For those of you wanting to wire your 2003-06 TJ hardtop so the wiper and defogger works here is a write-up.
This write-up was designed for those of us who want to use a salvaged harness but cannot find the exact match. Since there are so many options that affect and prevent us from doing a full harness swap like the detailed excellent write-up by Jamison C here, I came up with an alternative.
I made a diagram that will help understand things. This diagram is very large (36" x 36") so printing for most of us is challenging, but you can use Adobe Acrobat and print to multiple pages and tape it together if you like. You can pan around and print just certain spots or you could get it printed somewhere for around $15 or so.
If you noticed any errors on the diagram please let me know so I can fix it.
Thanks and hope this helps.
This write-up was designed for those of us who want to use a salvaged harness but cannot find the exact match. Since there are so many options that affect and prevent us from doing a full harness swap like the detailed excellent write-up by Jamison C here, I came up with an alternative.
I made a diagram that will help understand things. This diagram is very large (36" x 36") so printing for most of us is challenging, but you can use Adobe Acrobat and print to multiple pages and tape it together if you like. You can pan around and print just certain spots or you could get it printed somewhere for around $15 or so.
- Grab any harness of the same vintage (03-06) that has the factory hardtop wires regardless of the other features like soundbar, lockers, abs, etc. Technically you need two different harnesses, the main body/tub harness and the dash harness. The main body harness has wires from the rear at the hardtop to most of the connectors and through the firewall to the front engine bay for the washer pump. It also has one wire for the fuse block. The dash harness has the remaining connector wires and connectors for the switches (wiper and defogger rocker switches)
- Diligently disassemble the harness focusing on the hardtop wires. You will want to have the service manual and this diagram but this diagram might be enough to do the job. You will need to pick some wires out of their connectors and having a few Terminal Removal Tools is necessary. You will need to do some splicing so soldering will be needed as well.
- Skipping details of which wires you need as I am assuming the diagram shows this.
- Things you might run into when pulling the harness apart:
- Pulling wire terminals out of connectors with the Terminal Removal Tool is pretty easy.
- push the tool into the backside of the connector grabbing the wire terminal with the prongs, pinch the wire and tool with thumb and forefinger and pull everything out.
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- Pulling the terminals out of the fuse block is different. You need to remove the face plate off of the front of the fuse block with a tiny flat head screwdriver. Gently pry from the left and right midway there is a slot and it will pop off. Here you can see wiring and how the terminals are seated. From the rear, use the same micro-sized flat head screwdriver to gently pry the plastic retaining tab up. the tabs are above each wire. Move the tab up and this frees the wire to be pulled out of the back of the block. Try not to mangle it like I did the first time. I was using pliers and force...none of that is needed once I took the face plate off and saw how it all worked.
- Edit: when putting the face plate back on you don't need to remove all the fuses, but it does get slightly tricky as they want to shift on you and get in the way of it lining up. You will need to use your micro screwdriver to push some of them back straight so the plate lines up. It will happen just takes some time.
- You will need to cut a few wires as they will need soldered back in to your harness. Mainly orange wires for switch light illumination and cutting splices for grounds.
- Pulling wire terminals out of connectors with the Terminal Removal Tool is pretty easy.
- Once you have all of the wires and terminals you need from the donor harness you will want to put this together more professionally and protect the wires. I recommend wrapping the wires with Split Loom Wire Sleeve Tubing and tape the ends with Wiring Harness Cloth Tape to prevent it from sliding and coming off. You can also use a vinyl non-adhesive tape like the factory harnesses use. I did this by installing and custom cutting the tubing as I went. Since this tubing is a nylon mesh once cut you will need to melt it a bit to prevent fraying. 1/4" tubing will hold quite a bit of wires as it can expand.
If you noticed any errors on the diagram please let me know so I can fix it.
Thanks and hope this helps.
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