Adding trailer light hookup

[merrill77]

My 77 appears to have the OEM hitch, but no connector for lighting. That seems a little pointless, but...whatever. The hitch is the hard part, so I'm not complaining

It kinda looks like there is a connector perfect for me to tap, if there is a "T" available for this connector. Best I can tell from the wiring diagram and the dirty wiring, there is a light green, light green w/ trace and two white wires, which should be a match for running lights (x2) and left and right signal...and would match the 4-wire connector on my trailer. I tested one of the white wires and it was right, but I'm not sure my voltmeter is fast enough to verify the signal lines.

This pic is between the receiver part of the hitch and the fuel filler.



So three questions:

1) Are these the wires I think they are?

2) Is there a name for this connector?

3) Is there a T adapter available for it?

I'd like to hook up in the cleanest possible way, rather than cutting wires. Surely the dealers weren't cutting wires to add the trailer hook-up option?

Ooops...that was 4 questions


TIA!
Chris

[tgreese]

There were two different trailer towing harnesses that were available; one for light duty that connects directly to the wiring and a heavy duty harness that isolates the trailer from the Jeep with relays, and takes power from the tailgate harness. Look at all the pages of the harness on this page. http://oljeep.com/gw/elec/GW_wiring.html

Likely that is one of the harness connectors you need. You can either trace it back until it's clear that it comes from where you think it should, or test it in action using your multimeter or test light.

If I wanted to do this without cutting the wires, I would either look for a wrecked Wagoneer and cut out the matching connectors that I needed, or I would use bullet connectors and splice in to the existing plug. You'd need to secure and weatherproof the connectors somehow. Really, I would only do the bullet conenctors for a temporary setup. Instead I would cut the wires and splice in to the existing wiring. It can be done neatly and made weatherproof.

[merrill77]

I hadn't thought about pulling the needed connectors from an existing wagon. Good idea - that would give me that same pair of connectors, so I could wire up a tap to go between the two existing connectors. I'll solder and heat-shrink-wrap all my connections...but I'd much rather do that work on my workbench than laying on my back under the wagon