!#@$!!#%&!! Tailgate switch!

[Narnian]

I had my other car all packed and ready for the 18 hour drive to Florida, when I remembered to grab some tools from the Jeep. (Big mistake!). Once I lowered that durned rear window, it refused to go back up. I haven't done all the diagnostics, but I'm almost positive it's the switch itself.

Question: Where can you get that switch nowadays? Do the dealers still sell them?

So much for visiting the family.

There are two types of FSJ owners. Those whose rear window is broken, and those whose rear window will be broken. (I guess you also have the smart FSJ owners who have J trucks)

[klank]

Have you tried bending the switch or even holding in in place on the side when the back is down and have someone use the key or try to bring it down while up front? Just a thought.

[BK]

Wire it directly to the front switch and bypass all that mess back there.

[ December 23, 2003, 12:35 PM: Message edited by: BK ]

[Narnian]

Originally posted by klank:
Have you tried bending the switch or even holding in in place on the side when the back is down and have someone use the key or try to bring it down while up front? Just a thought.

I don't mean the safety switch, I'm talking about the switch the key turns. I bypassed the safety switch about two years ago.

I won't be sure it's the problem until I remove every cotton pickin part in the tailgate.

I think I'm gonna sell this thing and keep the J20. This is the third time I've had to waste a day screwin around with the tailgate assembly.

[Wagoneer622]

What about the switch on the dash board? Does that work or do you have it bypassed all to the rear key switch?

[kreb]

how do you wire it to bypass the tailgate switch? mine has not worked in 2 years.

benjamin

[Tad]

Hey Ruben good to hear from you, ain't got no great advise here. I went manual, just couldn't take it any longer.

[andy d]

happy holidays Narnian. glad to hear from you. try this. lower the window, open the t/g. run the window up and support it, a trash barrel works if you havent jacked the rig up very much. remove the inside panel. you will see 4 wires going to the key switch. 2 from the lift motor, 2 from the harness that runs out of the gate at the bottom. cut the wires from the switch as close as possible to it. take a wire from each set and twist them together, try the front switch. if it works as it should buttsplice the wires together. if the switch works backwards, flip one pair of wires. this takes the key switch out of the circuit. take care to rout the wires away from the action of the window.

[Narnian]

Originally posted by Wagoneer622:
What about the switch on the dash board? Does that work or do you have it bypassed all to the rear key switch?

The dash switch does nothing but it is not bypassed. If I am not mistaken, The rear switch has to be working for the dash to work, but I'm not sure. I have to check the schematic again.

[Narnian]

Originally posted by andy d:
happy holidays Narnian. glad to hear from you. try this. lower the window, open the t/g. run the window up and support it, a trash barrel works if you havent jacked the rig up very much. remove the inside panel. you will see 4 wires going to the key switch. 2 from the lift motor, 2 from the harness that runs out of the gate at the bottom. cut the wires from the switch as close as possible to it. take a wire from each set and twist them together, try the front switch. if it works as it should buttsplice the wires together. if the switch works backwards, flip one pair of wires. this takes the key switch out of the circuit. take care to rout the wires away from the action of the window.

Ralph was trying to explain that very same process, except he suggested hooking up a battery to the wires. It makes sense. The problem I've got is that the window glass is down over the motor area. I can get to the brown wire, but I can't get the tan wire to a place where I can cut it and splice it.

I'm gonna post the schematic from the service manual in a few minutes. Maybe you can tell me which wires I need to connect to eachother to make that bypass work. Then I guess I'll have to remove the glass from the arms (ARGH!) so I can get to the motor.

[klank]

Well hope you getting it working. I misread. Keep us informed of all the steps you took. It may be something I have to do. Mine works fine though, The pleasures of getting my jeep from an old lady who took care of it.

[Narnian]

(S'OK Klank)

OK, I've posted the schematic. I'm going to quit for today, or at least wait for the rain to turn to snow so I don't have to fuss with the constant dripping on the tailgate.

All of you electric geniuses, take a peek at this schematic:

http://www.dynamic-arts.com/jeep/TailgateSchematic.gif

If I order a new switch, it won't arrive till next wednesday at the earliest, so if we can bypass the rear switch for now I'm game. If nothing else, I'll run wire directly to the motor that I can connect a battery to from the back seat.

[Sbonley]

The front switch should not have to have the rear switch hooked up to work. When Jeep did the safety recall on these back in the 80's all they did was disconnect the rear switch so you could only use the front switch. That is why I didn't take my girlfriends in for the recall.

[WHAT?]

just a suggestion, but did you check the wires where they go into the tailgate? they often get brittle and break(hence not wanting to go back up) I think its the big orange one but I could be wrong!

[Narnian]

Originally posted by Sbonley:
The front switch should not have to have the rear switch hooked up to work. When Jeep did the safety recall on these back in the 80's all they did was disconnect the rear switch so you could only use the front switch. That is why I didn't take my girlfriends in for the recall.

Hmmmmm. From the itty bit I can gather from the schematic, it sure looks like the front switch runs through the rear switch, and if there is a shot connection at that rear switch your not going to get power to the motor. R U certain about that?

I wiggled the key in the switch for about fifteen minutes. The window went up about 1 inch. I barely turned the key the other way and the window went back down. That's when I gave up. Sure seems like there is a problem with the switch, but there could be a short or a loose wire hidden in there. If the front switch should control the rear no matter what, then I should be looking for a bad wire, not a bad switch.