Electrical On Accessing The Eec Relay: Here's One Way To Do It

DuderMcMerican

Active Member
Mar 7, 2016
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Woodbridge, VA
Amigos,

I wanted to toss a post onto the forum for anyone who might be having trouble accessing their EEC relay. Unless Jeeves and I missed something, there is little-to-no info on the online specifically re this topic, so here is a quick run-down on how I was FINALLY able to do it. I hope that someone finds this to be helpful.


1. As others have said before, you should remove the passenger side dash-mounted speaker. In fact, this was a MUST for me (frankly, I'm not sure how others have been able to access the relay simply by reaching up into the EEC compartment--it's hard to believe that it's even possible). After you remove the speaker, it still might not be super obvious where the thing is, and you might need a flashlight to find it. It's not like "Well, golly! There it is right behind the speaker! I'll just pop it off its retainer rivet thingy off in 5 seconds!:banana:" No such luck.. It is WAY the heck up in there--I'd say well over a foot deep into the speaker hole entry point. Mine was pretty much parallel to the hole and maybe a just a smidge down and to the right.

2. Now comes the hardest part, which is pulling the thing off its retainer rivet . The speaker hole is not all that large, so it's all the more challenging if you have big-ish forearms. Man, oh man. I couldn't even touch the dang relay because my forearm got jammed up about 10 inches into the speaker hole. Mind you, I'm no Popeye the Sailor, so I'd imagine that many of y'all would have the same problem, too. I had to get inventive in using tools to pop it off from its mounting location, and for me, this involved a set of VERY long nosed pliers, a VERY long flat-head screwdriver, and a headlamp. After messing with it for literally hours (because it's almost impossible to see what your're doing when your tools and hands are all jammed up in the hole.. and also because I'm slow at everything), I was finally able to force the relay retainer rivet off from its mounting point by getting a good contact point on it with my screwdriver and pushing it forward hard enough to where the retainer rivet popped out and the relay finally hung free. Whew!

3. Although the relay now hangs free, it's still WAY the heck up in there because the wiring harness provides basically no slack. Here's a real time saver for dummies like me: DON'T TRY TO PULL THE RELAY THROUGH THE SPEAKER HOLE--it won't make it. I suppose it's possible to cut some of the tape from the wiring harness to give it more slack for the pullin, but I didn't dare do this for fear of slicing up my wires (remember, it's very hard to see what you're doing in there). So, after much cursing and wrangling, I got the bright idea to try to maneuver it down to the EEC compartment hole hoping THAT would provide enough slack for back-probing from that location. Spoiler alert: It did; but again, it was far more complicated than it should be. See, there is this fun maze of insulation, plastic, and metal separating the relay compartment from the EEC compartment, and you need to work it through these obstacles to get the relay into the EEC compartment. The trick here is to go low; that's where the two compartments adjoin. It would probably have saved time had I just yanked the insulation layer out from either the speaker hole or the EEC compartment from the outset, but I didn't do this.

4. EUREKA! I was able to wrangle the relay through the aforementioned maze and into the EEC compartment with JUST BARELY ENOUGH clearance to back probe the terminals (see attached pic).


I hope that this post is helpful to others who are wrestling with their EEC relays. In my case, it would have saved a helluva lot of time by 1. yanking the insulation from either the speaker hole or EEC compartment right after removing the speaker and 2. NOT trying to wrangle the relay through the speaker hole itself. I wish that I could share a better method for popping the relay off from it's mounting point, but I got nothing. Please chime in anyone who has ideas on this step, and/or alternative methods for accessing the elusive EEC relay.

:flag:
 

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Amigos,

I wanted to toss a post onto the forum for anyone who might be having trouble accessing their EEC relay. Unless Jeeves and I missed something, there is little-to-no info on the online specifically re this topic, so here is a quick run-down on how I was FINALLY able to do it. I hope that someone finds this to be helpful.


1. As others have said before, you should remove the passenger side dash-mounted speaker. In fact, this was a MUST for me (frankly, I'm not sure how others have been able to access the relay simply by reaching up into the EEC compartment--it's hard to believe that it's even possible). After you remove the speaker, it still might not be super obvious where the thing is, and you might need a flashlight to find it. It's not like "Well, golly! There it is right behind the speaker! I'll just pop it off its retainer rivet thingy off in 5 seconds!:banana:" No such luck.. It is WAY the heck up in there--I'd say well over a foot deep into the speaker hole entry point. Mine was pretty much parallel to the hole and maybe a just a smidge down and to the right.

2. Now comes the hardest part, which is pulling the thing off its retainer rivet . The speaker hole is not all that large, so it's all the more challenging if you have big-ish forearms. Man, oh man. I couldn't even touch the dang relay because my forearm got jammed up about 10 inches into the speaker hole. Mind you, I'm no Popeye the Sailor, so I'd imagine that many of y'all would have the same problem, too. I had to get inventive in using tools to pop it off from its mounting location, and for me, this involved a set of VERY long nosed pliers, a VERY long flat-head screwdriver, and a headlamp. After messing with it for literally hours (because it's almost impossible to see what your're doing when your tools and hands are all jammed up in the hole.. and also because I'm slow at everything), I was finally able to force the relay retainer rivet off from its mounting point by getting a good contact point on it with my screwdriver and pushing it forward hard enough to where the retainer rivet popped out and the relay finally hung free. Whew!

3. Although the relay now hangs free, it's still WAY the heck up in there because the wiring harness provides basically no slack. Here's a real time saver for dummies like me: DON'T TRY TO PULL THE RELAY THROUGH THE SPEAKER HOLE--it won't make it. I suppose it's possible to cut some of the tape from the wiring harness to give it more slack for the pullin, but I didn't dare do this for fear of slicing up my wires (remember, it's very hard to see what you're doing in there). So, after much cursing and wrangling, I got the bright idea to try to maneuver it down to the EEC compartment hole hoping THAT would provide enough slack for back-probing from that location. Spoiler alert: It did; but again, it was far more complicated than it should be. See, there is this fun maze of insulation, plastic, and metal separating the relay compartment from the EEC compartment, and you need to work it through these obstacles to get the relay into the EEC compartment. The trick here is to go low; that's where the two compartments adjoin. It would probably have saved time had I just yanked the insulation layer out from either the speaker hole or the EEC compartment from the outset, but I didn't do this.

4. EUREKA! I was able to wrangle the relay through the aforementioned maze and into the EEC compartment with JUST BARELY ENOUGH clearance to back probe the terminals (see attached pic).


I hope that this post is helpful to others who are wrestling with their EEC relays. In my case, it would have saved a helluva lot of time by 1. yanking the insulation from either the speaker hole or EEC compartment right after removing the speaker and 2. NOT trying to wrangle the relay through the speaker hole itself. I wish that I could share a better method for popping the relay off from it's mounting point, but I got nothing. Please chime in anyone who has ideas on this step, and/or alternative methods for accessing the elusive EEC relay.

:flag:
You let out the part about needing an eyeball on a stalk like a snail so you could actually see something in that maze...
 
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