1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle-side connector to be connected to a battery mounted in a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example of a vehicle-side connector of this type is known from Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2011-249039. This vehicle-side connector is structured such that a plurality of terminal accommodating chambers are formed in alignment in a housing which is mounted to face a power supply port open on a body and terminal fittings connected to ends of wires drawn out from a battery device side are inserted into the corresponding terminal accommodating chambers from behind and retained by mounting a retainer on the rear surface of the housing. By connecting a charging connector connected to a power supply to the vehicle-side connector, the battery is charged.
Here, in mounting the vehicle-side connector on the body, the vehicle-side connector is assembled by mounting the retainer on the rear surface of the housing after the corresponding terminal fitting provided on the end of the wire is inserted into each terminal accommodating chamber of the housing. Thereafter, this vehicle-side connector is fixed to the body by bolting or the like.
However, in assembling the above conventional vehicle-side connector, the terminal fittings provided on the ends of the respective wires need to be inserted into the corresponding terminal accommodating chambers arranged together in a narrow area of the suitably large housing while the positions of the terminal accommodating chambers, into which the wires are supposed to be inserted, are searched and confirmed. Thus, an assembling operation itself is cumbersome and the suitably large vehicle-side connector needs to be handled while being provided on an end of a wire group until the assembled vehicle-side connector is mounted on the body. The handling of the vehicle-side connector is difficult and an operation of assembling the vehicle-side connector and mounting it on the body generally tends to be cumbersome. Thus, a further improvement has been desired.
The present invention was completed based on the above situation and aims to enable an operation of assembling a vehicle-side connector and mounting it on a body to be quickly performed.