Pulling the "male" bulkhead connectors

[Bitsyncmaster]

I was going to pull the the bulkhead connectors so I could replace the important male pins with new pins. Turns out you can't get the the top connectors out because the body cutout is overlapping the connectors at the top. So I pulled the six bolts (7 mm hex heat) holding the bulkhead metal plate onto the body. That let me get those top connectors out but this is so much work, I may just put everything back together and hope for the best.

Yes I see the factory used one of those quick connect on one of the top connectors.:eek1:

[Bitsyncmaster]

My inventory of pins dipped into Tarnex for about 30 seconds. Even NOS pins have some oxidation so they need to be cleaned.

[BABIS]

I was going to pull the the bulkhead connectors so I could replace the important male pins with new pins. Turns out you can't get the the top connectors out because the body cutout is overlapping the connectors at the top. So I pulled the six bolts (7 mm hex heat) holding the bulkhead metal plate onto the body. That let me get those top connectors out but this is so much work, I may just put everything back together and hope for the best.

Yes I see the factory used one of those quick connect on one of the top connectors.:eek1:

All true. I had to do this when I removed the "k-jet" wires and added all the new wires from the efi ecu, through the original bulkhead connectors. A very annoying job...

[Bitsyncmaster]

You would think they could have done a better job fitting the bulkhead cover to the metal bulkhead plate.

I pulled the plate so I can enlarge the body hole where the top connectors fit. I may clean the edges of the metal plate and paint it black. The back side of the plate is covered with black foam, I guess to seal it water tight.

[Bitsyncmaster]

It should be easy to replace the pins. I need to clean the plastic connectors also since my PO had put some kind of grease in there.

[Bitsyncmaster]

One of the harness legs runs to the left and has a connector on it. Don't know what this connects to. I'm guessing it runs up to the roof box. Just an FYI if your tracking a bad connection.

I have cut about 3/8" off the body to clear the top bulkhead connectors. Easy job with my 1/4" inch drive rotary tool.

I have cleaned up the edges of the metal "bulkhead box" to prep it for paint. Today is raining so the painting will have to wait.

[Bitsyncmaster]

I have the new pins installed in the yellow, red, blue and white (FV) connectors. I was able to pull about about 7 pins not needed anymore from my modifications and the AT computer (I have a 5 speed).

Turns out those two blue "wire splice taps" the factory added was to add a 1 uf cap going to the vacuum solenoid. But they added it to the green power lead rather than the blue/brown "idle switch" wire. My engine never had that capacitor on the engine near the idle switch so I guess this was the engineering change moving that cap to the bulkhead. But they did it wrong.

Note: If you have my idle ECU that 1 uf capacitor is in my unit so you don't need it on the engine or bulkhead.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Finished the new pins. Note there were two sizes of pins, 14 to 16 AWG and 18 to 22 AWG (American equivalent). I only had the larger pins so I soldered the wires after I crimped them. There are only a few large wires or pins with two wires so if you plan to do this you probably want the smaller wire size pins. When I bought my pins years ago, they did offer both sizes. Now the original pins for the Lucas Rists type connectors are getting very hard to find. I did place and order from the EU which I think are the smaller size wire pins and sockets. I hope someone has these pins remade. If they do, don't use pointed "keepers" since that makes extraction very hard to do.

I think the small wire pins are numbered 831, small sockets 832, large pins 833, large sockets 834.

Also to note, the +12 volt feed through bolt is 5/16" and not metric.

[cis6409]

Fascinating stuff Dave
Well done !

Cheers
Shane

[Bitsyncmaster]

Well I got my order of pins from Autosparks and they are for the larger wire. They are the same pins and sockets I had bought long ago. I will never run out of these large pins now so I need to find a vendor for the smaller wire pins.

Their part numbers in case you want to order some.

C831R, the 3mm Pin
C832R, the 3mm Socket

[Bitsyncmaster]

Here is a source for the 3 pin idle motor connector. Same part number stamped on connector as OEM

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131119891240

Here is a source for the 2 pin frequency valve connector. Same part number stamped on connector as OEM

http://www.ebay.com/itm/141924984148

The two pin connectors are also used on the WUR and CSV. So you may want to order 3 of those. I bought these because I wanted to use new wire and new pins.

I think this angle boot will also work but have not received them yet.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/141549024039

[cis6409]

Thanks for the links that's gonna come in very handy indeed ! Just what I was looking for ..

Cheers
Shane

[Morpheus]

I had to replace my WUR connector a few months back, I ended up using a generic connector from an auto parts store. It worked ok, but I would have rather had these. Thanks for the link Dave!

[Bitsyncmaster]

That Ebay vendor has pretty good shipping rates and shipping was about one week.

My WUR connector is an AMP connector. Not sure if that was OEM or someone replaced it but the 2 pin connector I listed works on that also.

[Bitsyncmaster]

I'm making up a WORD document table which is laid out like David Delman did with his Bulkhead document.

Does anyone know David Delman so I can check with him if it's OK to publish my word document? His has a copyright on it.

I needed an editable document so I can record the changes I made from the stock document.

[Farrar]

Dave, I will send you Dave Delman's e-mail address in a private message here on DMCTalk.

[Bitsyncmaster]

David Delman gave me the OK to publish my WORD document. Thanks David D.

This will save you CARB and EFI guys some time making up your own document. You still print the second page of the original PDF document to get the connector pin reference locations.

[Bitsyncmaster]

While doing more rewiring of my engine harness I was interested in why there are those two engine block grounds in the harness.

The two black wires on the blue bulkhead connector

Pin 22 "ground for WUR"
Pin 23 "ground for diagnostic plug"

Go to the ring terminal for block ground on the passenger side of engine.

The left ring terminal, mine had two ground wires but I think stock had more.

One wire goes to the WUR right pin.
The other wire was cut off probably going to the diagnostic plug. I removed my diagnostic plug long ago.

So I can't determine why they needed engine block ground which is grounded anyway with your battery wires. I would not think running those "inside" grounds to the engine block are going to eliminate any noise issues. I can see there may be engine block noise from the alternator current. Here is a list of items that use engine block ground:

Oil pressure sender for gauge.
The AC compressor clutch.
The oil light warning switch.
The spark plugs.
The advance solenoid cap (if you have one).
Starter.
Alternator.

So I see no reason to add the extra ground wires to the engine block. I'm guessing they were trying extra ground wire to cure a problem they saw during engineering the car. So I'm going to remove those engine block grounds and just run the WUR directly to the blue bulkhead pin.

[David T]

One possibility is when they added things they just added more grounds. Another is that they used the motor as the "collector" to tie all of the grounds together. Then there is the one where they didn't know what they were doing so everyone just added a wire to the harness without checking if it was already done. Because the wiring was done by Lucas it does not have to make any sense. At least they used a color code!

[Bob DeBone]

I have a set of wiring diagrams from the service manual. What they don't show are the connector plugs. is there a set that shows the connectors and wire colors? I have the doors off and am trying to test the circuits.

[Bitsyncmaster]

I added a new pin to the bulkhead for the CSV "power" wire so I don't have to have a splice in the engine harness with the starter solenoid wire.

I've got my new wiring and connectors on the CSV, WUR and idle motor. Still have 7 wires to replace in the harness but some of those are in the "valley" so I am waiting till I have the intake off the engine.

I had an engine backfire when cold and acceleration but it seemed to clear up after it warmed up. I did loan my WUR to another owner so it may just be that needed to purge the lines when I installed it. But I will test that again when the engine cools off. I need to verify the ignition timing has not changed also.

My bulkhead wire list is showing C1 for the first cable harness and C2 for the second cable harness. Each of those is "bundled" via heat shrink tubing. I plan to have another cable harness for the remaining wires yet to be replaced. I only plan to bundle those three cable legs with tie wraps.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Found my engine running problem. Turns out the lambda did not get ground. The original bulkhead wire list should have shown:

Blue pin 22 has to go to engine block. It's a wire to the lambda ECU pin 5
Blue pin 23 has to go to engine block. It's a wire to the lambda ECU pin 16

So that was done to reduce noise for the lambda ECU.

Now I need to find a ground for my WUR which was also wired to the engine block.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Here is the fixed word file for those two pins that must go to engine block.

I checked my ignition timing and it's rock steady at 12 deg. I also adjusted the mixture to 40 deg because it was running about 30 deg. I had an idle hunt for about 30 seconds on the cold engine. I will have to check that again when it cools off. I ran my WUR ground wire to the bulkhead metal plate. It was going to the engine block with OEM wiring.