Tailgate wiring 89 245

Before I order new tailagte harnesses, can someone tell me if mine
have been tampered with? The passenger side looks original, with a
single 3-wire connecter covered in foam. The passenger side though has
3 single wire connectors and some electrical tape. I am afraid that
ordering a harness would be silly because I'll just have to cut and
splice the damn thing anyway. Does anyone know if what I described
sounds like the factory connections?

Also, buying new hinges to repair a severed ground wire seems
excessive to me. Any clever workarounds out there?

Thanks

Danny

 

Hi Danny,

Are you describing what is visible, from above, in the hinge itself, without
any dismantling?

Andy I. ('93 245)


| Before I order new tailagte harnesses, can someone tell me if mine
| have been tampered with? The passenger side looks original, with a
| single 3-wire connecter covered in foam. The passenger side though has
| 3 single wire connectors and some electrical tape. I am afraid that
| ordering a harness would be silly because I'll just have to cut and
| splice the damn thing anyway. Does anyone know if what I described
| sounds like the factory connections?
|
| Also, buying new hinges to repair a severed ground wire seems
| excessive to me. Any clever workarounds out there?
|
| Thanks
|
| Danny

 

Your passenger side one has been repaired. The harness protrudes about
6" inside the roof of the car where it connects to the main harness,
there's a connector there, so it's not like you have to rewire the whole
car.

You can use the unflexed parts of your old harness (down in the tailgate
the wires will still be in good shape) to bridge the gap in the broken
ground wires. The ground wires are a little thicker, so you can use 2
pieces in parallel. Just make sure you solder the connections. Note
that the ground wires were not even in the hinges in the early cars,
grounding was done through the structure of the hinges and latch.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

NOTE: new address!!
Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

Mike covered the wiring, so I won't go into that. Check the hinge pins very
closly and make sure the holes are not out-of-round. The pins will wear the
holes oval shaped which can cause the door to rattle and sit crooked.

 

No, I am describing what I see when I reomove the headliner at the
back of the ceiling and reach inside for the connection between the
tailgate harness and the wiring harness.

Danny

 

Mike

your advice seems great but I don't clearly understand it. Are you
saying to use the old harnesses and just pull some wire throug and
reconnect or buy new harnesses and use the wire from the old ones to
make up any distance that doesn't meet up? And on the ground wires,
you say use 2 pieces in parralel, could you explain this like you
would to a child, because I'm not really getting the picture.

Thanks

Danny

 

Also Mike, in your mention of the older designs using the tailgate
hatch as ground connection, can I just rely on that? I'd be perfectly
happy to have my tailgate wipers work only when the hatch is closed if
that is the scenario.

Thanks

Danny

 

Thanks for your reply Danny.
Can't help you tho'. I'm not familiar with what is under the
headliner............ I've had the tailgate harness replaced twice. It
seems to last about five years. I now park with the rear of the wagon in
the shade...... when I can.

Good luck.
Andy I. ('93 240 Classic Wagon)


| No, I am describing what I see when I reomove the headliner at the
| back of the ceiling and reach inside for the connection between the
| tailgate harness and the wiring harness.
|
| Danny
|
| > Hi Danny,
| >
| > Are you describing what is visible, from above, in the hinge itself,
without
| > any dismantling?
| >
| > Andy I. ('93 245)
| >
| >
| > | > | Before I order new tailagte harnesses, can someone tell me if mine
| > | have been tampered with? The passenger side looks original, with a
| > | single 3-wire connecter covered in foam. The passenger side though has
| > | 3 single wire connectors and some electrical tape. I am afraid that
| > | ordering a harness would be silly because I'll just have to cut and
| > | splice the damn thing anyway. Does anyone know if what I described
| > | sounds like the factory connections?
| > |
| > | Also, buying new hinges to repair a severed ground wire seems
| > | excessive to me. Any clever workarounds out there?
| > |
| > | Thanks
| > |
| > | Danny

 

Buy an new harness, once a tailgate harness has been fixed once, it
needs to be replaced. Tape the ends of new and old harness together,
and use the old one to pull the new one through. There isn't much space
in the tailgate, so don't make a huge blob of tape at the connection.
Make sure you've made note of where each wire goes before disconnecting
them.

Take pieces of the old harness where they haven't been flexing in the
hinge. Cut back the ground wires about 1" from where they've broken.
Solder 2 pieces of the old harness wires across this gap.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

NOTE: new address!!
Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

The ground wires in the hinge aren't totally necessary. My '74 never
had them, and everything always worked in the tailgate, whether it was
open or closed. On the newer cars there is more rubber in the latch
area, but there is still metal to metal connections in the hinge area.
Obviously it was causing some problems in some cars or the wire wouldn't
have been added.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

NOTE: new address!!
Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)