Hey guys,
im slowly making progress on the widebody. What I am doing right now is completely swapping all of the electrical (dash forwards) from the GSL (my old car) into the GSL-SE (widebody) because I know it works, and im putting in the 12a for the time being. Where im hung up is there is the one large loom of wires that travels over a small hole above the steering column and on the other side (centre of the dash area, I have the whole dash removed at this point remember) there is a huge connector and I don't see how I can get this part out?

All the other electrical in the engine bay is ready to go, it just can't be pulled without this damn connector being removed somehow... I tried to remove the piece, but then I realized that it structurally supported the steering column and was welded to the top of the firewall... I might take pictures if you guys have no clue what I am talking about.

Is the best way to remove this to cut the connector off and resolder/shrink wrap all of the wires going into the big *** connector?

Thanks!
Dan_s_young

 

Hi Dan-
I am not exactly sure about the "big connector" you are referring too. Do you mean the point where the harness goes thru the firewall between the eng. bay and the interior?
I have an SA 1980 and on mine this "Main Harness" goes, in ONE piece, from the dash thru the firewall into the engine bay, running down the drivers inner fender, across the front of the rad and over to the passenger fender. This is all ONE loom! The separate engine harness meets it above the steering box, and there is a dash sub harness inside that attaches to the main behind the speedo area. Now, your RX may be different but in mine with this setup, the Main harness needs to be pulled thru the firewall INTO the interior to be removed - a real bee-otch to do. If the SE harness is unneeded, you could indeed chop it there at the firewall, but DON'T do that to the GS harness you want to use!! And try to preserve the runner firewall gasket it runs thru, since you can't buy these separately - and they are another b!tch to swap out off the harness!! I would have a digi-camera around to take LOTS of pics!
Cutting the GS harness apart at the firewall would be a disaster IMHO. There are a LOT of wires in there and the opportunity to f**k it up is overwhelming. And it would be a real pain to try to go back in there (once re-installed) and try to chase down a bad connection, since there is NO room to work once installed...
G'Luck
Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

You have to loosen the steering column and drop it down a few inches. If I remember correctly I had to loosen up the pedals as well. There are 2 bolts that hold the dash and the steering up. THen I believe there are seperate bolts as well that just hold the steering up. I have a car torn down and I could take pictures of what it looks like with all the interior out. Those connectors are TOO big to remove them without moving the streering column down.

 

When I removed unnecessary wires from my engine harness, rather than cutting the wires I removed the connectors from the housing and pulled the entire wire out. You should be able to do this too...it would end up cleaner than cutting and soldering. There's a tab on the connector that holds it in the housing...you need to find this tab then instert some sort of very small screwdriver or other thin object to disengage the tab and pull the connector out of the housing. I can post some pictures of mine later if you want.

Rich

 

^^^ This is exactly what I am talking about. Sorry I didn't responde to this thread earlier ive been busy. Right now I have the whole wiring harness out except for these 2 large connectors that attach to the dash. Is it possible for you to take a picture of how you dropped this piece down?

Right now I have all the bolts off (the ones on the pedal plate thing) and the column only wants to drop down about 1 cm. And offiously I need to drop it down alot more to pull these things out. Thats a ton for the help!