B951S

I recently removed my stock harness to fit a stand alone. IN looking at the harness, it is obvious the large oval factory grommet with the elephants trunk on it will not come off. I have been advised to slice it and then reinstall it over the new harness, using tiewraps and super glue to try and close up the spit. I wondered if anyone has tried to remove the grommet from the stock harness without cutting the harness, or have experience with using a new grommet. I bet it costs a small fortune.......
Thanks

Steve Lavigne

A mil spec firewall connector would be the super trick way to run the wire through the firewall.

http://www.p-r-s.com/pg5.pdf

Dave951M

That's a great idea, and looks cool too.

SeaCay

Which company is that?

DigiKey has some circular connectors that are not mil-spec, that are somewhat less expensive (I believe).

This is the way I'm going to go with mine. I already have pretty much a custom harness throughout the car made with mil-spec aircraft wire, aircraft circuit breakers and switches (this is track only car). I've been looking for a good circular connector source that isn't too snotty about a small quanity order (most of these guys are dealing with huge industrial/commercial/military type orders. It's also hard to find connectors for larger gauge wires.

CK

Danno

That's a lot of wiring to splice in those connectors! Would really come in handy for quick disconnects and stuff, but how often do you swap harnesses on a 951? B951S, yes, you can remove all of the rubber grommet from the stock harness without harming it. Just use a sharp Xacto knife and split it lengthwise. Make the split it's on the bottom, facing down when re-installed. Then you can re-seal the seam after wrapping it around the replacement harness. A couple of black zip-ties would be fine. Or if you really meticulous, you can stitch it back together and lay down a thin layer of Shoe-Goo over the stitching.

On my car since I have both the factory and aftermarket harness installed at the same time (for easy switching back & forth), I just cut a small 0.5x0.5" square out of the flat section of the grommet just underneath the elephant trunk. Then I rotated the wiring 90-degrees on the Link harness and shoved it through. A little black silicone and it looks factory installed!

Steve Lavigne

http://www.p-r-s.com

They are based in the US and offer a lot of wiring related products in small quantities for motorsports use .

Using a firewall connector like this would reduce the time to install and remove the engine. This would be very helpful if you were doing regular engine development/testing.

NZ951

B951S, again we meet on similar issues! I just drilled a hole in mine... But it fits back in place firmly, but looks a poo. And I am really very fussy about everything I do to my car. I am going to look at the gromets above! Any ideas on the size of ours? Anyone got one of them in use?

BoostGuy951

I sliced mine lengthwise and then just wrapped it back with electrical tape.

Alan C.

I drilled a hole and put all of the wires in a cool tube. I then used a grommet in the firewall. however, having seen the mil spec stuff I think I have another project as soon as I am able to work on the car again.

IceShark

If you do a search on "NEMA" (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) glands or connectors you will find a lot of sources. There are various NEMA grades you can check into. I don't think they grade the marine stuff that will seal bulkhead through wires for duty up into the thousands of PSI pressure like in deep diving submersibles but they should be good enough for a car's firewall.

B951S

Heres what I did to the stock grommet, sliced underneath, then once the new harness was in, guperglues the main part of the grommet to ensure a good seal at the firewall and cabletied the trunk at the ridges. Look just fine

P.S. I work in the ultradeepwater oil and gas engineering buisiness, and the deepwater electrical connectors we use on projects cost a small fortune, I would stay with surface (dry mate) bulkhead fittings or just the plain old stock grommet, works great as you can see. Thanks

IceShark

B951S, OH!, I wasn't suggesting high PSI fittings for our dumb cars. Just pointing out how the fancier stuff was rated and why, and where they could search to buy them.

My god, a deep water fitting would, as you say, cost a small fortune. And be so far overkill. All your really need is abrasion protection and minor water sealing where they go into the cabin.

SeaCay

Actually, another source for manuf. of circular connectors is Racecar Engineering magazine. They have an indexed parts source that shows diff manuf. Unfortunately, many of these companies are in England. Write for a catalog from Digikey. Huge source of electrical stuff, in all kinds of grades.

Steve Lavigne

I'm downloading Digikey's catalog right now:

Digikey Catalog (45 MB)

m42racer

Just cut the boot as has been suggested. if you think a milspec connector is the answer, better be prepared to spend huge $. Not only are the connectors expensive, so are the special crimping tools required to do the jog properly. Most of the terminals will only accept the very small milspec wire also.

I have seen the boot cut lengthways. It was very simple. It was then reglued and wrapped with some tyraps or similar. Then reinstalled back into the same position in the firewall. When I was at PD when they did Micheal Patrick's car, it took them around 4 hours to install the complete EFI system and have it running.. They removed the intake manifold and layed the new harness out just as the original one is. BTW, I understand Micheal has won events he has entered with his new system installed.