I'm changing out the head gasket in a 98 Civic LX and, what I think is the ECT sensor (near the distributor) needs to come off before I pull the head. It appears to be wired straight into the wiring harness so I can't unplug it during removal. I don't want to twist the wire when I take it off, is there some trick to this?

 

It definitely should not be hardwired. If it is, the PO did something stupid, and you should cut it off and PROPERLY wire it to a replacement plug.

 

It's the sensor with the single wire right next to the water return hose on the head, I discovered on closer inspection, that it's connected like a spark plug wire and pulls right off. Now if I can only get the lower O2 sensor plug to come apart, it's like it's super glued together. I haven't had any probs with any of the other connectors yet.

 

that's the "dash sending unit" but yes that one fooled me back when I was first removing my cyl head.