Scary Tailgate Wire Damage - '89 Grand Wagoneer

[Greg72]

Took a closer look at the rear tailgate today since it always seemed "stiff" when I would try to close it.

The culprit seems to be that the wire bundles are getting bunched-up in the tailgate jamb area. Basically I am just fighting and crushing them every time I close the tailgate.

Miraculously, the tailgate glass still works fine and rolls up and down as expected. However based on this photo it looks like I'm just dealing with a ticking time-bomb here....




A quick search at TGW and BJs Offroad did not reveal a replacement wiring harness available to swap in here... and those ultra stiff "wire protector" sleeves don't seem to be available either...??

Anyone dealt with this area themselves? Is it possible to buy bulk wire in the correct colors / wire gauge from somewhere to at least repair the 3 or 4 most heinously damaged wires in that bundle to prevent a short-circuit or "open circuit" due to an impending broken wire.

Tips, Threads, Links to Parts... all welcomed. Thanks in advance guys!

[letank]

same here, I discovered on a new project... I sliced the sheath off without cutting the other wires, then cut off the red wire and substituted for a new length of wire from under the cargo area to inside the tailgate one, and wrapped the wires with less than ideal electrical tape until....

the sheath filled with dirt

TailGate2DSLfsjx.jpg

and after

TailGate3DSLfsjx.jpg

[Srdayflyer]

thats pretty much the failure point its best to pull the wiring harness the connector is just below that, the OEM wiring work hardens overtime with the tailgate opening and closing causing them to break, i removed the harness and rewired the section and re installed it should get another 40 years out of it. if you want to do a long term fix.

[Mopar_guy]

When I rewire mine, I plan putting relays in the tailgate so I can use smaller control wires with just a heavy gauge hot and ground. If you use fine stranded wire, it'll hold up and last longer than standard wire.

[SJTD]

Can't hurt to use finer stranded wire. Use sillycone insulation if you can; even more flexible. That's the real problem, thirty year old insulation gets stiff.

[tgreese]

Suggest you run each wire inside vacuum tubing, and make a bundle of each individually sheathed wire with zip ties. Vacuum tubing has a thick wall meant to prevent collapse under vacuum. The silicone wire insulation is more flexible than PVC (vinyl), but I suspect it is no tougher. Good for things like test leads. You could source wire with teflon insulation that is very tough, but it's not cheap. IMO vacuum tubing (cheap) over new vinyl primary wire (also cheap) would be better. I'd want the bundle of wires to be stiff and bulky so it could not be pinched in the tailgate jamb.

[Greg72]

Suggest you run each wire inside vacuum tubing, and make a bundle of each individually sheathed wire with zip ties. Vacuum tubing has a thick wall meant to prevent collapse under vacuum. The silicone wire insulation is more flexible than PVC (vinyl), but I suspect it is no tougher. Good for things like test leads. You could source wire with teflon insulation that is very tough, but it's not cheap. IMO vacuum tubing (cheap) over new vinyl primary wire (also cheap) would be better. I'd want the bundle of wires to be stiff and bulky so it could not be pinched in the tailgate jamb.

Well I tried your good idea... but couldn't get it all to fit properly.

After disconnecting the wires underneath, here is what you need to package once it's pulled up through the tailgate sill area.... (love the OEM duct tape that was covering the factory ground splice!!)



Installed vacuum lines on the wires to help protect them but the whole assembly just started to get too bulky...



It barely fit back in the oval hole and would not move smoothly... so it just created a different interference issue.
At least the wires weren't likely to get damaged though.



Pulled the whole thing apart (again) and removed the vacuum lines... carefully sandwiched the wires between two 1.25" strips of clear plastic to help insure that they held a flat shape even after tape was applied. This also was intended to allow the harness to somewhat find it's way into the rear cross-sill hole as the tailgate was closed.



Final Shot: You can see a bit of daylight around the new harness showing that it ended up pretty compact and flat. The entire thing was carefully wrapped in Tesa tape to give it a nice finished look.




So that's my temporary solution for now. Really didn't want to go this far down the rabbit hole in the first place.... and by rights, I should still do this same exercise on the passenger side harness because it is even MORE destroyed and pinched than the driver side one was....

Anyway... thanks for brainstorming with me on this one. Appreciate the input!


-G

[Dusty]

BKilby over on the mother board did this to his 74 Cherokee.
If you have some welding skills it is kinda easy?