Let's talk about rear glass (1 Viewer)

[labrynth20]

My truck's rear defroster does not get hot but the sending is fine, leading me to conclude that the filaments are broken inside the glass. My understanding is that this is not fixable and I need new glass.
I know many on this thread will say 'who cares', and I respect that response, but in an effort to keep this rig in the rotation I need to fix stuff like this or certain people get cranky.
New OEM glass is spendy - any suggestions on doing this job myself, and on sourcing or on non-OEM sources for replacing the actual glass so I can get the defroster working? I appreciate this community very much and am impressed with how much you guys know about these amazing machines and how to keep them happy...

 

[EricG]

Same problem - I've seen stuff like this: Amazon product ASIN B000ALBZJYbut don't have any experience with it.

 

[labrynth20]

Thanks for this. I guess at this price it's worth a shot, but I'm not confident that I will see the breaks visually and so can repair them... is it a fact that if you can't see them they aren't there? Is there a way to test the current from one side of a break to the other to test the repairs one by one? hmmm.

 

[Rusty Marlin]

Should you choose to follow the Factory Service Manual there is a procedure for finding which wires are broken and where the wire's are broken so you can repair the area of the break.
Requires time and a multimeter.

 

[enox]

My truck's rear defroster does not get hot but the sending is fine, leading me to conclude that the filaments are broken inside the glass. My understanding is that this is not fixable and I need new glass.
I know many on this thread will say 'who cares', and I respect that response, but in an effort to keep this rig in the rotation I need to fix stuff like this or certain people get cranky.
New OEM glass is spendy - any suggestions on doing this job myself, and on sourcing or on non-OEM sources for replacing the actual glass so I can get the defroster working? I appreciate this community very much and am impressed with how much you guys know about these amazing machines and how to keep them happy...

I had to resolder where the defroster meets the connector @ the glass.

You can always get a rear bumper with dual tire rack then you can't see out the rear anyway!

 

[Speedytech7]

My rear defroster doesn't work either for the same reason. I wrote it off because it's hard to get new back glass and not really worth the effort to install. Might be worth looking into those repair kits but, meh, prolly won't.

 

[TomH]

I doubt you'll have much success repairing the rear defroster but you could get lucky.

Some aftermarket options are available. I haven't tried one yet but it is on my list.

One option:

What Did You Do with Your 80 This Weekend?

Getting there.. I still have some more wet sanding and blending to do, but it is ok for now. I also installed a rear defroster stick on kit, mine was worthless. Let's see how it works. New glass with factory tint was prohibitively expensive. Please report back on what rear window defroster...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[JOFS]

I bought a rusty hatch with good glass and swapped out the glass. The person selling had replaced the rusty hatch with a non rusty hatch and was aware that the defrost worked.

Worked fine in that case but may be hard to get a true picture of how functional the glass is that you are buying.

John

 

[flintknapper]

Thanks for this. I guess at this price it's worth a shot, but I'm not confident that I will see the breaks visually and so can repair them... is it a fact that if you can't see them they aren't there? Is there a way to test the current from one side of a break to the other to test the repairs one by one? hmmm.

Yes....you can test it. In fact you can use a 'good' (read sensitive) test light to do so. Literally, just go down the length of each strip, but depending upon how many 'breaks' there are....it might not be worth the effort to try and repair them.

1995 Cruiser-rear window defrost not working

Not sure it has ever worked since I had it but it is still making connections in the rear window. Anyone know of a quick fix for this? thanks

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[Grandlooser]

Remove the switch and convince yourself it never came with that option to begin with?

 

[Rusty Marlin]

Remove the switch and convince yourself it never came with that option to begin with?

That's kinda like putting black tape over the check engine light, simple, but effective.

 

[Grandlooser]

That's kinda like putting black tape over the check engine light, simple, but effective.

I took it a step further and just removed the light bulbs for all the things I never wanted to see again.

 

[labrynth20]

you guys are hilarious... i am going to do all of the above...