Those deviants at Chevrolet decided to make life difficult for Corvette owners.

EVERY single electrical connector is different, and all work differently...........and all are like possessed in their difficulty to unplug and plug.

Why not just have one plug design that can be worked with one hand when you are upside down and oil is dripping on your face?

My old 67' just for the effect

 

Because every home mechanic out there would be plugging the wrong thing into the wrong thing frying every computer in the car. Or just making stuff go haywire lol.

IMO these connectors are fine. Maybe a little brittle when the get old but otherwise easy to manage.

So far the only real stupid connector I've found on a C5 is the low oil level sensor in the oil pan. That one is a bugger to get released.

You want to work with connectors that get broken daily new or old try working on a Volkswagen.

 

Actually I believe this to be the Genius of our cars.

 

This is it right here. Differentiations must be made for identification when piecing something back together. If you look closely even the two pin metripack 150 series connectors have several guide slot variations dependent on where they get hooked up.

They're really not bad connectors, some of the more reliable robust ones for the time period.

 

They should just be color coded. But having EVERY SINGLE connector a different and difficult design was demented.

 

I think it's a great way to attempt making the car idiot-proof to work on.

Clearly, you can't make everybody happy.

 

patience grasshopper

 

There's a good 4-6 connections on the transmission that would be easy to confuse. But they're all different so you cant' get 'em wrong. It's a feature, not a bug.
Yes if they break it can be a hassle, but that is a universal truth.

 

It would help if the shop books included directions next to the pinouts on how to separate the connectors without breaking them since there are so many different types.

 

I think they could have used the same connector with different keyways. i.e. connector #1, 3-pin, keyway slot on the left; connector #2, 3-pin, keyway slot on the right. They won't plug into each other, but otherwise dealing with them is identical. The only issue I could foresee is someone trying to plug the left keyway version into right keyway version, and failing miserably. In that case you can also do as @ztheusa said and color code them.

 

They care less about "home mechanics" to be sure. Makes it much easier factory assembly. No guessing.

 

Actually, it is pure engineering genius, you CAN'T screw it up when you put things back together after working on the car!

 

 

This is a GOOD thing!

 

It may be "genius" but it would be damn expensive to start replacing modules and computers.......

 

its done so the people on the assembly line cant screw up,,and also the wiring only goes one way ,so it only can be plugged in that way

plus different connectors take different gauge wires

 

My '03 coupe is my first foray into the "Chevy world" after owning at least 40-50 different Fords. To be honest, I was expecting to find that GM engineers are just as idiotic as the Blue Oval guys. However, I have to admit I'm a few projects in and... this car may be the easiest thing I've ever worked on! The only truly stupid thing I've come across so far is the placement of the main computer right under the battery. After watching some posts on horrific situations where battery acid leaked down into the wiring, I removed the battery and tray just to examine things- fortunately, it appears there's never been any leakage with my car (although I believe by '03 GM had migrated to using AGMs anyway, so maybe that explains it).

So far, I've been pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to disconnect the electrical connections (at least the ones involved with swapping a double DIN into the dash). I've got my fingers crossed that the entire car is as well engineered. My car had an oil change right before I purchased it, but having watched some vids on that process, it looks like they made everything pretty accessible (I'm thinking of what strategy I'll use to get the car high enough to get to the drain plug and slide my oil catch in and out though :^).

PS- Regarding your '67 Vette... the car I sold to purchase my C5 was the '65 Mustang I restored 10 years prior. Without a doubt, cars were easier to work on before computers were incorporated into everything. I needed about 5 sockets and a couple screwdrivers to fix just about anything on that car.

 

I'll bet that one of those sockets wasn't a 10MM socket, too!






And welcome to the "Corvette world".

 

Thanks, and yeah- my socket drawer has always had a bunch of 1/2" sockets (seems you always need a couple when working on projects).
Now it also has a collection of various types of 10mm sockets as well.

I've always wondered why automakers didn't go with 11mm bolts (because you can easily use a 7/16" socket on an 11mm- would have made it a LOT easier for shade tree mechanics). Instead, they all fell in love with the 10mm (all my Fords have a lot of them too). The one that infuriates me (in the same manner the OP is frustrated by the various electrical sockets) is when a project has numerous 7mm AND 8mm bolts- I mean REALLY?!? You couldn't use all 7mm or all 8mm for the fasteners involved in a routinely occurring project?!? C'mon man! I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall during the engineering meeting where they had a conversation that went something like "Well, a 7mm won't quite cut it here, we should use an 8mm instead- even though the stress on both will be pretty much exactly the same." That meeting probably occurs right after they put their heads together to agree on the most inconvenient placement of the oil filter (the Corvette and Jeep guys skipped that meeting, but I'm convinced Ford engineers have a 3 day conference on that topic for each new model).

Whew, that rant felt really refreshing!

 

Those bolts (and connectors ) were not only specified by different engineering teams in different countries, they work for different companies. Real cute the amount of cooperation you think goes into these cars.