I have the old engine out of my blue 93 civic and before putting the new engine in I am tempted to do all of the things while the engine is out of the way. I want to sleeve and/or heatshrink all the wires in my engine bay while also doing a wiretuck. I cant figure out how to depin the fusebox connectors in order to get heatshrink over them. I don't really want to cut and re-solder if possible. figured out how to take off the white locking part but there is grease in the way so I cant see inside the connector to find any tabs that may need to be flattened. does anyone know how to depin these things? Do you need to buy a special honda tool?

 

Tabs lift with a tiny flathead screwdriver.

 

I recently learned soldering wire is actually detrimental to the wire. The solder joint being rigid causes the wire just outside of the joint to become less flexible and vibration causes breaks over time.

It has made me rethink some of the repairs I have done over the years and understand why the pros and manufacturers crimp everything instead.

 

yeah but where are the tabs?

 

You can see them from the front of the connector. They sit down on top of the rounded part of the female spades on most of them. I believe it's why the female plastic is a T not just a slot for the spade. The T portion is for their tooling to access the tab.

 

(also why I'm rebuilding my engine harness, I've done bad things to it and do not trust it anymore)
The quality of the heat shrink used on a solder connection is more important than most think.
not only does it insulate, it also offers mechanical support for the additional weight, and the strain relief required due to inflexibility.
the best option is to support it mechanically as well as good quality shrink tubing.

Crimp connections do have a decent list of advantages. Soldering does also.
But both also have a list of disadvantages.