Rear light clusters - bad connectors

Gotta love that wiring . . .
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evm1024
Posts: 85
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2008 12:33 am
Your car is a: Pininfarina Spidereuropa 1983

Rear light clusters - bad connectors

Post by evm1024 »

Hi All, I've replaced my rear brake stop light circuit boards and have discovered that the connectors in the harness have some broken fingers.

What do people do in this case?

On one hand I could find a used connector from a donor car but I am assuming that the connector fingers are brittle and will brake again.

I could wire up some external to the PCB connector pairs and just be done with the old ones.

Of course I could just solder some spade connectors onthe PCB and the wiring harness and go that way.

What have others done?

Thanks!
spider2081
Patron 2024
Patron 2024
Posts: 3015
Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:45 pm
Your car is a: 1981 Spider 2000
Location: Wallingford,CT

Re: Rear light clusters - bad connectors

Post by spider2081 »

On one hand I could find a used connector from a donor car but I am assuming that the connector fingers are brittle and will brake again.
The right side tail light harness connects to the left had tail light. That harness is pretty easy to change. It also has the license plate light wires in it. I have not seen many of the metal pins broken in the tail light harnesses. More often t he nylon connector cracks and or breaks. Also the wire connections to the pins in the connectors are not crimped or soldered. They are pushed into a "V" shaped slot. This can be the source of some intermittent operation.
To repair the right side I would look for a good used harness assembly. The left side connector that comes from the front of the car is harder to deal with. The length of the cable from the front of the car makes for a difficult work area. Also I'm not sure if there is a source for new pins that are used in the connectors. So working with used parts might be the only option to keep the car in its original condition for future repairs.
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