[will_982]

Anyone know what I need to get the rear window defroster to work? Never came stock with one just got "new" hard top with option and got the dash switch, but no action or light at the switch. It is simple as a fuse or something?, or do I need to dig a little deeper in the wiring harness, seems I have everything going back to the hard top. (Old Jeep had a factory soft top that had nothing going back minus the rear dome light wiring), but present Jeep came factory with rear wiper and seems all necassary wires are there.

[Piet]

Even with the hard top un-pluged, when you press the button on the dash, you should hear the relay go "click"

I am assuming you have little wire lines on your rear window?
If so, there should be a plug on the rear-drivers side of the hard top that needs to be plugged in. (Also used for rear wiper).

[mightygecko]

I'd be interested in hearing about this too, I'm troubleshooting a '93 YJ with factory rear defroster, and rear wiper. The rear dome light and windshield wiper work. Were do the rear defroster wires go after leaving the connector on the hard top?

[RCHavok797]

After years of not having my rear defroster work I finally got it working this year. My Jeep had the wiring harness already in it, the only thing it didn't have was the switch. I wired up the switch last year and thought I followed the wiring diagram but it still would not work. This year I decided to check it one more time and I found that the defroster relay was full of water. Once I replaced that, my rear defroster works great except for a few lines that do not heat. In answer to your question, if you pick up a Haynes manaul you can follow the wiring diagram in there. The relay is located under the dash near the fuse box.

[laybackman]

Originally Posted by will_982

Anyone know what I need to get the rear window defroster to work? Never came stock with one just got "new" hard top with option and got the dash switch, but no action or light at the switch. It is simple as a fuse or something?, or do I need to dig a little deeper in the wiring harness, seems I have everything going back to the hard top. (Old Jeep had a factory soft top that had nothing going back minus the rear dome light wiring), but present Jeep came factory with rear wiper and seems all necassary wires are there.

You need to check the tub harness by the door hinge strap/parking brake bracket area on the drivers side of your YJ. It must have a red timer relay socket and red timer relay marked 'TIMER' on it. It will only be in the tub harness if the YJ was ordered from the factory with the hardtop option OR if someone changed out/modifeid the harness there.

The dash harness will have a red switch socket that plugs into the rear defroster switch. All you have to do for the switch is cut out the blank section on the dash plate, plug in the switch, snap it into the dash hole you just made and that is done, BUT, the power for the rear defroster switch comes through the red timer relay I mentioned earlier. I went through this myself. I bought a tub harness from EBAY that had the timer relay in it for about $50.00 I stripped out all the wiring associated with the rear defroster circuit and spliced it into my tub harness. It is the cheapest way trusy me. The toimer relay alone cost about $37.00 then you need the relay socket and all the associated wiring.
Here is a tub harness with the relay in it for sale on EBAY right now:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Jeep-Wrangler-YJ-hardtop-wiring-harness-91-95_W0QQitemZ260188401542QQihZ016QQcategoryZ6763QQr dZ1QQssPageNameZWD6VQQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohostin g

[jb93renegade]

damn things, eh....i'm troubleshooting mine too. I get power to the relay but none to the switch and the fuse is good....i hate electrics.

Maybe all the smoke got out of it....you know, electric stuff never works once you let all the smoke out.

[capt crunch]

Once you get it working you can fix any broken wires on the glass with a kit from an auto parts store. I did it on mine and it worked fine. Find the location of the break with a meter and then apply the repair stuff. It looks like some kind of glue with powdered copper in it.
Sandy

[laybackman]

Here is the circuitry for a '95YJ tub harness These instruction were to strip the wiring from a good harness and piggyback them into my tub harness:


ALL WIRING STARTS AT THE RED RELAY SOCKET LOCATED NEAR THE PARKING BRAKE ASSEMBLY.

C303 IS THE HARDTOP PLUG AT THE REAR OF THE TUB
PLUG C306 IS THE PLUG ON THE WINDOW SIDE OF THE HARNESS.

C203 (BLACK PLUG) AND C204 (GREY PLUG) ARE THE PLUGS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TUB HARNESS AND CONNECT TO THE DASH HARNESS.


BLK/W WIRE GOING TO PIN #1 PLUG C303 put it in the same location on my harness


FROM PIN #1 REMOVE BLK/WHT WIRE GOING INTO PIN #1 C204 (GRAY PLUG)put it in the same location on my harness

FROM PIN #3 REMOVE BROWN WIRE GOING TO PIN #5 C204 (GRAY).put it in the same location on my harness

FROM PIN #5 REMOVE LT BLU/YEL WIRE GOING TO PIN #3 C204 (GRAY).put it in the same location on my harness

FROM PIN #4 REMOVE DRK BLU/WHT WIRE GOING TO PIN #1 C203 (BLACK) put it in the same location on my harness

GROUND CIRCUIT

FROM PIN #2 CHECK FOR BLK WIRE GOING TO A SPLICE TO GROUND NEAR PARKING BRAKE.

FROM PIN #10 AT PLUG C303 CHECK FOR A BLK WIRE GOING TO GROUND.

FROM PIN #2 AT PLUG C306 CHECK FOR A BLK WIRE IN IT IS FOR GROUND.

[RCHavok797]

I'll have to try the repair kit but the only problem is I have window tint on the rear glass.

[laybackman]

Originally Posted by RCHavok797

I'll have to try the repair kit but the only problem is I have window tint on the rear glass.

If the light on the rear window defogger switch button does not light up, you may not be getting power to the switch. Check all of the grounds also there are several.

[RCHavok797]

Originally Posted by laybackman

If the light on the rear window defogger switch button does not light up, you may not be getting power to the switch. Check all of the grounds also there are several.

My rear defroster works fine except a few of the lines don't heat up. I looked them over but I didn't see any breaks in them.

[laybackman]

Originally Posted by RCHavok797

My rear defroster works fine except a few of the lines don't heat up. I looked them over but I didn't see any breaks in them.

They can be very small and almost impossible to see without a magnifying glass.