Haywire7

On the right side of the engine bay where the wiring harness runs along the wheel well, the harness is attached at 4 points with black plastic standoffs that go thru the wheel well sheetmetal and are held in place with some kind of barbs on the wheel side. The front 2 attachments are circular where the harness runs thru the circle. The rear 2 are flat where the harness is just attached to them with a couple wraps of electricians tape.

I am in the process of trying to remove rustproofing tar overspray (from a long ago rustproofing job) from the right side of the engine bay. I would like to pop out those 4 black plastic gizmos temporarily while I clean things up.

I can't seem to pop them out. From the wheel side, I have tried pinching them with a pliers and then pushing but no luck. Don't want to push too hard so I don't jam the pliers into the wheel well sheetmetal.

Any tricks to this?

They look like they should just pop thru and be reusable.

DivinDriver

iTrader: (15)

Use needle-nose pliers and come at them from the side, squeezing the long axis; you want to pinch the part closest to the sheetmetal. Once you get one out and look at it, it'll be obvious how it works.

Haywire7

Great tip. Grabbed my needle-nose pliers with the 45 deg. bend in the jaws and finessed them right out like that.

Jeezus

iTrader: (4)

I ripped mine out. Sure they all broke, but you can get them at any auto parts store for $2

Haywire7

Did not know that. Good to know.