Any Advice, Part 2!

[Chris152]

Loom's here. Couple of questions before the fiddling starts:

1. Are the connector housings (eg, the black square-profile one and the white, cylindrical one, first pic) re-usable - will the wire connectors simply pull out to allow fitment of the new ones? Or do we need to buy and fit new housings?
2. How come the new loom comes with just a couple of plastic housings?! I can see one end needs to be as narrow as possible to fit through the aperture in the tailgate, but in total only two ends have plastic housings.

Thanks for any thoughts! C

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Chris152

Loom's here. Couple of questions before the fiddling starts:

1. Are the connector housings (eg, the black square-profile one and the white, cylindrical one, first pic) re-usable - will the wire connectors simply pull out to allow fitment of the new ones? Or do we need to buy and fit new housings?
2. How come the new loom comes with just a couple of plastic housings?! I can see one end needs to be as narrow as possible to fit through the aperture in the tailgate, but in total only two ends have plastic housings.

Thanks for any thoughts! C

You see the metal tangs on the new terminals Chris? There will be similar on the old ones, the trick is to use a very thin, flat-bladed screwdriver (like a "Jewellers" screwdriver) to depress the tang on the original and then slide the plastic housing off the original terminal. The new terminal can then be pushed in once everything is threaded through and you will feel the tang engage with the slot moulded into the housing for it.

[Chris152]

Tadaaa! (pic)
Thanks Dave, brilliant. I think the cylindrical ones will be trickier as they have two tangs, one on each side, we'll see.

eta - no, cylindrical one also came off fine.
I'm just trying to clarify how we're going to do this, hopefully we'll get on with the job tomorrow. Fingers crossed, I think we now know what to do...

[Chris152]

Deleted - answered my own question!

[Chris152]

Job done, all working fine! It only took about an hour, we went for a loop as per the other side (we drilled a 13mm hole in the frame for the loom so it exits the frame between the headliner and tailgate, grommets fitted to that hole and the one it enters at the top of the tailgate - looks tidy, very pleased with ourselves :-) ).

Thank you for all your advice chaps, it's obvious we couldn't have done without it. Fingers crossed for the MoT!

C

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Chris152

Job done, all working fine! It only took about an hour, we went for a loop as per the other side (we drilled a 13mm hole in the frame for the loom so it exits the frame between the headliner and tailgate, grommets fitted to that hole and the one it enters at the top of the tailgate - looks tidy, very pleased with ourselves :-) ).

Thank you for all your advice chaps, it's obvious we couldn't have done without it. Fingers crossed for the MoT!

C

Glad it's all sorted Chris and also that you went for the option of a new loom for the tailgate. Did you remove the errrrrrrrrrrrr.......................... "aftermarket" loom and if so, have you laid it out and had a good look at it?

[Chris152]

Yer tis. We chopped off and binned the section that actually went through the hinge, it was so broken we feared it mightn't be strong enough to pull the new loom through the tailgate! It was in a terrible state.

Here's my theory on all the connectors. I read online that it's possible to release the pressure on the wires passing through the hinge, pull the loom up further through the hinge, cut off the broken section and reconnect under the headliner. I think someone did that, but to do so had to insert extensions into the loom so the wires still reached their destinations. they kept the original connection housings using butts connectors at either end of the extensions as that was quicker than removing and replacing the terminal connectors (spade etc).
Same at the top - the loom became so short that they had to insert the 6" of extension there (centre of pic), too.
Given how short the loom had become, this process could have hapened twice?!

[Laird Scooby]

Cor blimey, guv, that's in a right two and eight!

Other expressions of combined disgust and surprise are available!

Joking aside Chris, i can never understand why people use bullet connectors when butt splices are available - much neater and smaller and don't have the potential for a bad connection in the middle. It is a right mess though and looking at it, i'd question if they were even crimped properly - try the "tug test" to see if you can pull any of the crimp terminals off the wires they're (allegedly) attached to.

I see where you're going with your idea, i think they only did it once but made it so tight it that it only lasted long enough to get it through for a while.

[Chris152]

One pulled apart pretty easily, Dave - the others seem ok but I see what you mean, some look hardly crimped at all.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Chris152

One pulled apart pretty easily, Dave - the others seem ok but I see what you mean, some look hardly crimped at all.

Well done Chris,
The motor car is fixed and you (and your son) have acquired a new skill.
Alan