Rear Liftgate ground

[bluefish]

Ive been digging into why my rear wiper hasnt been working. After troubleshooting i can get the motor to run by grounding the upper liftgate / hatch with a jumper wire. There doesnt appear to be a ground wire from the body to the hatch witch makes me believe the latch is supposed to ground the top liftgate to the bottom....Is that true?
I removed the latch mechanism from the upper hatch and there appears to have been a wire connected to it from the factory but it corroded off leaving only the wire and the terminal on the wire as evidence. That wire appears to ground the overhead/dome light which sits just inside the hatch when its on the setting which turns the light on when the hatch opens i assume. This makes me believe the upper hatch is grounded, through the lower hatch, only when it is closed. If this is all true, then is my upper liftgate not grounding because its missing whatever part/ connector the wire was connected to on the upper hatch latch?

I can ground the upper hatch with a jumper wire connected to the body of the latch, but not by connecting the ground wire to the moving /mechanical part of the latch that actually makes contact with the lower hatch...

Anyone know what im getting on about?

 

[CruiserTrash]

Ive been digging into why my rear wiper hasnt been working. After troubleshooting i can get the motor to run by grounding the upper liftgate / hatch with a jumper wire. There doesnt appear to be a ground wire from the body to the hatch witch makes me believe the latch is supposed to ground the top liftgate to the bottom....Is that true?
I removed the latch mechanism from the upper hatch and there appears to have been a wire connected to it from the factory but it corroded off leaving only the wire and the terminal on the wire as evidence. That wire appears to ground the overhead/dome light which sits just inside the hatch when its on the setting which turns the light on when the hatch opens i assume. This makes me believe the upper hatch is grounded, through the lower hatch, only when it is closed. If this is all true, then is my upper liftgate not grounding because its missing whatever part/ connector the wire was connected to on the upper hatch latch?

I can ground the upper hatch with a jumper wire connected to the body of the latch, but not by connecting the ground wire to the moving /mechanical part of the latch that actually makes contact with the lower hatch...

Anyone know what im getting on about?

Here's what I think based on goofing with this same stuff before... liftgate is grounded via the hinges. Check the bolts holding the wiper motor to the inside of the hatch, maybe there's crud preventing ground to the body of the liftgate. There's also the ground wire for the rear defrost - it's short and goes to a lug that's bolted down to the hatch. Maybe you could temporarily use that same bolt?

You're correct that the wire from the liftgate latch operates the "door" setting of the cargo area dome light, but it's run via an internal switch and not contact with the striker on the tailgate. The internal switch contact gets sticky and with the upper hatch opened you can smack the latch to get the dome light on - that tells me it doesn't rely on the tailgate, at least not electrically. Of course the striker on the lower hatch is supposed to operate the latch switch mechanically.

 

[Malleus]

This is correct.

The motor is grounded through the body.

 

[Malleus]

The inspection procedure clearly illustrates this, because in order to validate the operation, you apply a circuit ground to the motor body, which is exactly where it's grounded when installed in the hatch.

 

[bluefish]

Thank you for responding.
The motor is grounded to the hatch, no problem there. no resistance between that defrost lug and the wiper motor itself. The whole upper hatch is not grounded to the body.....at least not well...Thats what im caught up on.

So you're telling me from the factory the wiper would operate even with the hatch open? meaning the upper isnt grounded through the latch/lower hatch? If thats true then it only leaves the hinges as you say.

Thanks again

 

[IronNam]

I think I read the same thing previously. I'm going to add my own ground between body and hatch/tailgate.

My wiper barely moves. The defrost doesn't work. The washer tube isn't hooked up somewhere. And the tag light has never been on since I got this two years ago.