Tailgate wiring 89 245

Hi Danny,

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

Andy I. ('93 245)

Your passenger side one has been repaired. The harness protrudes about

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 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.

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-don

'81 242t '89 744ti

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)

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

| > Andy I. ('93 245) | >

| >

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.

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.