A inclined guide part which comprises an inclined surface for pushing up a spacer is formed in a connector housing and an inclined slide contact part is formed for the inclined guide part in the spacer an a position lower than the inclined guide part while the inclined surface for pushing down the flexible lock lance is formed at the tip of the antideflection plate. An up-face inclined guide surface for the spacer is formed on the rim of the opening of the connector housing. Temporary lock units are equipped in the connector housing and the spacer to temporarily hold the inclined guide part and the inclined slide contact part in their mutually proximate position.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a double-lock connector where unlocking of 
a terminal locked by a locking lance inside a connector housing is enabled 
while a spacer for locking of the terminal is temporarily locked by the 
connector housing. 
FIGS. 12 and 13 show a conventional double-lock connector appeared on Japan 
Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. Hei. 4-78780. 
This double-lock connector 31 consists of a connector housing 33 which 
houses a terminal 32 and a front spacer 35 which is inserted into such 
connector housing 33 from the front and which prevents a flexible locking 
lance 34 from deflection inside the connector housing 33. 
As shown in FIG. 13, an antideflection plate 36 on one side of such spacer 
35 comprises an engagement hook 38 for a temporary lock projection 37 of 
the connector housing 33 and an antideflection plate 39 on the other side 
similarly comprises an engagement hook 41 for a true lock projection 40. 
The terminal 32 is drawn out by pressing down a flexible locking lance 34 
with a stick jig 42 inserted into the connector housing 33 while the 
spacer 35 is temporarily locked as in shown in FIG. 12. This eliminates an 
operation to draw out the spacer each time and prevents possible damages 
on the spacer 35 during the operation. 
The aforenamed conventional double lock connector 31, however, has a 
problem that the operation is inefficient since the flexible locking lance 
34 needs to be pushed down manually with the stick jig 42 in a blind 
operation to unlock the terminal 32. Another problem is degradation of 
contact reliability of the terminal 32 caused by an operator who 
unintentionally thrusts the stick jig 42 into a contact part 43 of the 
terminal 32 by mistake. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
With consideration of the above-described problems, an object of the 
present invention is to provide a double lock connector which eliminates 
the troublesome operation of fully pulling out a spacer and which enables 
ensured unlocking of the terminal without use of a stick jig. 
To achieve the object described above, the double-lock connector of the 
present invention comprising a connector housing which comprises a 
flexible locking lance for a terminal and a spacer which comprises an 
antideflection plate for the flexible locking lance and which is to be 
inserted into the connector housing, has a basic structure where an 
inclined guide part which has an inclined surface for pushing up the 
spacer is formed in the connector housing, where an inclined slide contact 
part is formed, in the spacer, for the inclined guide part at a position 
lower than the inclined guide part and where an inclined surface is formed 
at the tip of the antideflection plate so as to push down the flexible 
locking lance. 
Also, such structure is effective that an up-face inclined guide surface 
for the spacer is formed on the rim of the opening of the connector 
housing or that a temporary locking unit is formed in the connector 
housing and the spacer so as to temporarily hold the inclined guide part 
and the inclined slide contact part in their mutually proximate position. 
The inclined guide part and the inclined slide contact part are positioned 
in their proximity in the temporary locking state of the spacer. The rear 
part of the spacer is pushed down in this state so that the front part of 
the spacer will be tilted high. This makes the inclined slide contact part 
positioned up-face to face the inclined guide part. Then, if the spacer is 
pushed up inclinatorily along the inclined guide surface in its inclined 
state, the antideflection part advances inclinatorily upward while the 
inclined guide part and the inclined slide contact part make a slide 
contact, and the inclined plane surface of the antideflection plate pushes 
down the flexible locking lance in its deflecting direction. This unlocks 
the terminal.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described with 
reference to the drawings. 
FIGS. 1 and 2 show an embodiment of the double lock connector of the 
present invention. 
A double lock connector 1 comprises a connector housing 4 which is made of 
synthetic resin and which comprises a pair of inclined guide projections 3 
of a triangular shape on both inner side walls 2 and a front spacer 7 
which is made of synthetic resin and which comprises a pair of inclined 
slide contact projections 5 for the inclined guide parts 3 on both outer 
side walls 6. 
Each of the inclined guide projections 3 comprises an up-face inclined 
surface 3a, which faces an opening 8 of the connector housing 4, for 
pushing up the spacer. Each of the inclined slide contact projections 5 on 
the spacer side comprises a down-face inclined surface 5a, which confronts 
the up-face inclined surface 3a of the inclined guide projection 3. The 
inclined slide contact projections 5 are formed horizontally in the 
direction of spacer insertion on the center of the outer side walls 6 of 
the spacer 7 and the down-face inclined surface 5a is located close to the 
front end of a frame part 9 of the spacer 7. Inclination angles of the 
up-face inclined surface 3a and the down-face inclined surface 5a are set 
up almost the same. The inclined slide contact projections 5 are located 
proximate to the lower side of the inclined guide projections 3 at the 
time of spacer insertion. 
More than one antideflection plate 11 which is to be inserted into the 
lower side of a terminal containing chamber 10 of the connector housing 4 
protrudes from the spacer 7. The antideflection plates 11, as shown in 
FIG. 6, are to be inserted into a deflection space 14 for a flexible 
locking lance 13 in the connector housing 4 for a terminal 12. A wedge 
part 15 which comprises a down-face inclined surface 15a is formed at each 
end of the antideflection plates 11. 
In this embodiment, the terminal containing chambers 10 of upper and lower 
two stages are formed in the connector housing 4 and, so as to correspond 
these, the antideflection plates 11 are formed in upper and lower two rows 
in the spacer 7. A spacer insertion space 16 is formed around a terminal 
containing part 10a. The antideflection plates 11 protrude from the frame 
part 9 toward the front, and the inclined slide contact projections 5 are 
formed respectively on the outer side walls 6. 
A lock plate 20, which comprises a temporary lock projection 18 and a true 
lock projection 19 that are to engage with a flexible lock piece 17 inside 
the connector housing 4, protrudes from the upper part of the frame part 
9. The temporary lock projection 18 is located in a front position of 
inserting direction of the lock plate 20 and the true lock projection 19 
is located behind the temporary lock projection 18. Distance L between the 
temporary lock projection 18 and the true lock projection 19 is set so as 
to be equal to advancing distance L of the spacer 7 toward the flexible 
locking lance 13 as described below with reference to FIGS. 8 through 10. 
A small temporary lock projection 21 is formed above the inclined slide 
contact projection 5 in the vicinity of front end of the outer side wall 6 
of the spacer 7 and a shallow engagement hole 22 for the small temporary 
lock projection 21 is formed on the inner side wall 2 of the connector 
housing 4. The engagement hole 22 is located at a front position of the 
inclined guide projection 3. 
An up-face inclined guide surface 24 is formed on the rim of the opening of 
a bottom wall 23 of the connector housing 4. The inclined guide surface 24 
functions as a guide to tilt the spacer 7 inclinatorily upward. The 
inclination angle of the inclined guide surface 24 is set to be almost the 
same as the inclination angle of the inclined surface 3a of the inclined 
guide projection 3. 
FIG. 2 shows the spacer 7 temporarily locked to the connector housing 4, 
and the temporary lock projection 18 of the spacer 7 shown in FIG. 1 is 
inserted beyond a hook part 17a of the flexible lock piece 17 of the 
connector housing 4 and the spacer 7 is temporarily held when the small 
temporary lock projection 21 engages with the engagement hole 22. This 
temporary holding force is extremely small. 
As shown in FIG. 3, the inclined slide contact projection 5 of the spacer 7 
is positioned in the proximity of the front lower side of the inclined 
guide projection 3 of the connector housing 4 in this temporary lock 
state. In this state, the spacer 7 is pushed slantingly down by hand in 
direction B and then, as shown in FIG. 4, a bottom wall 25 of the frame 
part 9 is made contact with the inclined guide surface 24 of the housing 
opening 8. A second engagement hole 26 may be formed in a position above 
the connector housing 4, as shown in FIG. 3, to engage with the small 
temporary lock projection 21 in this state. 
Next, as shown in FIG. 5, the spacer 7 is slid inclinatorily upward along 
the guide surface 24, and the down-face inclined surface 5a of the 
inclined slide contact projection 5 of the spacer 7 is moved along the 
up-face inclined surface 3a of the inclined guide projection 3 of the 
housing 4. This operation makes the antideflection plates 11 of the spacer 
7 advance inclinatorily upward as shown in FIGS. 8 through 10, the 
down-face inclined surface 15a at the tip of the antideflection plate 11 
makes a sliding contact with a tip 13a of the flexible locking lance 13 of 
the connector housing 4, and the locking lance 13 is pushed into the 
deflection space 14. As a result, as shown in FIG. 11, the terminal 12 is 
drawn backward out of the terminal containing chamber 10. 
FIG. 6 shows the spacer 7 truly locked to the connector housing 4 and FIG. 
7 shows the spacer 7 drawn out of the true lock state and now in the 
temporary lock state. The antideflection plate 11 of the spacer 7 is 
positioned inside the deflection space 14 of the flexible locking lance 13 
in the true lock state, and the antideflection plate 11 is positioned 
outside the deflection space 14 and on the proximate lower front side of 
the flexible locking lance 13 in the temporary lock state. Advancing 
movement of the antideflection plate 11 from the state in FIG. 7 to the 
state in FIG. 10 is enabled by free travelling of the hook part 17a of the 
flexible lock piece 17 between the temporary lock projection 18 and the 
true lock projection 19. 
As described above, according to the present invention, unlocking of the 
terminal locked by the flexible locking lance is enabled by inclinatorily 
pushing up the spacer in the temporary lock state. This facilitates simple 
and ensured unlocking of the terminal without using a stick jig as in the 
prior art and further without drawing out the spacer. Further, this 
eliminates troubles such as deformation of the terminal by the stick jig.