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Rear door wiring harness (Permanent fix!!)

44K views 96 replies 28 participants last post by  panteragstk 
#1 · (Edited)
Imagine you lock your truck up for the night. You use the keyfob, hit the lock button, hear the horn, your vehicle is secure. Or so you thought.

Now imagine that on the inside of the rear door that the lock actuator never got the burst of energy to trigger the lock to move. Now your vehicle ISNT secure. Or even more comically, you unlock your truck the next morning, but only hit the button once, which may not unlock the rear doors as well, and upon cracking the rear door, the alarm goes off and you jump or even worse, you now need a change of shorts.

How did this happen? and GD why is that horn so loud and scary!!?? AND WHERE IS MY CHANGE OF SHORTS!!!!!?????

To figure out what happens is not really rocket science if you understand physics, fatigue and different wire types.
Chrysler had this genius idea at one time to produce these harnesses with an extremely low count wire and, on top of that, with a jacket stiffer than a 15 year olds wake up time. So, inevitably, the also too short accordion boot and wire harness inside begin to stretch and tear with each opening of the door. If you use the doors a lot, a new harness wont last long. Try repairing it according to what everyone on here recommends? Same problem. Until now.

With the problem area identified and just a smidge of hobby luck, I was able to come up with an idea that with the right parts and a lot of time, a complete straight across fix for this issue could be made.

There are really only 2 components to this fix; the proprietary pins in the harness plug and the wire that goes inside the accordion boot. Here they are!
Wire;
14GA Wire(Need 5 Feet) 8awg Power Cable, Battery Cable [5 ft Black and 5 ft Red] 8 Gauge-1650 Strands of Tinned Copper Wire, Solder Through Quickly - - Amazon.com
18GA Wire(Need 10 Feet) https://www.amazon.com/14awg-Wire-F...one+wire&qid=1564956764&s=gateway&sr=8-8&th=1
Any silicone RC/slot car lead wire will work, it uses extremely high wire count with a silicone jacket. Addressing the issue of flexibility entirely. Keep in mind the slot car lead wire doesnt come in different gauges, just 18. So you will have to purchase the 14GA wire separate.
You will also need..
Pins;
Need 20(2 10-packs) TERM181
Yes, those pins are almost 3 bucks a piece and, no, you will NOT find them anywhere else. Been there, done that. I credit Eric-07 with finding the pins. Him and I have done this fix.

Lastly, you will need some kind of wire connectors for inside the door.
Posi locks, as pointed out by Dudeonthenet are a great idea. Toolless and secure. Remember to order the correct sizes for the wires!
Here is a link to some posilocks Amazon.com : posi-lock
One could use bullet connectors like I did, but what a mess and a pain to make them work. I absolutely recommend the posilocks!!!

To get started into this project, you will need to get the door panels off.
Tools needed are a #2 phillips, T40 phillips, 10mm on a ratchet with long extension and a door panel removal tool set. I also used a couple plastic spring clamps, large or small makes no difference.
If you have a mega cab, the first thing you need to do is remove the switch bezel and unplug the switch. Use your panel tool and get under the bezel and give it a gentle pry up while pushing in. It should pop out. Set the bezel aside.
Now, go ahead and remove the door handle. this is where the T40 comes in handy. I do believe the hex on the screw is 10mm if you do not have a T40. Remove the handle, it might need a tiny bit of coercion.

There will then be 3 phillips screws, one where the door handle is, and two screws at the bottom of the door panel(all the way down there!) set the screws in your magnetic dish.
With all the attachment hardware/trim taken off, the panel will now simply lift up and then off. Usually takes a little bit of jiggling and movement to get it to come off. Set it on the ground face up.

Time to pull the speaker and actuator. The speaker uses 3 phillips screws and has a plug you need to detach from it. Use your 10mm to take the 2 nuts off for the latch actuator and detach it and set it with the nuts.



This part is where the job can get a little messy. The water shield uses some shellac around the perimeter to hold it in place. carefully pull the shield away, the shellac will stretch but eventually give way and shrink back. DONT try and clean it up. It will win the mess war. Once you get the shield pulled up to the top, take your quick clamps and hold the shield in place with 2 of them.




Now its looking like we can swap the harness! Go ahead and unplug all the connectors, some are a royal pain and require small hands. Go ahead and pop the connector off in the jamb area as well. There are little teeth on the short sides of the plug where it goes into the cab pillar. Use your panel tool to get behind the rubber boot and depress one and pry out the pigtail. Unplug the connector and push the accordion boot through the door. This is a lot of fun and the door metal is thin, so try to not mangle it up, door panel tools are your friend here, again. Soapy water would also help.

To be continued.... we still have to actually fix the harnesses themselves!
 
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#2 · (Edited)
In my case, the PO chopped up the accordion boots to fix the wires, so I had to buy two new harnesses to the tune of 125 bucks each. Got free shipping from an online mopar discounter, that helped me feel better. :grin2:


Here are the tools you need. Wire strippers, crimpers, scotch tape, pin pick tools, needle nose pliers, terminal crimper() and I am sure something else. Ill leave that up to you.


Here is an important picture, its crucial to consider the design of the stock harness and where it goes wrong. In this pic, you can see how long I cut the wires. I tried to match OEM length on the first harness NOT thinking about what I was doing and come the second harness I messed with the idea of the best wire length. That answer seems to be right around 9 to 9.25 inches. Its about 0.75 inches longer than OEM once spliced in. I precut all the wires to the same length and stripped them all at once. This saved a LOT of time. Strip length is very short for the terminal side. You want to strip just the length of the landing on the terminal.

Pre-strip wire ends.

After stripping jacket and twisting the strands.

Landing has been crimped down. Strain relief has yet to be done.

Strain relief crimped and terminal is ready for the pigtail. Go ahead and pin all the new wires at once. Dont pin one wire and then feed, and repeat until you are done. That will take forever.

The proper use of scotch tape in this application. Feed the wires one at a time and connect your new wires to the rest of the harness as you go. This helps keep pin location confusion to a minimum. I suggest taking pictures of the pigtails so you dont get anything confused or wrong.

Tying the two wires together with tape. Gently push and pull the wires through. Pin the wire to the pigtail AFTER feeding the new wire through the accordion boot.

See that little tab sticking up in the valley? Give that a push to help release the locking mechanism for the pins. This will allow you to pop them out.

See this retangular insert? this should have popped up slightly at this point. It will not come all the way out. Put your pick under it and pull it up as far as it goes. Dont get too aggresive with it. It only comes up about an 1/8 or 3/16 of an inch. If your pins are not just popping right out when you release the click lock in the pin end of the pigtail, pull this part up a little bit more.

Here is the pin end of the pigtail. Look closely to the left of the pin where the pin comes out of the connector. That little white tab needs to be pushed away from the pin to release it. Pull the wire while you have your pick pushing the click lock away from the pin.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Here is your pigtail all finished up with the new pins and wires.

Another shot

Giant cluster of bullet connectors. Eric and I both did this to hoepfully ease any service that may need done in the future. I wanted to use water resistant connectors, but didnt have them on hand.

Length of new wire added. This was the short harness I made. It was longer than OEM, but once installed didnt seem long enough.

Here is where I cut the wires to 9.5 inches. Fit a lot better in the door than the other. Seemed a little too long though.

Bullet connector part#

Bullet connector part#
 
#4 · (Edited)
With the new harness built and done all you need to do is put the harness back in the door. It snakes around and goes behind this and that and blah blah blah. Push the sharkbite hold downs into their place and connect all the QD pigtails. Lastly, run the boot and connector through the door and plug it in and set it in place. The rubber flange that comes out the door is a pain to get back into position. Astroglide or soapy water makes it a bit easier. Astroglide has many purposes, yes. Lmao

With all of the harness finished up, the water shield simply comes back down and lays over the door. Press it down around the edge to keep it from moving.

Be sure to install the door handle actuator remembering to hook up the rod. Install the speaker and be sure to plug it in.

To put the cherry on the cake, install the door panel. Pay some attention to the window switches pigtail connector so it can be accessed and also make sure the lock plunger goes into the hole. The plunger housing on the panel does pop out, I left mine and just guided it all together.

Put in the three phillips screws and install the door handle using the torx 40 or 10mm socket. Hook up the window switch and snap the bezel down into place. Install is now complete and you can enjoy your 6 pack, or 12 pack if you are one of those guys..
 
#8 ·
Great writeup. On my not so short to do list and the step by step is much appreciated!
 
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#10 ·
That's about 4 hours of composition. It took longer to do the write up than to do the actual repair.. [emoji1787]

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#11 ·
I just used the original pins and soldered and heat shrinked one wire at a time and went 6 or so inches inside the door with a good quality wire and all is good with mine .
 
#13 · (Edited)
That was my first instinct actually. Just because I didnt want to buy pins and then it became my sentiment later when I also saw how expensive/hard to get they were.

Nothing wrong with that. Im sure it's just as stable. I feel like this is a little more factoryesque minus the giant wad of bullet connectors.
 
#14 ·
Imagine you lock your truck up for the night. You use the keyfob, hit the lock button, hear the horn, your vehicle is secure. Or so you thought.

Now imagine that on the inside of the rear door that the lock actuator never got the burst of energy to trigger the lock to move. Now your vehicle ISNT secure. Or even more comically, you unlock your truck the next morning, but only hit the button once, which may not unlock the rear doors as well, and upon cracking the rear door, the alarm goes off and you jump or even worse, you now need a change of shorts.

How did this happen? and GD why is that horn so loud and scary!!?? AND WHERE IS MY CHANGE OF SHORTS!!!!!?????

To figure out what happens is not really rocket science if you understand physics, fatigue and different wire types.
Chrysler had this genius idea at one time to produce these harnesses with an extremely low count wire and, on top of that, with a jacket stiffer than a 15 year olds wake up time. So, inevitably, the also too short accordion boot and wire harness inside begin to stretch and tear with each opening of the door. If you use the doors a lot, a new harness wont last long. Try repairing it according to what everyone on here recommends? Same problem. Until now.

With the problem area identified and just a smidge of hobby luck, I was able to come up with an idea that with the right parts and a lot of time, a complete straight across fix for this issue could be made.

There are really only 2 components to this fix; the proprietary pins in the harness plug and the wire that goes inside the accordion boot. Here they are!
Wire;
14GA Wire(Need 5 Feet) https://www.amazon.com/14awg-Wire-Feet-Black-Electrical/dp/B07588953X/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=14ga%2Bsilicone%2Bwire&qid=1564956764&s=gateway&sr=8-8&th=1
18GA Wire(Need 10 Feet) https://www.amazon.com/14awg-Wire-Feet-Black-Electrical/dp/B075L5WL4Y/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=14ga%2Bsilicone%2Bwire&qid=1564956764&s=gateway&sr=8-8&th=1
Any silicone RC/slot car lead wire will work, it uses extremely high wire count with a silicone jacket. Addressing the issue of flexibility entirely. Keep in mind the slot car lead wire doesnt come in different gauges, just 18. So you will have to purchase the 14GA wire separate.
You will also need..
Pins;
Need 20(2 10-packs) https://connectorexperts.com/i-31643600-term181b.html
Yes, those pins are almost 3 bucks a piece and, no, you will NOT find them anywhere else. Been there, done that. I credit Eric-07 with finding the pins. Him and I have done this fix.

To get started into this project, you will need to get the door panels off.
Tools needed are a #2 phillips, T40 phillips, 10mm on a ratchet with long extension and a door panel removal tool set. I also used a couple plastic spring clamps, large or small makes no difference.
If you have a mega cab, the first thing you need to do is remove the switch bezel and unplug the switch. Use your panel tool and get under the bezel and give it a gentle pry up while pushing in. It should pop out. Set the bezel aside.
Now, go ahead and remove the door handle. this is where the T40 comes in handy. I do believe the hex on the screw is 10mm if you do not have a T40. Remove the handle, it might need a tiny bit of coercion.

There will then be 3 phillips screws, one where the door handle is, and two screws at the bottom of the door panel(all the way down there!) set the screws in your magnetic dish.
With all the attachment hardware/trim taken off, the panel will now simply lift up and then off. Usually takes a little bit of jiggling and movement to get it to come off. Set it on the ground face up.

Time to pull the speaker and actuator. The speaker uses 3 phillips screws and has a plug you need to detach from it. Use your 10mm to take the 2 nuts off for the latch actuator and detach it and set it with the nuts.



This part is where the job can get a little messy. The water shield uses some shellac around the perimeter to hold it in place. carefully pull the shield away, the shellac will stretch but eventually give way and shrink back. DONT try and clean it up. It will win the mess war. Once you get the shield pulled up to the top, take your quick clamps and hold the shield in place with 2 of them.




Now its looking like we can swap the harness! Go ahead and unplug all the connectors, some are a royal pain and require small hands. Go ahead and pop the connector off in the jamb area as well. There are little teeth on the short sides of the plug where it goes into the cab pillar. Use your panel tool to get behind the rubber boot and depress one and pry out the pigtail. Unplug the connector and push the accordion boot through the door. This is a lot of fun and the door metal is thin, so try to not mangle it up, door panel tools are your friend here, again. Soapy water would also help.

To be continued.... we still have to actually fix the harnesses themselves!
The link for the pin connectors doesn’t work? I only see 181 connectors on that site are those the same as 181b?
 
#15 ·
The link has gone defunct... thanks for pointing that out. I'll see about updating it...

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#17 ·
Very detailed write up and OEM parts used to restore Mopar integrity.

10/10 job, thanks for posting! Will be using this guide to do the repair on my truck
 
#18 ·
I soldered mine and they are all broken again. It's kinda like in the old days... "Did everyone lock their doors?"
But seriously, this fix looks great. I'm going to do it again. But right this time.
 
#19 ·
The quality/flexability of the new/added wire is the key to this fix.
 
#20 ·
The pin link is still 404 not found. I might have to go the route of reusing my pins...
 
#21 ·
#22 ·
I took mine apart order the weekend. After getting into it a little bit, I decided I didn't really need to remove the entire harness to get this done. It looks like the but splices or bullets or spades or whatever connectors you may choose can be done pretty easily through the speaker hole. You definitely had to do it to replace the harness, but it didn't seem necessary for me. My wire and points are ordered. Mt connector plug opened up okay, but I still can't seem to get the pins out. I might need a longer skinnier pick to push on the plastic clip holding the pins in place.
 
#23 ·
In my case, I wanted to be able to build the harness on the bench, take pics, etc..

But yes, you could do it in the door. Would just need to build the connector and boot section on a bench.

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#25 ·
I hear you. And buying a harness that would LAST would be a different story. But they just sell a replacement harness that is the same as the one that failed (twice, for me).
I like improving things. Making things better. There is satisfaction in that for me. Smelonas had to buy new harnesses, then cut them in half before installing, in order to make them better. He probably won't have to do it twice, though.
And sometimes fixing things gives you a deeper broader understanding of how things work.
Like all the times I wired auxiliary lights, or pumps, or trailers, or built a Jake brake out of relays, diodes, and a switch. That stuff came in handy when I was having a trailer brake issue and no one could squeeze the job in before my next trip. Got the tools out, troubleshooted the problems, and fixed it myself.
Or when the vent fan in the bathroom stopped working. They don't make that size/shape/style anymore. Took it apart to see what's wrong. Cleaned it up A LOT. Found out the stupid thing doesn't even have a bearing. Oiled up the bronze bushing, and she's probably good for 10 more years.
My father has brought his truck in for service, only to get it back with parts replaced that didn't fix the issue. He has had the tractor place put auxiliary lighting on the tractor, after it gets returned home, the lights don't work. It's BS. But he never follows up or complains. Then I end up fixing the lights. Or the truck. It would have been easier for me to just install it, or fix it in the first place.
Some people get sick of fixing stuff, so they trade in for a newer model. But then they have to start correcting the issues all over again. Every permanent fix (like this wiring one), is one thing that should never need repair again. And if it does, for some reason, I'll know how to do it.
And sometimes we have to consider "who is the guy doing the work?" Sometimes it's a great mechanic, like the guy who doesn't work on diesels, but I talked him into changing my bad injector. Sometimes the guy doing the work is... Not so good

Long post. And I do understand your point. But sometimes it's complicated. And sometimes it's simple.

Peteout.
 
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#26 ·
You're right, and I always feel that way when I get done. Part of my aggravation now is my plate's already full and the rest is that I haven't unpinned a plug yet. Can I just remove the harness from the truck and add an inch or so in the middle and accomplish the same thing?
 
#27 ·
The sharkbite hold downs are what will kinda hold that up. Also the existing wire is too stiff and it fatigues quickly.

You could add in the length, and it would help, but I could almost assure you would be pulling the harness again at some point.

I've contemplated making harnesses, but I cant think anyone would pay what I would ask. I think 400 bucks for a pair would be fair. Think about it, a new mopar harness is 125. So for 75 bucks more, you get the real deal. One mans entrepreneurial thoughts.

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#28 ·
Your price isn't bad considering the price of the new harness. Is that $400 shipped? Sorry, couldn't resist. In the pic of the completed repair and bullet connectors you can see how full the boot is. I imagine that was a lot of fun snaking the last two or three wires through. I've had this truck a year now this month and it still feels new to me and I'm not versed in all the problem areas yet. Where exactly does the original harness fail? Are the pins pulling out of the plug? Would your repair work on the original harness? Mine has 200K on it now, 187K when purchased, and it worked occasionally at first and never does now. I'm speaking of my drivers rear door, I use it a lot. The passengers side still works but I know I should do them both at the same time.
 
#29 ·
I've been following this thread with interest and I have a suggestion for you all to consider for wiring connections on this project as well as other automotive wiring projects.

I have had many 'conventional' wire connectors lose connection after a time, on my truck and also on my RV (vibration is the enemy of wire connections!) So I finally quit using them and for several years now I have exclusively used Posi Lock (1st pic) and Posi Tap (2nd pic) connectors for ALL my automotive wiring repairs and mods. I have never had one fail. I threw out all my old style connectors and I keep a supply of these Posi connectors on hand in all wire sizes. They do not come apart on their own and I have never had one fail. They are reusable, and if you remove a posi tap connector from a wire, the wire is still usable as is.

Not long ago my OBDII port came apart. I bought the OEM kit and connected all those wires, nine as I recall, with Posi Lock connectors.

They are a bit pricey compared to the traditional style connectors, but for me the extra cost is well worth it because they have never come apart on me nor ever lost connections. I have no connection whatsoever to the company and I am not a distributor / dealer for them. I get so many helpful tips and advice on this forum that I just wanted to pass this tip along...



 
#30 ·
I've used those in radio installations! Didnt even occur to me to use the butt connectors in this case. If I have to go in and redo any wires, I'll definitely just posilock everything right there.

Thanks for the input!

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