Rear Window layout

[Blueman85]

85 Wagoneer owner here. First Post.

Bought this rig last week for a project with my 14 year old. We already managed to work out some electrical issues with the back windows and lights. Now we intend to tackle the rear window that will not go down. The previous owner had the front switch worked on and said it worked for a short time then it didn't. When he called the shop about the issue, they told him it was a wiring issue somewhere else and thats where it ended..

So, my son and I dived into it a couple of days ago. I read alot of the topics on this common issue here. So after trying the front switch (with key turned on) it didn't work. We moved to the keyswitch in the back (which I was told did not work) and the window went down a little but not up. Tried hotwiring the motor with alligator clips the brown and black wires, nothing. We then tried hotwiring the yellow wires in the picture and the window went down a little more, switched the wires around to go back up and nothing. Switched them back again and nothing.

So we removed the key lock with security bits and sprayed with some WD40 as it was really tight to turn in either direction. Returned the key lock to position and now nothing..

We also called the shop the previous owner went to. They confirmed that they rewired the front switch and nothing else, with no warranties of course.

The only wire harness we diassembled was the yellow to brown and black. I found another black wire on the same side not attached (can be seen at the bottom of the pic to the right) What are the orange wires on the left? It looks like a harness was also disconnected there.

Checked the grounds and they look fine.

We are stumped, should we continue to try to get the window all the way down and remove the glass? Any advice will be appreciated.

My gut tells me to bypass the key switch and child safety switch that from what I understand can be inconsistent and not repairable.

I should say our electrical skills are not that great...yet

IMG_2150.jpeg

[sirrus]

Welcome to the forum! Fixing tailgate window is like rite of passage with FSJs

It's always hard to figure something out on a modified/rewired system, so my approach would be figure out how is it different from factory and probably return it so stock. That way you can use wiring diagrams from TSM for reference. Do you have an idea what exactly was changed in the dash switch wiring?

Systematic approach helps a lot, especially with electrical gremlins - trying somewhat random things here and there usually ends up in more confusion, at least for me For tailgate you have 2 switches (dash and key), safety switch in the tailgate, motor and wires in between them. I would suggest testing different components of the system separately.

First verify that both switches receive power, dash switch is fed from ignition, key switch - directly from battery. Then you can take switches out (or test them in place with power disconnected) and test with multimeter if they make proper contact in all three positions - up, down and neutral. Neutral is also important because dash switch relies on key switch grounding in neutral position. Check continuity for wires.

Safety switch can also be tested with multimeter to see if it closes the circuit when tailgate is closed. For hotwiring the motor use the leads that go directly to motor. Motor doesn't have a dedicated ground connection, up/down movement is achieved by switching polarity on tan and brown wires

Dash and safety switch might be hard to find in good condition, but key switch is not really hard to fix. It actually uses the same switch as in power seat controls. Anyway, test and clean everything before throwing parts at it or yanking something out

Your disconnected orange and black wires look like the defroster wiring. There should be a timer relay where orange wires go

[Blueman85]

Thanks for your quick reply. Yes, from what I read here sounds like we are jumping right into the FSJ fire

I will try hotwiring the tailgate window from the brown and black wires in the morning. Any idea what the yellow wires connect to, and why did the window move when we attempted to hotwire from it? Also, maybe a stupid question, but when hotwiring, do you connect alligator clips to the inside contacts of the brown and black harness, or do you cut the wires to get a suitable connection? I've also been using long jumper cables from my battery, and touching the opposite alligator clips to them. Would regular wire work better than alligator clips?

[sirrus]

It’s hard to tell from the picture which color goes where. I checked pics that I was taking when working on my tailgate and it looks like there is a yellow and black wire coming out of motor (left side of the pic)




Alligator clips should be ok, just clean the terminal that you’re attaching them to. Also don’t forget to have wires long enough - remember that glass would go down, effectively blocking your access through that opening and may yank your wires off motor leads if they are too short

Hope that helps


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[candymancan]

I dunno if you fixed your problem. But you posted this in the wrong section thats probly why youre getting less replies.

Also the front switch is linked to the keyed switch in the window. If the keyed switch isnt working. Neither switch will work.

So you might actually have a bad switch back there. Happened to me recently. I guess someone already mentioned that. But yea

[fulsizjeep]

Welcome to FSJN. I moved this thread to Stock FSJ Tech. Hopefully you get more feedback here.