mj1pate

Wow....what removing an air cleaner reveals. The MAF cable connector boot had worn away in such a fashion that about half the wires under the exposed connector boot area were chafed to the point that bare wire is exposed. I should reconnect the cable harness to a new connector. Are there sources for this?

Thanks

Mike

FlyingDog

I think Eagle Day sells them. It's a fairly standard AMP/Bosch (junior power timer?) connector, so Digikey and other electronics supply houses probably carry it.

Imo000

Did the wires actually chafe or only the insulation shrank?

mj1pate

The wires chafed such that bare wires were exposed below the connector. I think that the connector is presently performing its intended function, as I created sufficient insulation between and around the wires. I intend to rebuild this and a few other connectors when I have the MAF rebuilt next year.

Bill Ball

Although Eagleday has the parts, I believe the pins are very difficult to get out of the housing. A standard Amp connector tool may not work as the pins were heat-locked in. I know this is true for the throttle sensor, but I haven't tried the MAF connector. A new 6-pole housing is $43 from Eagle day.

Regardless, the easiest fix would be to cut the wires leaving a tail on the connectors, even if the tail area has some fraying and exposed wire. Slip enough heat shrink over the harness wire ends to cover the frayed section and your cut point and resolder the wires. Also, before you solder, slip a large size heatshrink over the wire bundle so you can cover that after the wires are all individually soldered back together. A new boot would be needed to put on as well before soldering.

Richard S

Look anything like this?



I found this when I was troubleshooting for bad smog results. Bought a new connector from Eagle Day and redid the wiring. Impossible to get the old wiring out of the old connector, so I just cut the wires. Installed new wire in the new connector, then carefully soldered them to the old wire and covered each wire with heatshrink tubing and tape. Works fine now.

Rich

mj1pate

HOW did you get your hands on my MAF connector?



Mike

AO

Wow! Scary...

dr bob

Ya know what's really impressive? there are cars on the road with wiring damage like this, still running well enough to drive. It's only when things finally creep out of limits, as discovered during the smog inspection, that we decide to lift some covers and see what's going on under there.

Looks like my fall Intake refurb will have a lot of WYAIT stuff included. Starts with a little spray paint, then gets interesting and expensive in a hurry.

BrianG

Apparently this is not at all uncommon. I found a similar situation on my '87 S4, during the SC installation, at the MAF and TPS and knock sensor harness plugs. Replacing the plugs seemed a challenge due to the length of wire that would have to be removed to eliminate the brittle insulation. What I did was to separate the wires with enough space to be certain that there was no shorting between wires, and then I used a plastic resin (shoe goo) to mold an extension to the plug. This seems to have worked..... so far.

This is a great arguement for the creation of an aftermarket engine wiring harness for even the S4 series of 928's.