I think many of us are having this issue, which is the wire insulation breaking from the constant bending of the rear hatch harness. My daughter's 97 had five or six broken insulation but the wires weren't broken. Rather than fix it by using butt splices, I opted to go to the junk yard to see what they have. I found a '98 harness with only a single broken insulation so I swapped that into my daughter's '97. U Pull n Pay charged me $19 for this "small" harness.
Please follow the excellent video made by Timmy the Toolman on how to remove the various bits to get to this harness. https://www.toyota-4runner.org/3507847-post872.html
Onto the pics:
Comparing the two harnesses- as you can see, I used elec tape to wrap around the broken insulation.
Shared album - A. Ali - Google Photos
There are these two wires that don't have a lot of slack so you'll need to figure out a way to deal with them. I cut them and spliced in longer wires then connected them to the new harness. I believe the wires are for the third brake light.
Shared album - A. Ali - Google Photos
Shared album - A. Ali - Google Photos
I used a rope attached to the end of the old harness to pull it through (back to front), then use the same rope to pull the new harness through in the opposite direction (front to back).
Shared album - A. Ali - Google Photos
The gas struts on her hatch are fairly new so I had to adjust the height by using tension straps. I don't know about you but working above my head for a long time wreaks havoc on my shoulders. The beauty of using the tension strap is that you can raise or lower the hatch as needed.
The junkyard donor had no gas struts so I had to prop up the hatch with whatever I was able to find.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HL4RU3GjZ8jxceFP7
A pic of me pulling out the old harness
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rvvcMSoavRyXzw9o9
Anyway, that's about it. It's not a super hard of a project but it was timely as you can see. If you have an air compressor, this would be a good time to blow out the inside of the hatch. Years of dirt accumulated in the hatch and this is also the time to make sure the water drain rubber things are still operational.
After blowing out all the dust, I highly recommend greasing up the window tracks using Honda silicone grease ebay link. This made the window go up/down a little faster.
I also took the opportunity to tighten the two screws that attach the key cylinder to the internal hatch frame work. They were working themselves loose and whenever she stuck the key inside the cylinder, the cylinder moved inward a little.
Hope this helps out someone!
Cheers.
Please follow the excellent video made by Timmy the Toolman on how to remove the various bits to get to this harness. https://www.toyota-4runner.org/3507847-post872.html
Onto the pics:
Comparing the two harnesses- as you can see, I used elec tape to wrap around the broken insulation.
Shared album - A. Ali - Google Photos
There are these two wires that don't have a lot of slack so you'll need to figure out a way to deal with them. I cut them and spliced in longer wires then connected them to the new harness. I believe the wires are for the third brake light.
Shared album - A. Ali - Google Photos
Shared album - A. Ali - Google Photos
I used a rope attached to the end of the old harness to pull it through (back to front), then use the same rope to pull the new harness through in the opposite direction (front to back).
Shared album - A. Ali - Google Photos
The gas struts on her hatch are fairly new so I had to adjust the height by using tension straps. I don't know about you but working above my head for a long time wreaks havoc on my shoulders. The beauty of using the tension strap is that you can raise or lower the hatch as needed.
The junkyard donor had no gas struts so I had to prop up the hatch with whatever I was able to find.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HL4RU3GjZ8jxceFP7
A pic of me pulling out the old harness
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rvvcMSoavRyXzw9o9
Anyway, that's about it. It's not a super hard of a project but it was timely as you can see. If you have an air compressor, this would be a good time to blow out the inside of the hatch. Years of dirt accumulated in the hatch and this is also the time to make sure the water drain rubber things are still operational.
After blowing out all the dust, I highly recommend greasing up the window tracks using Honda silicone grease ebay link. This made the window go up/down a little faster.
I also took the opportunity to tighten the two screws that attach the key cylinder to the internal hatch frame work. They were working themselves loose and whenever she stuck the key inside the cylinder, the cylinder moved inward a little.
Hope this helps out someone!
Cheers.
