> From:    Pensioner <al_knoll@PACBELL.NET>
> Date:    Sun, 17 Jun 2007 15:02:02 -0700
>
> To help prevent futzing up the connectors, I have used small safety
> pins to probe wire for voltage measurements and test female connectors
> without munging up the socket diameter.

Safety pins work well for this, especially probing a wire through the
insulation.  If you do this, though, put a little electrical tape or a
thin smear of clear RTV over the hole in the insulation when you're
done... keeps moisture out of the inside of the wire.

If you have access to a parts car, or dead electrical parts and
harnesses, you can cut the connectors off of the harnesses and
components and make "extension cords" that allow you to tap in to a
connection you want to monitor on a longer-term basis.  Also, even
though there are approximately twelve billion connector housing shapes,
there are many fewer actual pin and socket shapes.  If you can buy or
salvage loose pins and sockets with a little wire on them, they can be
plugged onto the stock terminals without damage.

At work we once needed to make a temporary connection to a multi-pin
female connector to run an engine on the test stand.  We suspected that
eventually we were going to replace the connector with something mortals
could purchase, but at that point there was still some hope that we could
get the mating connector, so we didn't want to damage it.  I noted that
the sockets appeared to be for the (standard-ish on newer cars) 1.5 mm
wide flat pins, and dug through our junk harness pile for some connectors
with those pins.  I cut the connectors off of the harness with a few
inches of wire on them.  Then I laid the connector shells on the shop
floor and hit them with a hammer, freeing up several pins at once.  One
of the students remarked that that was the fastest and most efficient
way he'd ever seen to disassemble a connector.  :)

Matt Roberds