lemoned

I am trying to finish up the DIY transmission service outlined in this thread. Everything went gone well, except one of the O-rings for the accumulators was too big and fit too loosely. So I just used the old one. I am now stuck trying to get the thing back into the transmission, because I can't get the wiring harness and plug to pop back into place. See this image (the plug on my car is brown, not black like it is in this picture):



It is extremely hard to hold the thing up with one hand while trying to shove the plug in with the other. I tried using a jack and jack stand to hold up the valve body, but that doesn't help much because there is absolutely no slack in the wires. Each time the valve body moves the slightest bit, it just yanks the plug back out. Plus, there's almost no room to work under there. Maybe the new O-ring is too tight, because it just won't pop in. Anyone have any tips on how they did this? Did anyone have the same trouble? I'm thinking about picking up a new O-ring from the dealer just in case the one I got is a little too thick... but it doesn't look like it.

lemoned

I was able to get it in with the help of a friend. He was holding the valve body up, and I used a long screwdriver and hammer to push the plug into the socket. This is definitely a two-person job, if anyone is thinking about attempting this. It seems like the transmission up-shifts smoother now, but down-shifts a little rougher. I hope I didn't screw anything up in there. It was pretty straightforward, so I don't think so. But we'll see what happens.

BIGBOY

Having to use a hammer is never a good thing on a electric connector. (Did you have trouble removing it?)

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lemoned

No, didn't have trouble removing it. A combination of pulling from the inside and pushing from the outside popped it out.

I wasn't hammering on the electrical connector exactly. This piece is made up of a plastic outer "tube", and a rubber inner cylinder, which the wires go through. The O-ring sits around the plastic outer piece. So this isn't a male/female electrical plug, just something that holds the wires, and keeps the transmission fluid in. The whole thing is about 1.5" - 2" long. The screwdriver was pressing against the rubber part of the plug, not the plastic part, and was not pressing against any wires.

There's so little space to work in there, I couldn't think of any other way. We tried many different things to get the plug back in, but nothing would work. There's barely any room to pull the wires from the outside, and barely any room to push the plug from the inside.