Another bulkhead connector issue

[supertruck]

Vehicle is a 1973 Dart 340 Sport, finishing up a 4 year build. ​

I fried the fusible link on the black wire coming out of my bulkhead connector under the hood. It was a stupid mistake and I won't embarrass myself by explaining. I'll just say it involved installing a new starter relay. And I've done the MADD bypass behind the dash. Here's the problem - I cannot get that wire out of the plastic connector box. I've gone as far as cutting the male terminal in half and it still won't pull out. I'm guessing it's fused to the plastic housing. My question - keep messing with it and hope it comes out without damaging the housing, or buy a whole new housing and remove the wires from the old one and put them in a new one? I hate to think about getting the other wires out with the problem I've had with the one I fried. All suggestions appreciated.

 

[67Dart273]

If the terminal is "tight" in the connector, that is, wiggle the ones around it and get a "feel" for how much play there is with them, There is "some." So if the one in question is "tight" it is obviously melted into the connector shell. I see no way to guarantee you can save either the terminal or the shell but you can make it "workaround" until/ iff you replace the shell. What is more important, saving the terminal, or the shell, or neither? (You can buy replacement terminals here and there. Don't know about the shell)

ANYway if you need to fix it, I would get a soldering iron/ gun that you can reach into the front and contact the terminal, just heat it up and that will soften the plastic.

You should be able to wiggle it some and pull it out. I'm assuming? that you know atbout the release tang for the terminal

Still another approach is to get it out any way you can, then drill through that cavity and run a length of replacement wire straight through the connector.

Long before Al Gore "invented the internet" I did this very thing to my 70 440-6 RR back in the 70's

 

[supertruck]

Thanks, as always! Hadn't thought about the soldering iron trick. I might try that. I do know about the tang on the connector. When I couldn't get any movement, I took my wire snips and cut that terminal down the middle and removed the tang, still no luck. If the iron doesn't work, I'll try drilling through it and making a new connection.

 

[70 Buster 340]

If it's 'not melted' then there is a little tab on the back of the terminal that must be released. It 'clicks in' but you have to stick a thin tool or flat prob in there to release the retaining tab.

 

[70 Buster 340]

I was typing as you were posting.
If it's melted... melt it more....