How do I solder stainless throttle cables?

I have a stainless throttle, brake, and clutch cables that need new ferrules soldered on. I've got Flux but I think I might be using rosin (electronic) solder. I cannot get it to wick up into the cable at all.

The cable had been lubed. What do I use to clean out the gunk and not leave residue behind?

What solder for stainless? I've read that coreless 50/50 or 60/40 is recommended.

I used a torch with no effect. I'm afraid I might have heated the cable too much. I tried an iron with slightly better results. Suggestions?

Help me save about $150 for custom cables.

If by ferrule you mean the balls or cylinders at the end of the cable, those aren't soldered on, they're crimped on.

I'd recommend using brake cleaner to clean the grease off, crimping on the ends as usual, and maybe globbing on some JB weld for backup if you like.

CARB Cleaner or MEK and allow to flash off. DO NOT USE BRAKE CLEANER! Brake cleaners can make for deadly fumes when burnt. Tinners flux is what you want. Its a liquid acid. Oatly

If you really want to solder stainless cable, use silver solder. Flux specific to stainless includes boric acid and fluorine (!)

I have always had the best results soldering stainless with a liquid acid flux and silver solder.

We had to solder 60 and 100 mesh stainless screen to make filters for 10,000lb batches of 60,000 centipoise hot melt adhesives. Literally dozens of these filters a week and we kept trying every flux we could to avoid the mess of having acid around corrosing any steel within range.

After 10 years we were still using the acid based stuff

44Dwarf wrote: CARB Cleaner or MEK and allow to flash off. DO NOT USE BRAKE CLEANER! Brake cleaners can make for deadly fumes when burnt. Tinners flux is what you want. Its a liquid acid. Oatly

Only if I is chlorinated.

In reply to GameboyRMH:

They are most certainly soldered on.

The cable ends are under huge load, a crimp will not hold.

Appleseed:

The trick is to use acid based flux and make sure you're not using lead-free solder, that stuff is garbage and won't flow worth a damn.

You might have a hard time finding lead-based solder in most stores. We order it from McMaster when we're soldering coolant manifolds or fuel tanks.

You need to put the cable into the cable end and spread out the wires for better grip and to help hold the end where you want it.

Brush a bit of flux into the cable end where you will be putting the solder.

Heat the cable end with a torch to get it up to temp quick and put as little heat into the cable as possible.

Touch the solder to the cable end to melt it, don't melt it with the torch or you'll just get blobs everywhere and they won't stick to the base metal because it's not hot enough.

Get the solder in fast and get the heat away quick so the solder doesn't wick up the cable too far.

Don't touch it until you're sure the joint has cooled or you'll get a weak joint.

Done properly, the solder should look shiny once you wipe the flux away, if it's dull and gritty, you have what's called a "cold joint" and it will be weak.

Use a file or emery paper to clean up any extra solder or wires that stick out.

In reply to Trans_Maro:

Eh, really? Soldering or welding are ok, but swagged ends are very strong. They are used in sailboat rigging, winch cables, and light aircraft controls to name a few applications.

Can you braze it? I've never been able to get the solder to stick to stainless. Even old school lead. Never tried brazing them but it just takes a little more heat

In reply to tester:

These are motorcycle cables.

The ends are soldered on every one I've seen or built.

Yes, aircraft, winches and sailboats are different. The O.P. wasn't talking about them

I also doubt that he has the hydraulic swaging tool in his shop, even if there were correct fittings in a small enough size.

I use the MIG welder.

In reply to Trans_Maro:

I am honestly not familiar with motorcycle cables so I learned something new.

I have used or observed crimped, swaged, set screw clamped, soldered, welded, cast, etc control cable ends on many different applications. Options are a good thing. A tiny little ball end or stop on a throttle cable would be swaged with a hand tool. They typically look a bit like a set of bolt cutters.

Here is a pretty neat place for automotive throttle cable parts.

https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/productselection.asp?Product=1271

Braze it.

Done and done. Got it to stick with a new cable. Turns out that is galvanized. I got a magnet to stick to it. I think the 40 year old cable had far too much contaminates in it to stick and by the time I realized that, the original cable was too short to salvage.

Trans_Maro, do you recommend 60/40 or 50/50 lead/tin solder? I can get both locally at a craft store. They apparently use it for stained glass windows.