[alfa] RE: Injector connectors

["Karl Chen" <karlcchen@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

John,

Thank you for the great info and sharing your experience.

Karl

-----Original Message-----
From: John Fielding [mailto:johnf@domain.elided]
Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 11:30 PM
To: karlcchen@domain.elided
Subject: RE: Injector connectors

Hi Karl,

The connectors are made by the Tyco company, used to be known as AMP.  The
insert pins are
made by Wurth.  There about 350 different types of just the injector shell
listed in the
Tyco catalog, apart from colour of the shell there are many variations of
the sealing
styles and clips to hold the shell in place and the boots that go on the
back of the
shell!  It took me over a week working with the local Tyco agent to find the
correct part
number for the injector connectors.  I particularly favour the type used by
VW/Audi with
the better spring clip to retain the shell.  This will not work in all cases
if the
injectors are a tight fit between the manifold, but the wings on the VW
style clip make it
much easier to disconnect.

The country of origin is normally Far East although Tyco have several
factories in USA and
Mexico.  The country of manufacture is contained in a cryptic code on the
part, not always
in plain text.

A couple of places sell them loose on the internet, the best place in USA
would be
Painless Performance, look them up on Google and select the items you need
for your
shopping basket etc and pay be credit card.  There are also places in Canada
who supply
the Bosch style connectors.  If you only need a few and can find a harness
from a breakers
yard this is what I often do.  (The insert terminals that Wurth supplies
needs a special
crimping tool to fit them onto the wires).  I usually find a good harness
and then
carefully strip it to recover all the connectrors and wire.  Then I make a
new harness
using the connectors I need.  I have just converted a GTV6 harness to a
Alfetta 4 in-line
by this method.  It took me about 2 hours of work and it looks just like a
factory made
one.

Be careful of the shell style used by some temperature sensors, they are not
all injector
style.  The polarising keyway on some sensors is not in the centre but to
one side.  You
can make them fit by forcing but they will damage the shell if fitted to the
wrong sensor.
Also the injector shell has a half moon cutout in one side so it will will
clear the
injector body when the plug on the injector is at 45deg to the body.
Sensors do not
normally require the cutout as the shell pushes straight on and not at an
angle.

Tyco make about 99% of all the automotive connectors used in the world,
along with Siemens
who make 99.9% of all injectors these two companies have the market well
covered!

I can buy the Tyco shells here from a local automotive electrical supplier.
Their price
is about R20 ea which is about US$3 at todays exchange rate.  This is a one
off price.  I
could also buy from Tyco direct, but I need permission from Bosch in writing
as they own
the tooling, (OEM harness manufacturers get a special discount from Tyco
because they use
such large quantities),  I have to order a minimum of 10,000 pieces, the
price then comes
down to $0.50 each for the shell and $0.30 for the two insert pins.  But I
would never use
10,000 pieces in my lifetime!

It sounds as though the markup on one off pieces is even worse in your
country than here.
Comparing prices bewteen countries is very interesting.  Many times I see
prices quoted
for a part in US$, when I cost that part here it is normally much cheaper,
usually about
50% or less.  Shipping small parts is not that expensive, but the customs at
the importing
country may impose a duty that makes the whole exercise futile.

I hope this helps.
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