Squirrels Got My Wiring

[LorenStrodtman]

My truck sat about ten days, and a squirrel moved in under the hood. Apparently the (I believe) C125 connector wires and the wires of its neighbor were just too tempting. Anyone know what style of connectors these are, or what kind of pins go into it them? I'd like to remove each affected pin one at a time so I can clean up the damage, and would like to source the "correct" tool since this isn't something with which I have an abundance of recent experience.

 

[Ozymandias]

I think we need @mwilson here to help, he is the connector guy.
Let's see if he swings by.

 

[petersonj]

@LorenStrodtman , I think that squirrel is a particularly mean squirrel. He could have left a couple of inches wire so you could repair it.

Unless, of course, you did something to make him behave that way....

- John

 

[gcorron]

HEY!! repair of your wiring can wait until AFTER you've had your squirrel stew!!

George

 

[Timd32]

Not sure this will work for you but here is a website I saved that he has posted a few times for us.

http://connectors.dcctools.com/home.htm

 

[LorenStrodtman]

@Timd32 thank you for the link. I had looked around on there some. The problem is, they have almost zero diagrams. "There is not a graphic for this connector" is by far the most common result. It's nice that it tells me the wire color and gauge, which the FSM also does (page 8W-80-9) along with the diagram to know which is #1. However, nothing so far can tell me "that's a Delphi/Packard/Honeywell/etc. connector # blab-blah-blah" so I can buy some repair parts - or learn out to depin the connector.

I'm pretty sure those are connectors C125 and C126. However, C126 is described in the FSM as being "gray". Sure doesn't look gray to me, nor does it look it ever WAS gray.

EDIT: Page 8W-90-8, figure 2 shows clearly it IS connectors C125 and C126. Still not sure who would call that Gray versus Black, but maybe there was a change during production.

 

[LorenStrodtman]

@LorenStrodtman , I think that squirrel is a particularly mean squirrel. He could have left a couple of inches wire so you could repair it.

Unless, of course, you did something to make him behave that way....

- John

I don't know that I've done much of anything to anger the squirrels around here, but that's about to change.

 

[Ozymandias]

Go to a self pick Yard and get yourself some pigtails, would be my way to solve this problem.

 

[Timd32]

Agree most everything is pretty useless.

Nothing really makes it easy to figure these out, regardless if it's been discontinued it does not appear in the books what it was.

You could just splice some new pigtails that are available if you can't find these.

It looks to be a pretty common part could be salvage yard time to hack out a few with some decent wire on each end.

 

[bcbender]

I have and use this trap... works almost too good, I sprinkle a little corn or bird seed on it and spend the remainder of my time taking care of what decides to get in,.. Full disclosure I've never caught the quantity shown in the picture but have caught 2 and 3 at a time, they are NOT HAPPY when there are multiples in there, I think maybe the are playing the blame game... FWIW, I did not opt for the swimming pool they sell separately, I have other methods.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/catchmor-squirrelinator-trap

 

[LorenStrodtman]

Maybe I'm in the wrong part of the country, but I can't say I've ever seen a Cummins-powered truck at the local You-Pull type of junkyard. At worst I'll just take the damaged wires and combine them into their own new Metri/Weather/Whatever-Pack connector with appropriate gauge wire pigtail. Ranges from 12-gauge to 18-gauge, so that'll be fun.
This has been in my cart for about a year, this is my excuse to finally buy a good connector kit:
Amazon product ASIN B01LBRWZVC

 

[bcbender]

I've seen em at a LKQ before, but they get picked pretty quick, not sure of a local yard might have one they'd let you cut it off of or not, sometimes depends on the yard.

 

[Cummins12V98]

Do you have Comprehensive coverage? I would turn in a claim. Shouldn’t effect your rates. Give em a call.

 

[Timd32]

It looks like a very common set of connectors, shows up in 1500's as well.

The book has very detailed drawings of them just not a lick of what they are.

 

[Hoopster]

I would replace that harness, it should be part number 56045481AB. It runs from the PDC to the Engine Harness (where the rodents got yours) down to the Transmission and over to the PCM on the passenger side. Not to bad to replace I see them on eBay. Non Pick-n-Pull wreckers should have this as they usually disconnect the engine from this harness and leave it in the cab. I did have a couple of spare but have sold them. Also a good time when dealing with this harness to put a PCM power fuse in the Blue wire (mopar1973 has a write up about this).

Someone else mentioned that this connector is common on other similar vintage Dodge products (Dakota, Durango) but if I recall only one of them the other is Cummins truck only.

 

[Hoopster]

Correction- The Part Number I posted is for an automatic (47re) truck, manual will be a different part number.

 

[LorenStrodtman]

I'm not going to replace the harness unless it's practically free. Those connectors were needed to hasten assembly of the truck in Mexico, but I see no reason for them now. 21 years and 345k miles, and I don't know that the wires had ever been removed from the firewall until this event. If I can't easily take apart the connector and splice in some new wire for just the 9 wires, I'll just hardwire those, and leave the other 16 wires in the connector.

I added IBMobile's PCM fuse a few years back. I'm a member over there, too. I see a lot of the same names both places.

 

[mwilson]

I have never understood why Ram uses these weird connectors and then buries any info what so ever pertaining to the component content.

Drives me nuts. They build a vehicle that will last for hundreds of thousands of miles but never consider having to fix it.

I can break down ANY harness and connector contained within that harness for a Freightliner or Western Star truck right to the individual pins.

Ram needs to offer the same instead of a smattering of overpriced plug / connector kits.

Now maybe the Ram dealers can?? And are not inclined to do the work?? I wonder that at times.

 

[LorenStrodtman]

My dad called me and said he has one of these harnesses for a manual truck. However, I can put that harness on the work bench and take my time trying to figure out how to disassemble the plugs, versus trying to do all this bent over the engine, outside in the cold. So, that's fantastic news!

 

[mwilson]

This is an older truck, back in the '90s. Even back then the truck people made this info readily available. This is how it should be with Ram.

So here are the individual parts required to repair a bad fan switch connector after being half cooked from sheer mileage and a failing blower motor.. Also note the parts are listed to repair the under hood connector for the A/C Binary Switch.

Newer trucks are even more specific. With some truck component (aka Commodity) harnesses topping the $3000.00 mark the ability to repair a turn signal connector pigtail contained within that harness for about $5.00 becomes a priority.