Kenwood Harness De-Pinning

Does anyone know how to remove pins from the main harness on a Kenwood head unit? I’ve been playing with this thing for like an hour now and can’t get the pin to budge. This is what the connector looks like. It’s the main connector that goes to the back of the head unit.

 

You usually insert a tool into the round hole to dislodge the retaining pin for the specific pin you're tryin to remove.I found dental picks to work well if you can get one long enough. A safety pin might work but is more prone to bending if you don't get it just right.

 

Thanks. I‘ll try a pick. I’ve been using these but they don’t seem to fit. The holes are so small a pick may work. Do you know if you should push from the top side or the wire side?

 

It's usually top side, push in and at an angle with the pin and pill the connector out from the "wire" side at the same time. Most factory connectors are installed this way.

 

I just did this on a Kenwood harness a couple of days ago.

You push from the connector side, not the wire side through the outer circular holes. You push in towards the wire you want to remove.

Attaching a picture of the tool I had to use after bending a bunch of my terminal tools.

I had to push in *extremely* hard and marred the plastic a bit. I'm definitely concerned that if I ever have to reinstall the wires, the connector and/or pins may be too damaged to ever lock the wire ends in again.

 

Thank you everyone for the info. Bought some de-pinning tools off of Amazon for $9 and was able to figure it out. In case anyone else is wondering this is what worked form me.

This tool:


Stick it it from the middle towards the wire you want to remove. There is a clip that holds the wire in place. The tool needs to get between the wire and the clip then you can pull the wire out.



The clip fits into the C shaped cutout on the pin. This is where you want to fit the tool to release the pressure of the clip.