To fix a mistake, I need to remove the wire and contact from an MC4 housing. Anyone know how to do this / where to find a suitable tool? (The "usual" MC4 tools are fine for unscrewing the cable gland from the connector body, but unless I've missed something they are no help in getting the contact out of the housing.)
Removing MC4 contacts
- Thread starter chz
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400bird
Solar Wizard
The fork part is the release tool, used to push in the tabs on both sides of the MC4.
Depending on your MC4 brand, you may need two different sizes of fork.
Depending on your MC4 brand, you may need two different sizes of fork.
Rednecktek
Solar Wizard
You're trying to get the pin out of the housing? A small flat jewels screwdriver and patience can get you there, or cutters and a new head is the easy way.
That's for getting two coupled MC4's apart. My problem is getting the contact and wire out of the connector housing.
Mine are basically snatch them out kinds when I need to remove the contacts. I loosen the nut on the end of the connector and slide it back on the cable. Then pull the compression plastic piece out with a screw driver or knife backing it along the cable like you did the nut.
I then just pull on the wire and it pops out. It takes a good tug normally but its not that hard on the connectors I use.
I then just pull on the wire and it pops out. It takes a good tug normally but its not that hard on the connectors I use.
WolfbaneAries
New Member
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I looked into this a while ago, having come from electrical engineering in the automotive industry I expected to find some sort of official "depinning" tool like what we use on circular bulkhead connectors.
There's no such thing.
I was pretty shocked and would love to be proven wrong but everything I saw anywhere I looked was "cut it off and start over", which is crazy to me because it would be a pretty simple tool. Something like this:
EWK 3 Pcs Deutsch Terminal Removal Tool Kit 14, 16 & 20 Gauge https://a.co/d/e01for9
Actually one of those would probably work if one could find the right size.
There's no such thing.
I was pretty shocked and would love to be proven wrong but everything I saw anywhere I looked was "cut it off and start over", which is crazy to me because it would be a pretty simple tool. Something like this:
EWK 3 Pcs Deutsch Terminal Removal Tool Kit 14, 16 & 20 Gauge https://a.co/d/e01for9
Actually one of those would probably work if one could find the right size.
Last edited:
I keep a bunch of the connector ends on hand and if I have to redo the end I take it apart like I mentioned above and then cut the crimped on part off and strip and crimp a new connector onto the wire and then reassemble the housing.
Probably seems strange to bother keeping all of this on hand but I use the mc4 connectors for things other than solar so it helps to have parts on hand.
WolfbaneAries
New Member
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Well... I just put a little more effort into it, and based on this:
A circular pin removal tool somewhere between 5.5 and 6.5mm should do it...
I just ordered it so I'll let y'all know.
A circular pin removal tool somewhere between 5.5 and 6.5mm should do it...
I just ordered it so I'll let y'all know.
WolfbaneAries
New Member
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AHA!!!
Well it took some digging through TE's website but I found their version of the MC4 which is called Solarlok, and a little more digging to find their official pin extraction tool:
So I ordered that too and we'll see what work best.
Well there are a few different styles of MC4 terminals, the ones in most familiar with are the ones that have small metal wings that hold the terminal in place...
forcibly pulling the terminal out causes damage to these wings as well as the connector housing itself.
If it works, it works, but it's interesting to figure out what the manufacturer had in mind for doing this "the right way".
Well it took some digging through TE's website but I found their version of the MC4 which is called Solarlok, and a little more digging to find their official pin extraction tool:
So I ordered that too and we'll see what work best.
Well there are a few different styles of MC4 terminals, the ones in most familiar with are the ones that have small metal wings that hold the terminal in place...
forcibly pulling the terminal out causes damage to these wings as well as the connector housing itself.
If it works, it works, but it's interesting to figure out what the manufacturer had in mind for doing this "the right way".
I tried it. It worked -- and did not take all that much of a tug. Maybe I hadn't inserted it quite all the way, so the "wings" weren't actually engaged.
The "ears" are not really for holding it in the housing as much as catching on the sleeve that goes goes in before the nut I believe. That's why they come out fairly easily when pulled.
Well that and keeping it centered in the barrel of the housing.
Well that and keeping it centered in the barrel of the housing.
Quattrohead
Solar Wizard
I'm a cut off and replace guy because, well your only taking it apart if it melted down.
Or just cut it off and buy new MC4s , they are cheap
Hedges
I See Electromagnetic Fields!
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Those ears look too stiff to be compressed by a tool, and not compliant enough to spring back.
I think the plastic housing deforms elastically to clear them, not he other way around.
But the existence of an extraction tool from TE suggests otherwise.
12VoltInstalls
life passes by too quickly to not live in freedom
Can you let us all know?
While I suspect any of us fooling around cars and boats for forty years ‘have’ forcibly separated one or another connector by brute force I’m sorta averse to yanking stuff apart like that myself LOL
Occasionally when you want to move a cable or whatever you want to disassemble to go through a small hole without refeeding the entire wiring- or crimping on a new end. MC4’s are ‘cheap enough’ but a release tool seems attractive.
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