Re-routing the Wire Harness
I decided to re-locate the rear wiring harness from the stock position, mounted on the outside of the inner wall, to inside the cavity where the wall and roof meet. I have read of others that have done this, and it seems nice to have it out of the way. It will make it easier to mount the walls.
My first step was to cut an access hole at the top of the B-pillar for the harness to enter the chamber. I used a 1" hole saw to cut two holes. I then used the airsaw to cut between the holes. The opening needed to be big enough to pass the plug connectors through.
I filed the burrs on the opening, both inside and outside. I will use edge protector to protect the wiring as it passes through the opening.
After cutting the hole, I took down the harness and ran a rope through the cavity. I used the rope to pull the wires and connectors through. Most of the pull was pretty easy, but there was a constriction near the end of the pull, where the additional length to the wall to convert from a RB to a EB van. And of course the second connector got stuck. There is where my Christmas gift from my wife can into play. She gave me a WIFI borescope. This uses WIFI to sends video to your phone. The camera is about 1/4" in diameter and on a 12 foot cable. I used this to see the stuck part, and used thin pieces of wood to clear the jam. I used the camera a few more times on this job.
After pulling the cable to the end, I pulled it across the top of the rear, above the door. I took of the 3rd brake light and that give a little more access. I was hoping that the harness was long enough, that even though I had re-routed it, there was still plenty of slack at the connector ends. So after re-routing, every connector was fine, except that 3rd brake light. The connector was about 5 inches too short. I could have got it plugged in, but was a stretch and the access was very tight and would not likely be able to access when the interior was finished.
So I pulled the end of the harness out and got ready to splice in 6" of wire to fix the access. I was getting ready to cut off the connector, but decided to pull this wire from the rest of the harness to allow better access. So I cut off the plastic cover and unwound some electrical tape. After opening this section of the harness, I found that these brake light wires were doubled up inside the harness. So I avoided splicing wires as there was about 5 inches of extra wire in the harness. That was great news. I ran the harness back above the doors and down the rear pillars to the tail lights and other connectors.
I reconnected the ground wire from the chamber behind the tail light after grinding of the paint with the Dremel. I also reattached the harness to the metal in several places using the original connectors or with wire ties.
This really cleaned up the interior of the van. I also stuffed some insulation into the cavity I ran the harness through. This will provide a little insulation value and also hold the wire harness from bouncing around. I used this strips of wood to push in the insulation or a rope to pull it.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Linear Mode
