opening the electrical connector without braking it

[yves]

I am trying to connect the high beam flashing function ( non operating on my "american" car ) Following the connecting advices on the forum  but before Breaking the plug , i Wonder if i have "only" to lever outside the cover on its side with a screw driver…,


After that i 'll need to build a female connector to fit in the 5 and 8 empty holes of the plug  and connect 5 to the fuse 1 and the 8 to the fuse 10 if i have not misunderstood

[mrfatboy]

You can use one of these yellow (maybe blue?) connectors for the female insert.  Remove plastic,  break off eyelet.  Solder wire to it. 👍

[yves]

I'll try that  …

[FGN59]

SLS in Hamburg sells female connectors identical to the originals: https://www.sls-hh-shop.de/main/en/mercedes-230-280sl-w113-/54-elektrical-equipment-at-body/54-c-equipment-for-cable-harness/sold-on-sleeve-4mm-p-5508

I just did last month what you are doing, no difficulty thanks to the Technical Manual and various posts outlining the operation. Of all the things I did since taking ownership of the car (280SL US version from early 1969) last year, one of the easiest. But let me know if you need more info.

And yes the sides of the connector’s lid are soft/flexible, so you just lever it slightly on its whole length (from both extremities), and it opens easily.

Have fun!

[Tyler S]

If you have an intermediate sub-harness that feeds the hazard lamp switch then you wont have to run any wires to the fusebox. You just need to add 2 wires and 3 terminals (1 male, 2 female) between the handshake connectors.

[jeffc280sl]

i recall the connector cover slides on.  i'd be careful trying to pry one side off with with a screw driver.  its a nice upgrade

[yves]

Hi Tyler i have no wire in the female connector at the pins 5 and 8 , so i must wire them to the fuses 1 and 10 if i am correct…?

[FGN59]

Connecting to fuse #1 will allow the flasher to work at all times; if you use fuse #2, the flasher will work only when the key is in position 1 or 2.

(I used fuse #2 as I put a circuit breaker on the battery, with only a small wire incorporating an in-line fuse to allow the clock in the car to keep working. If you were to use the flasher as the circuit breaker is ‘off’ (and the key not in the ignition lock), it would fry the small in-line fuse)

[jeffc280sl]

while addressing the flash to pass function from the wiper stalk you may want to look at the headlight dimmer function as well,  especially for those with manual transmissions. 

[Tyler S]

Hi Tyler i have no wire in the female connector at the pins 5 and 8 , so i must wire them to the fuses 1 and 10 if i am correct…?

Usually The wiring to the fusebox is already in the main harness. Its the small sub-harness for the hazard flashers shown in my photo above that is missing its wiring and pins. This is how the flash feature was disabled on USA versions. Trace back the harness and see if there is another same sized male counterpart. An easy way to find would be to follow the hazard lamp switch wiring down. It should split into a “Y” and reveal the other end. The jumper wires needed to be added are shown in the second photo above.

[FGN59]

Hi Tyler,

Having performed a similar modification last month (wiring the flasher function on the multi function switch), I am interested to understand what you are suggesting, which is different from what I think I saw elsewhere on the forum and what I did. Please note that I have almost the same car as Yves, by coincidence: a 1969 289SL initially specs for the US.

My car is being worked on right now so I can’t go and check this sub-harness thing, but I think I recognize the connector in your picture (since to access the multi function connector you have to disassemble the plate on which all these connectors are located, I opened them all, cleaned and sprayed all the contacts, and put them back together).

From memory, all the pins, male and female, were wired on all the connectors, except the female pins nº5 and 8 on the multi function connector. I ended up doing exactly what Yves is suggesting, inserting females pins with new wires soldered on in the multi function connector and running the corresponding wires to the fuse box (fuses 2 and 10).

I’m ready to go in again, remove the extra wires I put in and use the  wires in the hazard sub harness, but what I think I saw in there doesn’t match your picture, in that all the pins were wired in that sub harness. On the other hand, pins nº5 and 8 on the female part of the multi function connector were not wired.

[Tyler S]

Yes it is possible the pins on the male half of the sub-harness are occupied. In my photo you can see the male half is only missing one pin, not two. All depending on how the sub-harness is wired to provide power for the hazard flashers. So you will add the new jumper wire/piggyback to the already existing pin if one exists.
On the body harness these pins are definitely populated as they provide power from the fusebox. A quick test is to remove the sub-harness handshake male and female connectors from the circuit and plug the body harness handshake connector directly into the multi switch handshake connector. You should then have flash to pass an no emergency flashers. At some point this sub harness was done away with and its circuit for the Hazards incorporated into the main harness. You wont know until you look. All Photos below are of the Hazard sub-harness. 

Another good thread here. https://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=25611.25

[Tyler S]

This is what you should end up with. Though, there will be 2 wires jumping between the connectors.

[FGN59]

Thank you Tyler  , I understand now. I’ll look into this when I get the car back and let you know how it went.