Observations on Wiper motor connectors.

[zKars]

During my recent time at the recent ZCON 2016 event in Toronto, (best ever by the way, said the un-biased Canadian) I made several interesting observations about the 240z's that were present. Most observations were something like "I have to step up my game if I ever want to win anything at these things if I bring mine again". Some mighty nice machinery indeed.

As the OCD perfectionist in me is never quiet, I could not help be notice something interesting about almost ALL of the 240's present. It began with the judged show on Wednesday. I was staring longingly at everyone's engine bays, as I'm in the midst of doing a relatively stock-ish 71 resto and wanted a bit of guidance on what is right and wrong. The one thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was the sorry state of electrical connector on the wiper motors of almost all the 240's there.  Even the one Z that was later to be crowned a gold cup winner had his connector cleverly hidden under electrical tape.  Apparently if you can't see it, you can't judge it. I did not dare to peel the tape back to look, but I'm betting a yellow nasty brittle connector lurks beneath. 

Sources for these shells and connector pins have been widely discussed here and other places and they are CHEAP, so I cannot imagine why no one has taken care of this little detail. Apparently next ZCON I'm going to have to come with a pail of shells, pins, my strippers and crimpers and get everyone a fresh new connector, so that the wipers work properly both electrically and cosmetically.

So I took it upon myself to take a picture of every exposed 240 engine bay wiper connector at the peoples choice show that Saturday just to show how rampant and wide spread this problem has become. The wiper speed increase alone is worth the effort.

 

PS. Don't forget the huge "tongue in cheek" vibe liberally applied to this thread...

 

[zKars]

First the clever "hide it with tape" example

 

[zKars]

www.vintageconnections.com

Look on the pricing page for MP6L connectors.

[RyanT67]

Mine is the 3rd picture from the top, the white bay.  Glad someone noticed the fresh, non-yellowed connectors, haha!

I bought a whole bunch of connectors from the site you posted, great seller.  It's a small job replacing the old brittle connectors, maybe 10 minutes per connector once you get the hang of pulling the wires out from the old ones.   Things do seem to work a little better for it!

[Namerow]

4 hours ago, RyanT67 said:

Mine is the 3rd picture from the top, the white bay.  Glad someone noticed the fresh, non-yellowed connectors, haha!

I bought a whole bunch of connectors from the site you posted, great seller.  It's a small job replacing the old brittle connectors, maybe 10 minutes per connector once you get the hang of pulling the wires out from the old ones.   Things do seem to work a little better for it!

I bought connectors and tools (crimper, terminal removers) from Vintage Connections last year.  Good stuff, and a good vendor (easy ordering process, good packaging, fast turnaround).  Recommended. 

Worth noting that removing the connector shells makes it a lot easier to install a new firewall dustboot on the engine compartment wiring harness.  While others have said that it`s possible to coax the dustboot over the connectors (with heat, maybe?), I'm not sure I'd want to risk tearing the boot to try that.