I'm sleeving my PSU; how do I remove the pins from the 4-pin square 12V plug?

[felinusz]

I'm done sleeving everything except this plug - the 12V plug (it is square, and has four-pins), and the AUX plug (the big flat one that looks to have no practical use).

How can I get the pins out of these two plugs without buying a special tool? I tryed using a tiny file to push them, and tryed my Miniature screwdriver as well (it is really, really tiny).

Any suggestions? This damn cable is really annoying me.

 

[stool]

You actually don't have to wrap them. Just curl them up with a zip tie, out of sight. Almost every case has at least a little bit of room to do so. This also leaves you the option of having the cables available if you should ever need them.

 

[JoT]

He wants to wrap the 12v square plug in particular, as I assume he's using it on his board.

 

[DOHCrazy]

You might be able to get the sleeving over it, if not, you COULD buy a mini molex remover.

Only place ive seen them is at www.performance-pcs.com and there like 22 bucks. Two staples bent straight worked for me, but i had to jam them in with soem needle noses.

 

[Strida]

I used one of the spring-steel brown hairclips. Snap the bent end in half and then bend them to whatever is easiest for you to handle. Then, pop one in on each clip and pull the cable out.

Sorta hard to explain, wish I had a digy cam.

 

[Fushyuguru]

the tool itself is called a "Mini-Fit" molex extractor. It costs about $25 and when you get it youll be really dissapointed, cuz its two pieces of metal riveted together with a spacer. Works like a gem dont get me wrong but I could make a better one.

Its one of those tools that doesnt have a demand so it costs some.

You may have luck with bent pins, ect. You just need something that goes down both sides of the pins and stradles them to push two prongs in that you really cant see. Then they pop out easily.

 

[RangerJoe]

i just sleeved over my cable. i didnt remove the connector or anything. if you put some electrical tape over the connector while you are moving the sleeve over it, then it wont get caught, but i just went over the connector, and did not even bother trying to get the pins out.

Unless you have a REALLY REALLY old computer, the AUX plugs are not needed. i dont even think intel boards use them anymore. i cut mine off, and put some electrical tape over the ends...problem solved.

 

[felinusz]

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I tried using pins, and stables, but I couldn't get it - so I took care of the 12V cable in a different manner - I

*CuT IT OFf WITH A pAIR OF SCiSSORS*

(which made me feel good, after all the bleeding fingers the various pins and pliers were giving me)

And then calmly sleeved and Heatshrunk it.

Next I ripped apart an old Molex Fan adaptor, and took the male and female molex plugs from it (I actually purchased several more of these from a member here for exactly this purpose for the rest of the wires - they aren't here yet though).

I carefully soldered the cut wire ends into the pins taken from the molex plugs, and then attached the plugs themselves. Now the 12V cable is sleeved, *and* removable (although it is in use) !

One problem, and another question; I may have mixed up the two black, or the two yellow wires when I cut the 12V cord (it was late, and I labelled them above the cut-line... ).

Are the two yellow wires in the 12V plug the same? And are the two black wires the same? If, by mishappenstance, the two blacks (or two yellows) got switched, would bad things happen?

I plan to try the same thing with the AUX connector, although I need to wait untill the plugs I bought from a member here arrive, because it has 6 wires, and will require 2 molex plugs.

Attached is a picture of what I did. Sorry for the very low picture quality - you cannot even see the sleeved part, only the Molex heads that I attached to the bare wires that were cut.

 

[felinusz]

I just realized I didn't upload the picture in the above post (and you can't edit one in either! - I should just get hosting...)

Here it is:

 

[bubba gump]

If knowledge serves correctly the 12v wires are both electricity from the 12v line, so there shouldn't be a problem as to if you switched them around...as long as they weren't switched with a black (which I'm pretty sure would be a ground in this instance?).

Get us some pics of the finished job when you do

Fushy, do you think you could throw some pictures of this mini-fit remover up? I've been lookin at em also and I noticed in your journal you had said that they would be simple to make.

Fold and Frag on
Brian

*edit* Like some images of the sides and such, so we can see how these are made exactly :]

 

[Fushyuguru]

Thats what I always did before I got the Mini Fit tool. Just cut and resolder. I used zip ties to hold back the sleaving while I soldered.

And yeah Ill throw up a pic later today.

 

[felinusz]

bubba gump - I am *sure* that I didn't get the Black and Yellow cords mixed up, just the black, and blacks, and the yellow, and yellows - if you get what I mean .

That picture would be nice - With a bit of work it probably won't be too hard to duplicate that very useful little tool

 

[sean uk]

molex tool

felinusz that pic you posted above isn't that a standard molex for cd's h/d etc
if so the tool to make is find a small piece of thin diameter metal tube about a 1" long
i think the hole down the tube is 3mm it must be a tight fit, when pushed right onto the pin it closes in the barbs and then you can use a small screwdriver to push the pin out through the hole in your tube
i make these up for all connectors as they work better than the 2 prong tools which i find fiddly to get lined up especially when you've got to take the end off a 54 way molex

 

[Mico]

I would make sure that you HeatShrink those cut wires, just to protect from incidental...grounding or other electical mishaps.

 

[Flewdefur]

i saw a neat little tip in the Bit-Tech forums. take a 1/8 inch "mini" audio connector (the typical headphone connector) lop off around one of the little black seperator rings on the connector. this allows it to slide right over the outside of the female molex pins to quickly push the pins down without any trouble. This only works for the female pins but it aparently is pretty helpful and obviously cheap.

Just thought i'd pass this tip on...