For the t55 connector, or the connector for one of the sensors? The green tool I used (pictured in my first post) is for the connectors for the sensors. The red tool is for the T55 connector. You may even wanna try talking dirty to it. hehehe
Being involved with this kind of thing... The reason would be simply that Bosch specified those pins. Your discovery that the power pins fit this connector is great. Usually the power pins are designed for heavier gauge wire though, but you dont appear to have had any issue with the wires being too thin. Great job!
Crimp-and-solder is used on high-end harnesses such as aerospace and F1 cars etc. But its overkill here assuming the crimps are properly done.
If I'm remembering correct the jpt pins I bought from EFI were good for 20awg-16awg wire. A good percentage of the wires are 20awg, easily over half of them. Anyway, the pins worked just fine. The trickiest of all of them were the pins that had the wires doubled up. Thankfully I only had to mess with a couple of those. The key was to hold both wires in the crimper, so that one wire got crimped under each of the clamps. Those were the wires that took me about 15 minutes to do. It is a SUPER TEDIOUS and time consuming job, doing all the pins one by one.
I ordered some of the new pins, huge difference in clamping force. Going to install them during my service. Thank you BTW Ernie. I am now oldest belt driving LOL
Is yours the 2.7 or 5.2? Mitchell was telling me that the 5.2 has the double tab pins, and they ARE a pain to get out, even with the locking clip unlocked on the T88 connector. Just a heads up.
5.2. I'll tread lightly, I use homemade tools to get them out hate those little ring pushers If not I have 100 for somebody else who may need them
A good trick I used to get the JPT double tabbed pins out is to, push the extraction tool all the way in, you want to make sure the tips of the extraction tool are butted up against the back of the clip. Then push the pin FURTHER into the receptacle. That way the locking tabs in the pin are sure to be compressed by the tool. Wiggle/jiggle the wire as you pull it out. I really didn't need to pull on the wire hard to get the JPT pins out of the regular connectors. Hopefully you don't run into the trouble Mitchell had getting the pins out of the T88.
I was able to practice on an old connector and became much better getting the newish pins out. Still not easy, but I got them out using an unofficial tool. In the process, I even learned how to disassemble the connector into its 3 pieces.
So you start with a small pick at one corner of the connector, and pry the ear of the top piece up, move it slightly back to create a gap along the connector. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Then use a bigger screw driver, insert into the gap to keep it from collapsing, use the small pick on the other corner of the connector. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Then gently work the top piece off and the middle lock plate comes out. And you have three pieces like this. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
It would be hard to separate the connector housing into 3 pieces with all the wires in place, and it probably does not make removing the pins any easier. But, it does help to understand how the pins are retained in the housing and not be so much of a mystery.
Ernie, Thank you for the lesson! Great as usual. Due to my usual inexperience, a silly question. Did you have any malfunction that led you to perform this activity? If yes, was it sorted? Ciao Eugenio
No major malfunction per say. Just that the car would have little intermittent glitches. For example, at initial start up the car would exhibit small misfires. You could hear the exhaust popping, but then later it wouldn't do it. Or I would get a lambda regulation check engine code, yet the coolant temperature sensors, mass air flow sensors, and O2 sensors were all fine. Even the crank sensors where new. It wouldn't be all the time but every so often, it would act weird. Like you knew something just wasn't right, but you couldn't quite put your finger on it. After having seen how worn out the old pins were the strange behavior made sense. The ecu can't run the engine properly if is isn't getting a full signal, nor if it isn't sending a full signal. The bad pins in the T55 were for sure a root cause if intermittent, and erratic problems.
Just to add here for the 355 5.2 ECU here are the larger pins, I have 100 if anyone needs some or just order here Does anyone have a name for the smaller ones 927773-3 TE Connectivity / AMP | Mouser Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Is this a problem with all 348's or only early ones? Were you having electrical issues, or is this a problem due to engine out service wear and tear from disconnecting the controllers? Thanks for the great explanation and detail.
In my opinion it's a problem will all 348s. The issue is the type of pins used from the factory, junior timer pins in the T55 Motronic connector. Yes I was having erroneous engine problems. The car ran okay, but I could tell it wasn't running perfect. The wear and tear comes from disconnecting/reconnecting x amount of times. Plus the tin oxidation that builds up over time = more resistance = poor connection. That and, as illustrated in the pictures via the gaps in the original pins, they lose their ability to maintain proper clamping force over time.