1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for collectively connecting a plurality of grounding wires included in a wire harness for a vehicle to a given ground site inside the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, as a ground connecting device for collectively connecting a plurality of grounding wires included in a wire harness for a vehicle, to a ground site of the vehicle, there has been known a type described in JP 10-208815A.
FIG. 10 shows an outline of this device. The device comprises a harness-side connector 7 to be provided at a terminal end of a wire harness including a plurality of grounding wires, and a ground joint connector 1 to be fixed to a given ground site (in FIG. 10, a bolt 6) provided on a vehicle body 3. The harness-side connector 7 includes a plurality of non-illustrated female terminals to be attached to respective terminal ends of the grounding wires and a connector housing 8 for collectively holding the female terminals. The harness-side connector housing 8 has a plurality of built-in terminal locking portions for holding the female terminals respectively. The ground joint connector 1 includes a grounding conductor 5 and a connector housing 2 which holds the grounding conductor 5, the grounding conductor 5 integrally having a grounding terminal portion 4 to be fixed to the ground site and a plurality of non-illustrated male terminals provided inside the connector housing 2.
According to this device, interconnecting the ground joint connector 1 and the harness-side connector 7 and fixing the grounding terminal portion 4 in the ground joint connector to the bolt 6 as the ground site establish a collective connection of the grounding wires to the ground site. Specifically, the female terminals held by the connector housing 8 of the harness-side connector 7 and the male terminals of the grounding conductor 5 held by the connector housing 2 of the ground joint connector 1 are fitted to each other respectively, thus electrically connecting the grounding wires to which the female terminals are attached to the ground site through the female terminals and the grounding conductor 5; simultaneously, the connector housing 8 of the harness-side connector 7 and the connector housing 2 of the ground joint connector 1 are fitted to each other, and this fitting is locked by engagement between respective engagement portions provided in the two connector housings 8 and 2, the lock keeping the female and male terminals fitted to each other respectively.
However, this ground connecting device, occupying a large space, is difficult to use in a little space in a vehicle. Specifically, the harness-side connector 7 and the ground joint connector 1 of the device require the connector housings 8 and 2 for holding the terminals respectively; furthermore, the connector housings 8 and 2 occupy a large space as a whole for their mutual fitting and the lock of the fitting. To avoid interference between the connector housings 8 and 2 and the vehicle body 3, the connectors 7 and 1 are required to protrude in a large size from an inner surface of the vehicle body 3. Particularly, the case of connecting a grounding terminal 9 attached to an extra grounding wire W to the grounding terminal portion 4 so as to superimpose them to each other as shown in FIG. 10 requires a large gap size L between the vehicle body 3 and each of the connector housings 8 and 2 as shown in FIG. 10, in order to avoid the interference between the grounding terminal and each of the connector housings 8 and 2; this causes the entire device to occupy a larger space.