Electrical connector with switch subassembly

An electrical connector for use in testing an electrical circuit comprising a body, the body including a cavity and contact receiving passageways communicating with the cavity;

• a switch assembly positioned in the cavity;
• wire terminating electrical contacts, the switch assembly including a sliding contact section for engaging a portion of at least one wire terminating contact and being moved between normal and test modes of the circuit;
• and wire terminating members including complementary contact receiving passageways, the wire terminating members being operative to move wires into electrical engagement with the wire terminating electrical contacts;
• the wire terminating contacts being received within contact receiving passageways on the body and on the wire terminating members to protect the wire terminating electrical contacts from exposure to the environment and foreign objects;
• wherein the body includes contact receiving projections that cooperate with projection receiving cavities formed on the wire terminating members for protecting the wire terminating electrical contacts from exposure to the environment and foreign objects.

An electrical connector for use in connecting a central office side of a telecommunications circuit to a subscriber side telecommunications circuit in a wiring enclosure and for disconnecting the central office side circuit from the subscriber side for testing, the electrical connector comprising:

• a body having a subscriber side and a central office side;
• subscriber side IDC contacts located on the subscriber side of the body for terminating twisted pair wires;
• central office side IDC contacts located on the central office side of the body for terminating twisted pair wires, longitudinal axes of each central office side IDC contact being aligned with longitudinal axes of a corresponding subscriber side IDC contact;
• wire terminating members shiftable relative to the IDC contacts for inserting wires into engagement with the IDC contacts;
• and
• slidable switch contacts mounted in the body and shiftable along the longitudinal axis of the central office side IDC contacts and the longitudinal axis of the subscriber side IDC contacts from a normal mode in engagement with the subscriber side IDC contacts and a test mode in which the switch contact is disengaged from the subscriber side IDC contact, the subscriber side IDC contacts and the central office side IDC contacts forming a guiding track for slidably supporting the switch contacts.