When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
had some damage to my wheel well so took it off and found this broken connection in the wiring harness that sits behind the driver side wheel well.
there's sort of a powder in there, no actual wire that I can make out... is that corroded copper or what? any ideas what this connection is involved with or how to reconnect it?
That is a badly corroded connection. You will need to remove the pin from the connector plug and its likley not salvageable. If so you will need a new electrical pin and a rubber grommet. I would also take a closer look at both sides of the connector as it's not common to have corrosion in just one terminal.
I was thinking I could splice it with some sort of spade connector or something, but I've been trying to get down to clean metal and there doesn't seem to be anything to actually attach to inside the hole on the plastic harness...
I tried pulling one of the other wires just see what the connection looks like but they are in there pretty solid.
any other suggestions?
Without replacing the entire connector, you need to find the other side of that connection, cut it off of the connector and do a permanent repair. Don't bother with a spade connector...they are not weather tight and will give you the same problem. Minimum would be a heat shrink butt splice, coat splice with dielectric grease before sealing. Soldering is preferable if possible.
in the top picture, there's a loose red wire (out of focus in the foreground). It goes in the hole in the harness behind it that has the blue/green corrosion residue. the 2nd pic just shows the end of the "wire". Thing is, I tried to scratch off the corrosion but can't quite tell what it's really meant to look like.
I can't make out any way that there would be a physical connection there. There is no pin or hole that a pin would fit in or any other apparent way of making the connection. It's like it was formed with some sort of glue or something that has corroded away. Is there such thing as conductive glue? If not, someone should invent it...
Originally Posted by gorms
Without replacing the entire connector, you need to find the other side of that connection, cut it off of the connector and do a permanent repair. Don't bother with a spade connector...they are not weather tight and will give you the same problem. Minimum would be a heat shrink butt splice, coat splice with dielectric grease before sealing. Soldering is preferable if possible.
Your problem likley started with the torn rubber grommet that you can clearly see in both pictures. If you unhook the the wiring harness at its connection and look into the connector in question I am nearlly certain you will see what is left of your corroded connection still inside the connector.
Just like an exhaust manifold stud where the exhaust attaches to the manifold, after enough corrosion takes place you can no longer see that it once had threads on it as it has rusted away to something unrecognizable.
Your overthinking this whole thing their is nothing weird about this what so ever. We see this all the time on wiring on anything from trucks to trailers. It's corrosion nothing more nothing less.
From: Sunny Southern California Land of Fruits and Nuts
You can order replacement connector thru Chrysler be prepared to pay upwards of $100 for new connector. Or you can hardwire and do away with the connector altogether.
I would like to hardwire, but I'm not quite savvy enough to decode the FSM wiring diagrams and figure out what the heck it's for... I think it may just be a trailer wire, but will need to run some tests to figure out.
I don't know how I'd replace the connector as I don't understand the nature of the physical connection between the wires and the harness/connector. I tried to pull one of the other wires out to see how it attaches and it did not want to budge. whatever it is, it does seem like it was designed to be repairable...
Originally Posted by BigIron70
You can order replacement connector thru Chrysler be prepared to pay upwards of $100 for new . Or you can hardwire and do away with the connector altogether.
Is there a reason you can not get to the other side of the plug?? Like mentioned, if you can snip the wire off of the otherside in the same slot just do that, then use two vulcanizing butt splices and a little extra legnth of wire, cut out ALL the green corrosion, crimp the wires together and then heat the butt splice to collapse the vulcanizing shrink tube over the splice.
