I want to know how to take the connector apart to inspect the wire crimps and the pins for the PCM wire connectors. My van just shuts off and if I leave the ignition on and wiggly the driver side PCM connector I can hear a relay click and it will start back up when I turn the key. I have taken the PCM cover off and the gell and circuit board looks fine. No evidence of anything wrong. I believe there is a bad connection of the pins to the PCM pins or the pin to the wire inside the connector. How do I get the pins out to check the wire crimps?

 

What year is your van and which engine do you have?

 

I had some wires all messed up at the 14 pin connector on my '89 ECM.

I wound up using a small drill bit, and drilling through the barrel of the bad wire, out the back of the plastic. I then stripped about 1.25 inches of the bad wire, inserted it through the barrel, bent it around the end of the barrel and pulled back the wire. I used clear silicone over the opening.
Worked great!
No problems in the 6 years since.

 

If there's a removable plastic insert between the rows of pins, remove it. Next you'll need a very small screwdriver to slide down next to the pin and push the tiny catch over. Once the catch is over you should be able to pull the wire out the back of the connector.

 

I have a 2000 dodge ram 1500 5.9L and it started killing the engine while I was driving ( quite dangerous I might add ) then it would not start and when i waited for a while it would start right up( the engine would turn over but it would not start like yours)
after a few times of being stranded in the middle of the intersections I noticed that my odometer read (NO BUS) and the engine light was on so during the process of elimination I figured that when i wiggled the 1st of the 3 plugs closest to the driver side on the power control module the (NOBUS) would go out and the engine light would go off then the truck would start right up and go until the next time it would die.

NOTE: DO NOT MESS WITH THE INER WORKINGS OF THE PLUG THEY ARE NOT REALLY TAMPER PROOF I KNOW i MESSED MINE UP GOOD! I have been looking at junk yards for the same plugs I think that it has to be the excat same year because I got one off a 99 jeep cherokee and the plug is right and the wire count is right ( 20) wires but I think that the pin are different than the holes on the plug so my search goes on.. I hope this helped at all and if you find out where to get a pcm plug kit please let me know thxs

 

Miller Special tools has a kit for disconnecting.the pins you can't disconnect them with out it .or you risk breaking it and be really gentle with it because the plastic inside gets brittle with age. and you may want to get a couple of connectors from a junk yard before you start taking it apart. in case you break the tabs inside good luck .

 

4.5 years have passed since my last post in this thread.

The treatment I gave my 14 way connector back then has now compromised the solder joints on the circuit board itself.

I got a junkyard connector and cleaned it up and added some more stress relief to the wires, Spliced it in, and thought it solved my issues, but they returned after 10 days.

In the case of my connector, there is NO getting the sockets from the housing. They are molded into it, either 2 halves sealed together over the wire and sockets or somehow liquid nylon is injected over sockets and wires.

While Molex connectors are similar, and can have the sockets be removed by depressing the locking arms, there is No way to remove the sockets from my connector. I do not know how similar yours is.

I need to resolder the pins on my potted circuit board. But I want a back up ECM handy before I try. I cannot find any electronics repair joint to do this locally. We work only on TV's seems to be the standard reply, if i even get a reply.

Here is my problem connector, this is the cleaned up junkyard one i recently spliced in.







Here is the PCB end of that 14 way connector. One or more of these solder joints is now compromised, because of my 'temporary' fix I used by drilling out the back of the connector and inserting the bare wire to be pressed between pin and socket. But apparently these are a well known failure point and perhaps would have failed even if not for my halfassery.



In the first photo, you can see that there are 2 arms inside the socket. You can bend these inward to grasp the pins tighter.

Get some spray electronics cleaner to get out all the old grease so you can see to work. I used a thicker sewing needle to mechanically remove the grease, with the spray cleaner with red straw attached to get it this clean.

I also used stabilant 22a contact enhancer, but look into products from Caig to both clean and protect.

While the dielectric grease should not interfere with the metal on metal contact and reduce conductivity, if the spring arms are too weak inside the socket, then perhaps the connection is compromised.

 

I recently fixed a laptop motherboard by doing this:

 

Ok can i use your oven?

Burning silicone potting must smell so pleasant.

i am not sure of the theory, but since solder melts at ~465 and the over was set to 375......

I just opened up the original ECM i never returned for the core charge. one of the pins is way loose. I can see its base move through the potting. Perhaps this was the only issue with this ECM. maybee time to bust out the dremel to remove potting and soldering gun and see IF I can do it and return function to it.

 

No smell, and the melting point of solder used in wave machines is down closer to 330 degrees. When I did it I set my oven for 400 and left the motherboard in for 10 minutes.