Watertight electrical connector

Abstract

A connector for an immersible electric device such as a pump motor substantially precludes water leakage in an area where the wires enter a motor housing. The connector is comprised of a elastomeric body portion having a relatively non-resilient plate secured thereto, and passageways extending through the body portion and the plate complementally receive the electrical wires. The body portion and the plate are installed in a mating bore of the motor base such that the plate is seated against an inwardly extending shoulder within the bore. The connector also includes a steel bracket adjacent the body portion and remote from the plate, and the bracket has barbed arms which are received in smooth walled slots in the base, thereby enabling the arms to be shifted to a position wherein the bracket, in combination with the plate and the bore walls, exert a compressive force on the resilient body portion to force the latter into sealing engagement with not only the bore walls but also into fluid-tight relationship with the outer surfaces of the electrical wires. In preferred forms, the body portion has outwardly extending projections surrounding the wires, and the bracket has openings complemental to the projections such that the walls defining the bracket openings compress the projections against adjacent portions of the wires to create a secondary seal.