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I ONLY buy stuff from the dealership because I'm very persnickety. However, I did notice the other day that NAPA offers, in their line of "OE Solutions", a newly-released valve cover gasket/harness set that completely did away with the internal connector (the problematic one). You might look into that.
That makes sense, because once you get a new one on... it ain't common off causally like an old one. If it's difficult to remove the connector, why not just make it permanent and move on?
Napa has the Delphi harnesses available: DEM HTP119
I hope you installed a new gasket with that new harness otherwise you just wasted 33 minutes.
It's just like replacing only the spark plugs after you find carbon tracking down the porcelain of the old ones. The tracks existing inside the boots will start conducting electricity again and ruin the new plugs in short order.
In your case, the terminal damage is on BOTH parts making the electrical connection and doing one (the female terminal in this case) without the other only fixes half of the problem and the problem is likely to resurface (although the female part is usually the one causing the biggest issue.....just like in real life!!)
33 minutes from start to finish on passenger side. Tugly I bet I'd be closing in on your time if I had to do it a few more times.
It's not bad, once all the components are broken free. My oil dipstick bracket is starting to show wear and it gets a little grippy now. I may have to do something about that the next time I pop the passenger side (I hope it will be a long time before that happens).
I just had mine off yesterday and tried something new (for me). The passenger side VC always gives me fits to get off, especially the 2 bolts along the bottom rear of the VC. Not the back corner, but the ones up against the AC condenser. I got them from the wheel well. Now maybe that's SOP, and maybe I just reinvented the wheel, but man, that saved me a good 5 minutes right there and LOTs of air quality! I was feeling pretty tickled when I figured that one out!
I just had mine off yesterday and tried something new (for me). The passenger side VC always gives me fits to get off, especially the 2 bolts along the bottom rear of the VC. Not the back corner, but the ones up against the AC condenser. I got them from the wheel well. Now maybe that's SOP, and maybe I just reinvented the wheel, but man, that saved me a good 5 minutes right there and LOTs of air quality! I was feeling pretty tickled when I figured that one out!
That's how I go about those two. It's nice for me because I can lay on the tire while I do them.
I used to do all my work on them from there, but working on an Excursion one time changed my whole attitude on those bolts (not accessible from the wheel well).