When I bought my 67 442 someone had reworked a good portion of the engine harness so I bought a new engine harness during my restore. My new harness has a female spade connector but my new coolant switch has more like a bullet connector but with a "T" shape to it making it incompatible with the harness. Did the original coolant temp sensors (with tic toc tac) have a male spade?

 

The "nail" style terminal is correct. The plastic connector body on the terminal should have a notch in it like the one shown here. The original Packard 56 female terminal slides right over the head of the nail, from the side (90 deg to the connector centerline). That notch is to clear the shaft of the terminal.

 

X2 for Joe, in the pictures is a 67-400E in my 64-F85. As a "back up over the dash light" is a mechanical water temp gauge. This is installed on a performer intake, not quite sure if there are provisions for another sending unit on a stock manifold. I did the same for the oil pressure. Just a few ideas....

 

You can slip a female spade over that connection for the temp sensor. If there is a plastic plug attached you can cut a notch similar to Joe's picture.

 

My new harness DOES NOT have the notch in it, nice work by the harness manufacturer.

 

Make your own notch or take the plastic end off the old harness if still available.

 

If you have the old harness, you can harvest the plastic connector body from it and swap them. Note that the terminal is retained by this tab that fits into the slot in the connector body.




You depress the tab by inserting a thin flat blade tool (a jeweler's screwdriver works, as does a straightened paper clip in a pinch) from the front side of the connector. The tab sometimes gets caught in the connector body, so it helps to push in on the wire while inserting the tool from the other side. Once the tab is depressed, pull the terminal from the connector body.