C3 Temperature Sensor Connector 1970 BB

[Tony H.]

Hi all,

I am looking for a connector for the wire that attaches the green wire to the temperature sensor that resides in the left head of my 1970 454 engine. Does anyone know where I can get one of these. The original connector is brass and 3/4" long. One end fits over the 1/8" diameter stem of the sensor, the other end of the connector clamps around the wire and insulation, the middle of the connector captures the bare wire. I will try to save the original and reuse it but if it breaks, I would like a Plan B.

Thanks,
Tony

[Harmon C.]

Re: C3 Temperature Sensor Connector 1970 BB

Eagle wire has wire ends at the shows and you can sometimes find used ends at the self serve yards on other cars.

[Tony H.]

Re: C3 Temperature Sensor Connector 1970 BB

Lyle,
Thanks for the reply. That's who I thought might carry the connector. After closer examination of the brass connector, I think there was some kind of a plastic connector around the contact that remains. My original connector is long gone. Does someone have a description of the plastic covering that may have housed this connector?

[Joe L.]

Re: C3 Temperature Sensor Connector 1970 BB

Tony-----

Yes, there was a plastic covering for this connector. It was a semi-translucent, whitish plastic. It was more-or-less a "flattened oval" shape and was about an inch long. They are very hard to find in good condition inasmuch as I don't think that they were as heat resistant as the needed to be.

[Jack H.]

Re: C3 Temperature Sensor Connector 1970 BB

Factory original temp sender from '68-71 had 'pinhead' electrical posts unlike the 't-head' terminals from prior and later era. This style of temp sender was short lived and GM service folks were told to cut and discard the factory original connector in the wiring harness when replacing the original temp sender with a service replacement t-head unit and splice a replacement connector on to match the service replacement temp sender.

I've seen two styles of factory original connectors on untouched wiring harness assy's from the era. One is a 'barrel' style connector that used a translucent insulator over the metal barrel who's ID snapped over the OD of the temp sender pin-head post. This is the only style of connector I've seen used on the handful of untouched Corvettes from that era and I know of NO SOURCE to supply a fresh replacement! This connector, since it sat in the heat bath below the exhaust manifold, tended to see its translucent plastic insulator body dry up, chip, flake and suffer catastrophic wear out.

On Chevy passenger cars from the same era, I've seen a second style of connector for the pin-head temp sender. These are sort of 'triangular' in shape whose plastic body varies in color (I've seen both black and white). These are still available and are what you can get from Eaglehead by request.

I know M&H Fabrications offers two different versions of their reproduction engine wiring harness assemblies for this era where customer can specify for factory original, pin-head temp sender, or for the much more common, service replacement, T-post temp sender. I do not know what connector they supply on a harness assy if you order the 'correct/original' temp sender version.

I suspect GM had more than one supplier for the this connector in the good ole days. It could well be that the translucent body barrel connector fell out of favor due to it's tendency to heat soak and self-destruct.

[Jeffrey S.]

Re: C3 Temperature Sensor Connector 1970 BB

Tony
I purchased a replacement "pin head" connector a couple of years ago from Eagle. I will go look at the connector on the car and try to give you a good description.
Jeff Salz