Bueller, Bueller…. Help this gal out! Whats this wire? (1 Viewer)

[gordista]

Addressing some nitty gritty wonderfully tedious replacements and deep cleaning of tailgate/hatch and doors this morning and came across a some things I had a few questions about.
the photos have text too
But

1) what is this black wire? It wasn’t plugged into anything inside tailgate

2) previous Owner had multitude of wires running along rear hatch pinching and such for trailer hitch lights and license plate light.

3) laugh away.. but when replacing seals and stripping around mid doors last night - wondered if there once was additional channel runners seals or something next to doors seals or not ?

Thank you all again! Xxoo

Photos with Specific Questions

Thread 'Old Wiring & Weatherstrip Questions w/ Pictures fj62'

Please see previous ask for help

 

[Roonie]

I can answer a couple of the questions. No additional seal on the door. The holes were for water drainage and air release when closing door to get tight seal. Not sure what the rubber wiring loom protector is called. The wire inside the tailgate goes to the license plate light.

The wiring is a mess. Black wires are usually grounds in the back area. I enclosed a pic of mine to illustrate it. These wires all exit behind the gas tank behind the bumper. That is factory location.

 

[Roonie]

also all the wires for the tailgate, rear lights, etc come from the rear quarter where the windshield wahing fluid resevoir is located. You can trace them from there.

 

[CruiserTrash]

@Roonie I haven’t seen that black wire ground you’ve got underneath the tailgate there. The usual ground I see every time is here at this bolt. Not nitpicking you, just trying to figure out if this is a variation I’ve never seen.

 

[Roonie]

Yes I should have stated the ground was added to that location. The picture was more for visual demonstration. Most of the wires in the rear I redid and at that time I redid all the grounds and added trailer wiring. To be super specific that ground was added for the rear 4plus bumper and the LED lights that came with it.

 

[gordista]

So many thank you’s

I am assuming the hoppy tail light converter which was added to the wire harness inside interior rear 1/4 panel is essentially overriding cars original wires?
So maybe the OG license plate light wire, which ran through bumper grommet and pigtail thingy into tailgate, was disconnected and bonus wire, now powering license plate light, being spliced into b
brown wire of adapter kits harness?

 

[Roonie]

I know when I added my trailer hookup wiring I spliced into existing wires going to the tailights on both sides. It is not overriding any original wiring just spliced into it piggybacking the signal. It can easily be taken off the same way and not affect the original wiring. I had power, left, right turn signal, backup lights and brakes. I shared a ground with existing wiring.

Also it is really easy to run new wires to the locations you want like the license plate light from the source of the left rear quarter panel area if you want to clean it all up.