Connectors

[KVacek]

This is mostly an old man's rant. Please just ignore it.

Trying to fix the (probably just jammed) seat bottom tilt on our 2005 Yukon Denali XL.

I grew up in what I believe was the real world. Like my father before me, I had an Erector set. I had few actual toys, and very little plastic stuff. I learned how mechannical things were built. Worked on, built, and ran go-karts, later motorcycles and cars, all my Dad's lawn equipment. Nothing was snapped together plastic.

My first cars were English (40's, 50's, and 60's Triumphs, MG's, and Austin Healey). Everyone who's never actually worked on them KNOWS that Lucas is bad and weird and whatever else they "know". Actually it all worked just fine, was relatively logical, and had really good brass and chrome. Then I moved to GM cars like my parents. Still have a few English ones too, 50+ years later.

Automotive connectors have long tended to stick a bit and use difficult clips that like to snap off., but they used to be mostly similar and easy to figure out. Then the emission stuff, gasketed connectors, etc. came along. But you could usually see how the connector came apart, see where the latch was, and pry it open without damage. Most connectors had a general family similarity.

Now it appears that GM gives awards for the largest number of bizarre, different-design conectors on a vehicle. The more hard to reach and impossible to open, the better. Hide the place where it splits - let the guy reaching in from God-knows-where to access it GUESS.

Virtually EVERY conector is different, with a different latch that's hard to get to with man hands. I don't have a strong spider monkey for a helper.

Where do the current GM engineers get these ideas? I'm sure they're all in some foreign country, have tiny little hands, and have NEVER worked on anything other than their LEGO plastic dinosaur sets, but REALLY !!

All the videos I find show different connectors, different harnesses, different screws in different places. Did GM ever make two of these the same?

Rant OFF
Back to trying to get to where I can loosen and rotate the clevises on the ends of the jack screws, hoping that's all that's stuck.

Karl

 

[swathdiver]

This is mostly an old man's rant. Please just ignore it.

Trying to fix the (probably just jammed) seat bottom tilt on our 2005 Yukon Denali XL.

I grew up in what I believe was the real world. Like my father before me, I had an Erector set. I had few actual toys, and very little plastic stuff. I learned how mechannical things were built. Worked on, built, and ran go-karts, later motorcycles and cars, all my Dad's lawn equipment. Nothing was snapped together plastic.

My first cars were English (40's, 50's, and 60's Triumphs, MG's, and Austin Healey). Everyone who's never actually worked on them KNOWS that Lucas is bad and weird and whatever else they "know". Actually it all worked just fine, was relatively logical, and had really good brass and chrome. Then I moved to GM cars like my parents. Still have a few English ones too, 50+ years later.

Automotive connectors have long tended to stick a bit and use difficult clips that like to snap off., but they used to be mostly similar and easy to figure out. Then the emission stuff, gasketed connectors, etc. came along. But you could usually see how the connector came apart, see where the latch was, and pry it open without damage. Most connectors had a general family similarity.

Now it appears that GM gives awards for the largest number of bizarre, different-design conectors on a vehicle. The more hard to reach and impossible to open, the better. Hide the place where it splits - let the guy reaching in from God-knows-where to access it GUESS.

Virtually EVERY conector is different, with a different latch that's hard to get to with man hands. I don't have a strong spider monkey for a helper.

Where do the current GM engineers get these ideas? I'm sure they're all in some foreign country, have tiny little hands, and have NEVER worked on anything other than their LEGO plastic dinosaur sets, but REALLY !!

All the videos I find show different connectors, different harnesses, different screws in different places. Did GM ever make two of these the same?

Rant OFF
Back to trying to get to where I can loosen and rotate the clevises on the ends of the jack screws, hoping that's all that's stuck.

Karl

Once you figure them all out it's easy, but the learning curve for and my helpers has been rather steep.

My uncle used to restore MGs and MGBs and his buddy restored some Triumphs, TR6s I believe in the early 1990s. I'm not very tall and my knees used to hit the dash of the MG, it was still fun to drive. Post up some pics of your English classics is you don't mind.

 

[KVacek]

Once you figure them all out it's easy, but the learning curve for and my helpers has been rather steep.

My uncle used to restore MGs and MGBs and his buddy restored some Triumphs, TR6s I believe in the early 1990s. I'm not very tall and my knees used to hit the dash of the MG, it was still fun to drive. Post up some pics of your English classics is you don't mind.

The first series big Triumphs (the TR3, 4, etc and NOT the Spitfire) have excellent leg room. Once they started thickening the seat backs they ate up much of that room, but my '63 TR3B (drove to high school in 65 and 66) had enough room that I never had the seat all the way back. I'm 6'3". No rust at all ever. If only I didn't have to sell it to go to Purdue.

All I have left is my 48 MGTC (NO room at all), a TR4 project I stupidly bought, and a 78 MG Midget we bought for my wife becauses she fondly remembered the 64 we bought for her when we were first married. The Midget is the only thing all together now, and in the spring I hope to get most of our money out of it. I used to fit in the 64, but with all the thick seats, etc this modern one is painful for me to get in and out.

 

[KVacek]

This is mostly an old man's rant. Please just ignore it.

Trying to fix the (probably just jammed) seat bottom tilt on our 2005 Yukon Denali XL.

I grew up in what I believe was the real world. Like my father before me, I had an Erector set. I had few actual toys, and very little plastic stuff. I learned how mechannical things were built. Worked on, built, and ran go-karts, later motorcycles and cars, all my Dad's lawn equipment. Nothing was snapped together plastic.

My first cars were English (40's, 50's, and 60's Triumphs, MG's, and Austin Healey). Everyone who's never actually worked on them KNOWS that Lucas is bad and weird and whatever else they "know". Actually it all worked just fine, was relatively logical, and had really good brass and chrome. Then I moved to GM cars like my parents. Still have a few English ones too, 50+ years later.

Automotive connectors have long tended to stick a bit and use difficult clips that like to snap off., but they used to be mostly similar and easy to figure out. Then the emission stuff, gasketed connectors, etc. came along. But you could usually see how the connector came apart, see where the latch was, and pry it open without damage. Most connectors had a general family similarity.

Now it appears that GM gives awards for the largest number of bizarre, different-design conectors on a vehicle. The more hard to reach and impossible to open, the better. Hide the place where it splits - let the guy reaching in from God-knows-where to access it GUESS.

Virtually EVERY conector is different, with a different latch that's hard to get to with man hands. I don't have a strong spider monkey for a helper.

Where do the current GM engineers get these ideas? I'm sure they're all in some foreign country, have tiny little hands, and have NEVER worked on anything other than their LEGO plastic dinosaur sets, but REALLY !!

All the videos I find show different connectors, different harnesses, different screws in different places. Did GM ever make two of these the same?

Rant OFF
Back to trying to get to where I can loosen and rotate the clevises on the ends of the jack screws, hoping that's all that's stuck.

Karl

Yup - only a few hours of pain to finally get to all the connectors, figure out what Jayesh designed in each place, and get the seat bottom off to get to the front clevis. Where the external Torx is jammed up against the floor and not really room for even a compact breaker bar to turn it. If they'd lubricated the assembly at the factory and used some actual fasterners rather than big squeezed rivets, it might never have stuck.

This is NOT a real GM vehicle like they once made. Like the birds say - CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP - but for a ridiculously high price.