De-Pinning for Single Turbo Harness

[MO417FD]

For some of you this may be a no-brainer, but for others (like me) who don't get the opportunity to de-pin factory engine harnesses all the time, I figured I would take the opportunity to show you how to "properly" de-pin your harness.

Since I went single turbo there are A LOT of unecessary plugs that get left unplugged once you start taking things away like emissions and twin turbo control solenoids. There is a write up on the big board and describes the process as:

taking a pair of needle-nose pliers and grab the wire as close to the plug as possible with the pliers parallel to the plug. Next I rotate the pliers opposite direction from the plug and pull the pin out of the plug. See below.

DO NOT DO IT THIS WAY!!!!

This will cause the wires to mostly rip from their crimped pin and yes you'll technically have it removed, but it will leave frayed pins left in the connector. There is a much easier and cleaner way to get them out.

First the tools you'll need: A eyeglass screw driver and one of your hands

Then with the small screwdriver lift open the flip tops that hold in the wires. You'll see on the sides; small little tabs holding the flip tops down.

Next, look in the face of the connector and you'll see in the big hole a small little tab.

Then take your small screw driver and insert at an angle applying pressure to the bottom of the tab inside of the connector and lift the tab up. Basically you're prying up the yellow tab. As you are holding up the tab take your spare hand holding the wire and pull back allowing the pin to slide right out.

Voila! Done and you have a clean uninstall! Look at all those re-usable wires and pins!

Also re-usable are the connectors and they are really hard to come by. Oh yeah these yellow ones are exactly the same on a FC as on a FD.

[scotty305]

Very nice description and photos, I will probably link to this thread for reference when explaining the process to others. De-pinning can be a pain at first, but is not so bad once you get the hang of it.


When you reinstall the engine harness, don't forget to re-connect that plug that hides up high near the AC blower fan. I'm pretty sure the engine will not start without it; the details are fuzzy but I remember there was cursing involved.


If you need those connectors, there are a few companies that sell them (and pins too, but you need a crimper tool for them and the 'correct' one is not cheap or easy to find) if you're doing major rework or building a harness from scratch. They are the same connectors that are used in many OBD1 Honda vehicles (1993-1995 Civic, for example). Not all the companies that sell them list them as being compatible with the RX-7, but it's a pretty common connector that was also used on the Mitsubishi 3000GT, 2G Eclipse, Miata, and some older Toyotas (also the Miata and some Hondas, but those only use two or three of the four plugs).

This is a kit that will work for the '94 RX-7, but the photo on the site is generic and shows a different connector.
http://www.aemelectronics.com/plug-n...-1710-1720-781

[MO417FD]

Thanks for the compliments, after trying my hand first with the aforementioned way, I said this is ridiculous. Thank you for contributing the means of finding spare pins and connectors! That stuff like you said is hard to find!
Those yellow connector pics I took were from an FC my buddy pulled the harness out of. I just swapped those connectors on my harness due to pins being left in it when I first tried pulling them out.

[speedjunkie]

I'm glad you posted this up. This is the way I de-pinned mine a few months ago. I thought the same as you when I saw the other write-up..."doesn't that just rip them out and ruin the connector at the same time?" Seeing as how I've de-pinned connectors before I knew there had to be a tab inside to hold down and make it easier haha. Thanks for posting this up!

[MO417FD]

Hey no problem, I posted this in the same thread on the big board people use for stripping their harness. I hoped I saved a few pins / harnesses by doing that :-)