, was it standard to have the wires soldered at the switch from the factory? All the other fans I've worked on have bolts that hold down the wires.