NJTman

I had planned on pulling it out onto the driver's floor. I'm sure it's not gonna be easy any way I do it.

Door panel, kick panel, E brake assembly, all got to get pulled, or I can put some goop electric sealer on the individual wires, and re wrap the assembly.

Suck-o job, I'm sure, so I'll be playing it by ear... so to speak.

NJTman

Today was the start to the wire repairing of the driver's door jamb. First pulled the door panel off, and found that the 4 wires that were bad out of the bunch, all led to the drivers side window switches. All the other wires were not bad at all. Can only assume that there is a reason for this, maybe heat generated by the wiring, or they used a different supplier for that wiring, vs the other, considering the other wires are standard, and the LE models have the upgraded wires to the window motors. So be it whatever it is, I have to fix it.

So I first thought I had to remove the driver side kick panel, but realized I didn't after all, even though I had all the screws out, it still wouldn't come out. I found that the harness went upwards through the bulkhead of the jamb, and not behind the kick panel, so I stopped trying to remove it.

Pulled the 3 nuts off of the E brake mechanism, and let it fall to the right for this job. Didn't have to remove it, luckily.

Once I disconnected the harness from it's mounting points in the door, and spent nearly an hour stripping that cloth over electrical tape off of the wiring (what a black gooey mess under there), I was able to remove the harness from the door. This will allow me to partially shove it back up into the jamb bulkhead, and into the cavity behind the dash. From there, it can be pulled down and new wiring spliced into the harness (the 4 cracked wires).

Since I wanted to know I was getting the correct wire gauge, I snipped the wires at the switch side, to determine their gauge, which is as follows:

Black 12 gauge
Violet with white stripe 14 gauge
Brown 14 gauge
Red 16 gauge.

Once I get the wiring from WiringProducts - The Place to Buy Electrical Supplies, I'll put it all back together again.

NJTman

The door rubber grommets in which the wiring harness travels through needed to be cut to be removed and allow me to move all these wires out in the open to be reworked. I found the original mold mark and used a razor to slice that mark open, releasing the grommet from the harness. They'll be glued back together and shoved back in their openings when it's all put back together.

For the time being, I pushed all the wires back into the door, as I didn't want the wires caught between the jamb and door for the time it takes to get me the new wire though UPS...

NJTman

To be continued...

NJTman

Today was the big day of contortion and pain. 4 hours or so to rebuild the wiring in the door juncture. Fun stuff... NOT.

Started off using a suggestion by Ollie to use the original wires as "fish tape". Great idea, Ollie. Felt like I was running wire in a finished house all over again....

Took each wire spool and attached it to the corresponding wire to be replaced. Pulled it through, cut each wire, crimped each new wire to the old wire (further up the harness under the dash), soldered the ends so that the crimps were not physically able to ever come apart, slid the shrinkwrap down, and sealed each connection. I staggered the joints between the 4 wires as best as possible (on both ends) as to not have a big lump in the wiring.

Purchased some rubber splicing tape from Homer Depot, wrapped all the wires, and then re wrapped the wires with a cloth fuzzy tape from Amazon.

Used the JIM LANE naked butt connectors (all I ever use since I saw him using them), and they're just about perfect for anything I've ever used them for.

NJTman

So,

I Had to pull the wires in and out through the bulkhead a few times to get it all seamless, and remembered to install the plastic loom in the bulkhead so that the wires don't get cut by the hole in the bulkhead from vibration.

I used a zip tie to keep the wires tight while wrapping, then removed the zip tie before it got wrapped.

The most difficult section is the place where the rubber bungs meet the door, as it was a bit of a pain to pull and align the mounting tabs correctly. eventually got it done, but it took a bit of back and forth until I got them all lined up.

NJTman

And finally...

Coated all the connectors in die electric grease before each wiring connection was made. Repaired the plastic liner in the door, and put the switches all back into the door panel, and installed it.

All works, and no hiccups so far...

Time will tell

oliver foster

Looks great T man!
I am glad I could help with a few suggestions, as I knew that job was going to blow.
The least I could do for all the help you have done loading pictures on my thread.

NJTman

7 hours of time spent. Yes.... it wasn't any fun. Hope that's the end of my gremlin issue, although I'm still going to separate the heater circuit from the window circuit under the hood.

torquefan

Looks awesome!

Jim Lane

Used the JIM LANE naked butt connectors (all I ever use since I saw him using them), and they're just about perfect for anything I've ever used them for.

Awesome
Jim

NJTman

Really weird side effect...

My Windows roll up faster, and my door lock on the passenger side, actually works every time now....


Lol

Mike L

Kudos to you Tman for taking on the wiring project. That kind of wiring work usually just boggles my mind and I give up in frustration. 7 hours to do all that work is time well spent. Plus, look at the side effect bonuses that you have already noticed. Good job man!

Cheers!

Mike

NJTman

Thanks Mike,
I bought a lot of wire to do the job. If you ever need enough for the repair, lmk, and ill send you some. Better than having to buy it, eh ?

Anyone with an LE, I can send ya some if you decide to do this fix....

MrFusion

Nice job man!