Which End of a Douglas Connector is Male

[rboltz]

All the old drawings for M37's and the like show a "male", (with the X in the box) and "female" end for the Douglas connectors. They have to be referring to the metal shell as the inside pin is the same on both ends, unlike the Packard connectors. I would have to assume the shell with the bayonet pins is the male but it doesn't hold out when looking at the truck as some are backwards. Anyone have some insight?

 

[Mike_L]

No, I hadn't really given it much thought. I suppose they were reassembled backwards by the last mechanic working on that connection. I know I don't pay much attention to which end has which shell piece. I doubt the GI mechanics did either.

I'll have to check some of my connections out of curiosity.

 

[papakb]

Electrical connectors are designated by the gender of the center pin.

 

[NDT]

Electrical connectors are designated by the gender of the center pin.

Douglas must have been gay then because both are male.

 

[rboltz]

Electrical connectors are designated by the gender of the center pin.

Yes, this is true but as mentioned in the post above, but in Douglas Connectors both ends are "male" (pins or plugs) and joined by a removable butt connector or sleve in the middle. The only difference in either end is the bayonet on the outer shell.

 

[firebuilder]

I worked at a company that designs, tools, and molds electrical connectors. To properly describe a connector we used two terms. 1) Is it a receptacle or a plug? A plug goes in to a receptacle. 2) Is it male or female? A male connector has pins, prongs, a bump in the case of a contact connection, etc. that slide in to the or make contact with the female counterpart.

So I would describe a Douglas connector as having a male receptacle and a male plug. The connector with the bayonets is the plug as it goes in side of the other connector (the receptacle).

 

[135gmc]

Both ends of the wire in a Douglas connector are male. There is a female sleeve that connects them. The outer steel shell either has "pins" or a slot for the pins. As I recall, the pin / slot orientation can be used to polarize a connection if there is an in-out difference. A tail light will have all the connectors identical orientation, while other equipment with one lead connected to hot and one lead connected to ground will have different polarization - unfortunately, I can't recall which is which. The Douglas connectors are getting harder to find, and the correct MIL crimper is available, but expensive. The cheap crimper that came with the Douglas service kit is a hunk of junk - most are worn out long before they show up as surplus. Buchannan makes an electrical crimper for a sleeve-type connector that can be used on home wirting that works pretty well, and its usually cheaper than the used Douglas crimpers.

 

[rboltz]

Thanks

As I assumed then, the bayonet end is always the male. I started ripping out the old wiring and it mostly holds out to the drawings. I think the problem I had is that I have 4 different drawings and they contain errors as well as different schemes. If I find an error, I check the other 3 to see if the error carries.

I am working on a CAD drawing of what I find and I will add things like turn signals and composite lights. Most of the rewiring will be Packard where possible and have all the original numbering where it is stock.

Thanks for all the input.