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, Sat, 24 Aug 2013 20:04:57
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You can't get the plastic shells for those AMP connectors, but all you need to rebuild them are the internal metal terminals.
The terminal has a locking tab stamped into it, and this locks it in place when you slide it into the plastic shell from the front (the non-wire end.) To remove it, you slide a thin, flat blade in from the front to depress the tab, then slide the terminal out. Obviously at this point you've cut the wire at the other end so you can remove the terminal.
To rehab the connector, you replace wires as necessary, slide them through the connector, crimp new terminals onto them, then slide the terminals back so they lock in place.
The terminals themselves are a bit special. I can't guarantee this is still true since I haven't ordered any lately, but when I redid my connectors several years ago I had no trouble getting them from Digi-Key (big online electronic parts vendor.)
You will need three kinds of terminals: "AMP female", "AMP male standard", and "AMP male thin." The "thin" version is half the normal thickness, and is what you need at several points on the connector where two wires are joined by sandwiching two half-thickness terminals together.
Digi-Key is happy to handle small orders, but the minimum quantity for any of these is a plastic spool of 100 -- so you should wind up with enough to do several Sonetts.
Some motorcycles also use the same type of terminal, and online motorcycle shops often will sell you smaller quantities. However, I didn't find any motorcycle places that carried the "thin" terminals, which is why I went to Digi-Key.
If I'm reading the somewhat battered Digi-Key labels on my spools correctly, the manufacturer part numbers are: 42460-2 for the male standard; 42580-2 for the male thin; and 42100-2 for the female.
Another mild gotcha about these terminals is that they clamp on to the wire with a somewhat special connection called an "open barrel F crimp." This is a very nice crimp that you also may have seen on old VW Beetles. The terminal has two crimping tabs: One wraps around the wire to provide strain relief, and the other curls over on itself and bites down on the wire conductor, making a very neat and strong join. You need to strip only about 1/8 inch of insulation off the conductor to get a good crimp, making this technique also economical of wire... if you cut carefully, you usually can cut the old terminals off and crimp new ones on without having to splice in any extra wire (assuming some previous owner didn't lop off a lot in previous repair attempts.)
To make this type of crimp, you need a special crimper that has dies shaped to fold the two sets of tabs correctly. Online motorcycle parts shops are your best bet to find these; you can get a workable one for under US$30. I have a nicer one with spring-loaded, ratcheting jaws (so you can let the jaws hold the terminal in place while you slide the wire into it) which cost me about US$40.
The same types of terminals are used elsewhere all through your Sonett, so you'll get a lot of use out of your crimper and your spool of terminals. Crimping nice new terminals onto wires is easy and kind of fun... at least compared to a lot of other kinds of repair work.
posted by 72.213.2...
, Mon, 19 Aug 2013 13:58:54
, Sat, 24 Aug 2013 15:28:55, Sat, 24 Aug 2013 20:04:57
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