1957 Fire wall harness won't plug together American Auto wire

[nomad]

On my 1957 Chevrolet Nomad we don't seem to have enough of the plastic plug sticking out of the rubber firewall harness gromet going toward the engine to plug in the engine bay side of the wiring harness together . Do not want to trim the rubber gromet , to try and make it thinner . There dose not seem to be any plastic lock clip in the plug ends to lock the two together . What keeps them locked together ? Any help appreciated .

[Belair-o]

Hi Nomad,
I am pretty sure the Nomad, and my 57 hardtop use the same connection there. As I recall when rewiring my car, the plug needs to be pushed into the firewall gromet far enough so it seats properly (I think I lubed the plug to get it to fit properly). The other connector then plugs in - the combination of the number of pins, and the significant amount of overlap on the plug moldings provides the retention - no lock clip.
Regards, Doug

[BamaNomad]

Doug's post reminded me... that's also the way it had to be engaged on my '57 Nomad...

[nomad]

Hi Nomad,
I am pretty sure the Nomad, and my 57 hardtop use the same connection there. As I recall when rewiring my car, the plug needs to be pushed into the firewall gromet far enough so it seats properly (I think I lubed the plug to get it to fit properly). The other connector then plugs in - the combination of the number of pins, and the significant amount of overlap on the plug moldings provides the retention - no lock clip.
Regards, Doug
Hey thank you , and Bama for the input . I have had good results using Goop hand cleaner when lubing up rubber grommets . I will tell Bob my restorer what you both said . By saving the old original wiring harness I was able to see that it had no snap clip lock just plug together . I also know that 1955 and 1956 did not have separate wiring harness's though out the car like 57 did . Thank you both , Dom

[BamaNomad]

Dom, I also like to use 'goop' , or GOJO hand cleaner for temporary lubrication especially for rubber parts, because it dries so thoroughly, and I've also heard that 'lanolin' is good for rubber and GOJO has lanolin in it. :)

[Histoy56]

I've had good luck using liquid dish soap for lubricating rubber parts when assembling.

[nomad]

We attempted again to install the main wire harness and gromet thru the firewall hole with no luck . We have an American wire harness and possibly an original rubber gromet . It's to tight to install . We will call American wire , and also get a new reproduction wiring harness grommet .