[V8] Bummer of a day...

[urq]

I don't know if having the plastic piece loose is really a problem.  I'm
pretty sure all the plastic piece does is provide a surface for the rubber
cover on the OXS sensor cable to lock in to.  You do want to be very careful
though ... as you noticed the cable to that point is shielded (the metal
wrap you saw), which means it is very easy to short to the signal wire.  The
white wires are for the heater and they aren't nearly as critical.  If at
all possible I'd recommend that you put everything back together and drive
the car for a while ... then check codes to see if there's a problem.  

If the end is truly broken you may need to pull back the shield in order to
get enough wire from the center conductor to attach the connector.  If you
are at this point it might be best to consider going to a standard 4-wire
connector from a newer car.  Remember the warnings I've given for selecting
the ground (return) line?  Well, that shield on the cable on the car's
wiring harness is probably the best place to connect the ground wire for a
4-wire sensor as it is the reference for the cable used by the ECU.  

Steve B
San Jose, CA (USA)

-----Original Message-----

So, trying to change my O2 sensor yesterday and we ran into a hitch.  The
connector for the O2 signal is broken.  The signal wire is the black wire,
and we had 2 white wires as well.  The connector on the oxygen sensor wiring
is a little female clip type fitting, and the connector attached to the car
is an orange colored plastic piece with a male slot connector.  The orange
male connector is broken and spins around.  I think I need to remove this
clip from the car and fix it, possibly make my own new clip for it, but this
is going to be difficult.  Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get
this thing out, firstly?  I'm pretty sure the connectors just slip out, but
the last little orange one appears to have metal wrapped around it.