This might seem like a really simplistic question, but I've never had success with this and never found an answer:
When a wire breaks relatively close to an electrical plug, in order to fix it you usually need to remove the wire/pin from said plug. This tends to end up with a destroyed plug (I make sure to have grabbed a spare plug with more wiring on it and just use that one by splicing it in, rather than pulling the connectors).
Is there a simple way for me to get the pins to detach from the plug?
I pulled a few pins in a harness from my 79 RX-7. I did this because I have removed all the emissions stuff,and had lots of extra plugs under the hood doing nothing so I wanted to clean it up. To do this I found the round pins in the harness had a small barb on them much like a fish hook,and with some pressure on the barb with a small jewelers screwdriver I was able to pull the pins out rather easily. I can't say for sure that all wire pins on more modern cars are the same,but it was really easy for me. I thought it was going to be a tough job,but it wasn't,and the toughest part was un-taping the harness and determining which wires I didn't need.
Hal
Dork
8/14/10 8:52 p.m.
Mazdax605 wrote:
To do this I found the round pins in the harness had a small barb on them much like a fish hook,and with some pressure on the barb with a small jewelers screwdriver I was able to pull the pins out rather easily.
All electrical connectors work this way. Usually you have to go in from the pin end rather than the end where the wire comes out. Jewelers screwdrivers are good tools to use for this. I have also made some tools for this purpose by flattening piano wire with a BFH.
Depends on the plug. The older Japanese wiring harnesses had flat connectors with a small metal tab that sticks up and I have cut small pieces of 24 gauge aluminum which are then slid inside the connector hardshell from the opening side. This pushes the flat lock piece down and then the terminal can be pushed out.
Then there are the ones with a plastic tab that does the same job as the metal tab, but they click into a square hole in the connector. The 24 gauge flat piece will work on those as well but has to be inserted from the wiring side.
A jewelers screwdriver can be used, but it's tough to see exactly where the blade is going, possibly damaging the 'hardshell' (plastic piece).
The round terminals on Weatherpacks etc generally require a special tool to release them. Like this:
Lisle and K-D both have them.
