*Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any accidents or damaged goods! Do this at your own risk. I recommend practicing on broken or useless plugs before trying it on a necessary plug.

I have searched the internet high and low for a how-to like this, but only found vague descriptions of what to do. So here's a description, with pictures, of how to remove wires from Toyota's wiring harness plugs.

Things you'll need:
-Small screwdriver kit or something similar. I picked mine up as an optical repair kit for $1 at the dollar store. Hobby shops or jewelry stores would have the same thing to repair watches.
-A Toyota wiring harness

Out of the kit that pictured here, I used the smallest flathead screwdriver.

Click to view attachment


I chose to use a cruise control stalk for this how-to. It's a simple plug, nice and easy to work with. You start be removing the lock on the plug, pictured here.

Click to view attachment


There's a small space to slip the flathead screwdriver into so you can pry the lock up and out.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment


After that lock is removed, look inside the end of the plug. You'll see a "finger" pressing down on the end of each wire. Look in the two empty slots on the right of this picture, and you'll see the "fingers."

Click to view attachment


To remove the wire, these fingers need to be pried up. Slide the tiny screwdriver in the slot, and keep it against the pin so you can get underneath the finger. Then, once you feel the screwdriver slip underneath the finger, simply pry up and pull the wire out.

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment


To put the wire back into the plug, it's as easy as sliding it into the slot. It'll lock back into place. When you are finished, place the lock back into the top of the plug and test your wires to make sure none of them fall out for any reason.

Once you've practiced and done it a couple of times, you get the feel for it and it becomes very very simple.

Thanks, this will definitely come in handy some day... When I was swapping the steering wheel I spent about an hour messing around these plugs and ended up soldering wires together

Thinking exactly the same thing. going to swap my steering wheel out so this will definitely be handy.

@richee informative as usual! thanks

I must have messed with my ecu connection for like an hour, because I couldnt find good pics and info on it. Once you get one and realize how the connectors work its easy.
I found a safety pin works well too once you know how it works.

Every time I've searched for this on Google, I've seen that it's one of those subjects that someone asks, someone else gives a poor description of how it's done, then eventually they all figure it out and never post how it's done. I've been guilty of bypassing plugs in the past because I couldn't figure it out, but it really isn't hard. I kept meaning to make this how-to but never took the time to take pictures. Saw my old cruise control stalk sitting around last night and figured it's about time I do it.

Just so you guys know, you don't have to fully pop that piece out of the connector. As long as it's popped up, the pins will come out. Some of them will break and some are a PITA to get back in if you fully pop it out.

That's just my 2 cents though

A little bit of added information. Often when reading about how to repin a harness, you'll see specific pin numbers mentioned- for instance, someone will say to put a wire in pin 14. You may not notice them at first, but each plug has small numbers under each slot that tells which pin it is.

Shot with a potato, but here you can clearly see pin 14 and pin 16 marked.

Click to view attachment

Not every single pin is marked, often due to space. Some of the numbers are hidden and difficult to find, but once you see how they are marked, you shouldn't have too much of an issue finding which pin you need.

All pictures fixed.