How to de-pin a Toyota wiring harness, Finally, a how-to with pictures for those who have never done this. Options

[richee3]

*Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any accidents or damaged goods! Do this at your own risk. I recommend practicing on broken or useless plugs before trying it on a necessary plug.

I have searched the internet high and low for a how-to like this, but only found vague descriptions of what to do. So here's a description, with pictures, of how to remove wires from Toyota's wiring harness plugs.

Things you'll need:
-Small screwdriver kit or something similar. I picked mine up as an optical repair kit for $1 at the dollar store. Hobby shops or jewelry stores would have the same thing to repair watches.
-A Toyota wiring harness

Out of the kit that pictured here, I used the smallest flathead screwdriver.




I chose to use a cruise control stalk for this how-to. It's a simple plug, nice and easy to work with. You start be removing the lock on the plug, pictured here.




There's a small space to slip the flathead screwdriver into so you can pry the lock up and out.






After that lock is removed, look inside the end of the plug. You'll see a "finger" pressing down on the end of each wire. Look in the two empty slots on the right of this picture, and you'll see the "fingers."




To remove the wire, these fingers need to be pried up. Slide the tiny screwdriver in the slot, and keep it against the pin so you can get underneath the finger. Then, once you feel the screwdriver slip underneath the finger, simply pry up and pull the wire out.







To put the wire back into the plug, it's as easy as sliding it into the slot. It'll lock back into place. When you are finished, place the lock back into the top of the plug and test your wires to make sure none of them fall out for any reason.

Once you've practiced and done it a couple of times, you get the feel for it and it becomes very very simple.

[richee3]

Every time I've searched for this on Google, I've seen that it's one of those subjects that someone asks, someone else gives a poor description of how it's done, then eventually they all figure it out and never post how it's done. I've been guilty of bypassing plugs in the past because I couldn't figure it out, but it really isn't hard. I kept meaning to make this how-to but never took the time to take pictures. Saw my old cruise control stalk sitting around last night and figured it's about time I do it.