Mach-E High Voltage Connectors -- reviewed by Sandy Munro

EELinneman · Jul 26, 2021

Interesting to see all the connections and engineering

EELinneman · Jul 26, 2021

Keep in mind that when Sandy is talking about his $2M in Ford money, we are talking about 1904 dollars!

JB20 · Jul 26, 2021

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Damn this guy can rant......Someone has to store the tools!!!! That is what tool boxes are for. As for all the different screws I got nothing other than I doubt you will have very many instances of the connector failing and having to be replaced. The component will fail and be completing swapped which means pulling the mounting bolts and unhooking the cable from the connector.

shutterbug · Jul 26, 2021

JB20 said:
As for all the different screws I got nothing other than I doubt you will have very many instances of the connector failing and having to be replaced.

Whether components fail or not, there is very little point to have a dozen distinct screws that perform the same function.

JB20 said:
That is what tool boxes are for.

Having fewer different tools needed to assemble a car, saves money. Tool boxes don't help with that.

trutolife27 · Jul 26, 2021

how many vehicles has sandy done such a deep dive into? not many. Why is he doing it? MONEY and the mache is a hot item and he is getting views like crazy on it. Seems like to me ford might have built a hot item here.

But what do I know? Again not like I stayed in a holiday Inn last night.

kdryden99 · Jul 26, 2021

shutterbug said:
Whether components fail or not, there is very little point to have a dozen distinct screws that perform the same function.

Having fewer different tools needed to assemble a car, saves money. Tool boxes don't help with that.

While I agree with this, I really wonder how much of this is Ford's doing and how much is tier 1 suppliers?

hybrid2bev · Jul 26, 2021

kdryden99 said:
While I agree with this, I really wonder how much of this is Ford's doing and how much is tier 1 suppliers?

Exactly. When going down the vehicle assembly line pretty sure the operators are not screwing in connectors.

SONEWBE · Jul 26, 2021

This episode really brought me back to my days as a manufacturing engineer at HP in the 80’s. We read the same books and had the same reviews of our product designs. It amazes me how things change but remain the same.

TruWrecks · Jul 26, 2021

JB20 said:
Damn this guy can rant......Someone has to store the tools!!!! That is what tool boxes are for. As for all the different screws I got nothing other than I doubt you will have very many instances of the connector failing and having to be replaced. The component will fail and be completing swapped which means pulling the mounting bolts and unhooking the cable from the connector.

Sandy is referring to the assembly line. All the tools are setup for the assembly operators for each task they need to perform. It costs time and risks confusion when they need to keep changing tools during their task.

The only other option is have an operator for each different fastener. That is extremely inefficient and means too many people standing around 80% of the time waiting for their 1 task to happen.

TruWrecks · Jul 26, 2021

hybrid2bev said:
Exactly. When going down the vehicle assembly line pretty sure the operators are not screwing in connectors.

With all those connectors and screws it would cost millions to have robots setup to do it. And they would be dedicated to 1 task each.

Nklem · Jul 26, 2021

Ford sources all of these parts from different suppliers-vendors. (motor gearbox is Borg Warner for example). My guess is they did not standardize fastener/color requirements and left it up to the vendor. Many of these are assemblies, that come complete and ready to plug into the assembly line. Hence, the non-standardization on everything and it does not effect the assembly line as Munro indicates. I doubt a Ford tech will remove and rebuild the electric heat module or an inverter. These will be replaced and a core sent back to the manufacturer for repair or rebuilding, like most ICE engines and transmissions, ECMs, PCMs etc. The good news is they all work, and they they all retain and fasten, which is good,. We just will need a new arsenal of tools to work on our cars when the warranty expires if we are removing electrical connectors from the parts. I do not see that being a major issue to me. I do not think I will ever remove a high voltage connector from a part unless I am having to rebuild it in 10 years, which is unlikely. I rebuilt a hot tub heater once, it worked but was pretty hokey...... Lots of silicone.

timbop · Jul 26, 2021

Nklem said:
Ford sources all of these parts from different suppliers-vendors. (motor gearbox is Borg Warner for example). My guess is they did not standardize fastener/color requirements and left it up to the vendor. Many of these are assemblies, that come complete and ready to plug into the assembly line. Hence, the non-standardization on everything and it does not effect the assembly line as Munro indicates. I doubt a Ford tech will remove and rebuild the electric heat module or an inverter. These will be replaced and a core sent back to the manufacturer for repair or rebuilding, like most ICE engines and transmissions, ECMs, PCMs etc. The good news is they all work, and they they all retain and fasten, which is good,. We just will need a new arsenal of tools to work on our cars when the warranty expires if we are removing electrical connectors from the parts. I do not see that being a major issue to me. I do not think I will ever remove a high voltage connector from a part unless I am having to rebuild it in 10 years, which is unlikely. I rebuilt a hot tub heater once, it worked but was pretty hokey...... Lots of silicone.

Exactly - these all look like subassemblies that come from suppliers so the line doesn't have to do anything but plug the cables in, which doesn't require tools. It definitely smells like he's looking for something to complain about

With that said, having so many different sizes and types of fasteners is a little silly.

garfieldorlando · Jul 26, 2021

As long as it works as spec with expected reliability, these details don't matter. It may actually bring the cost down comparing to force every suppliers to standardize.

kdryden99 · Jul 26, 2021

Nklem said:
Ford sources all of these parts from different suppliers-vendors. (motor gearbox is Borg Warner for example). My guess is they did not standardize fastener/color requirements and left it up to the vendor. Many of these are assemblies, that come complete and ready to plug into the assembly line. Hence, the non-standardization on everything and it does not effect the assembly line as Munro indicates. I doubt a Ford tech will remove and rebuild the electric heat module or an inverter. These will be replaced and a core sent back to the manufacturer for repair or rebuilding, like most ICE engines and transmissions, ECMs, PCMs etc. The good news is they all work, and they they all retain and fasten, which is good,. We just will need a new arsenal of tools to work on our cars when the warranty expires if we are removing electrical connectors from the parts. I do not see that being a major issue to me. I do not think I will ever remove a high voltage connector from a part unless I am having to rebuild it in 10 years, which is unlikely. I rebuilt a hot tub heater once, it worked but was pretty hokey...... Lots of silicone.

I would even venture to say that buy leaving it up to the suppliers, it's cheaper since requesting standardization requires added overhead to the tier 1's and therefore the cost will be passed down

kdryden99 · Jul 26, 2021

garfieldorlando said:
As long as it works as spec with expected reliability, these details don't matter. It may actually bring the cost down comparing to force every suppliers to standardize.

I just wrote this lol

Mach-E High Voltage Connectors -- reviewed by Sandy Munro

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