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Replacing DH Labs Thick Locking Banana Plugs on Eight Gauge Speaker Cable

Hi All,
I need to replace five of the eight locking banana plugs on my speaker cables. The plugs are DH Labs and the cables are HiDiamond 8 gauge. The plugs are for thick cable but I find that I'm having trouble getting the plugs far enough down onto the heat shrink so that it's even with those plugs that are not in need of replacing. I have a little room but it's mighty tight. Are there any tricks to getting those plugs pushed down over the cable heat shrink?
Thanks!
goofyfoot
erik_squires
15,630 posts
 
If it is a mesh, those get cut using a hot knife during assembly to keep the mesh from falling apart. You might want to try a match or lighter to see if you can melt the ends enough to keep it from unraveling.
goofyfoot OP
1,314 posts
 
Thanks Erik but the problem I’m having is getting the banana plug over the tube shrink and far enough down to where that it matches the length of other plug. I can work the plug down to where it’s close but not exact. I’m wondering how the tech got the original plug so far down given the tight resistance. The mesh however is not an issue.

erik_squires
15,630 posts
 
Rotation? :)
goofyfoot OP
1,314 posts
 
Yes, rotation does help though I spent ten minutes doing that and didn’t get any further. I guess I could keep trying. I was thinking that there might be some way of doing this that I wasn’t aware of, some special technique but I guess not. I don’t want to tear the shrink tubing so I’ll have to be careful.
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