Path of the rear wiring harness

Strange title I know.

What I was hoping to find out was: does anyone know how the rear wiring harness (brake, TL, fuel tank, B/U lights) runs from its plug under the hood to the rear of the vehicle?

In other words what path did the factory run the wiring along driver side? Maybe the middle? Was it attached to the body or frame? Were there any brackets or mounting points long the way? I believe that whichever route it took to the rear of the truck once there the sending unit feed branched off, and each side of the vehicle got its own harness that plugged into the main rear harness. Can anyone confirm this?

Most of this could be confirmed with a couple of pictures so if anyone has any pics even better. Kind of a barrage of questions I know but I just want to make sure I run the line the stock route.

Thanks,
Andy

 

On my 66 the wires follow the drivers side frame rail they attach the wires with small metal spring clips that lock onto the frame rail and have a raised section that the wires go through.

 

Hmm interesting. I never seen one of these clips - I am sure they rotted off many years ago in the salty New England air. I am guessing that the clips attach to the the top rail. Do the wires suspend kind of tucked in the C-channel or do the wires run along the top of the frame rail? I would be somewhat surprised if they did the latter as I have a vapor hose that runs along the top of the frame rail to the charcoal canister. Although I would not put anything past Jeep. I wonder how different 66 is from 74 in this respect...

 

IIRC the wires on my 74 run inside the bottom of the c-channel, I don't recall there being any clips. I have added a few zip ties over the years.

 

On my 66 the wires run inside on the bottom of the C channel. I have about 6 of these steel clips, they are also holding the wires that connect the taillights together they look like they are factory made ? not 100% sure but they seem to work good. Not sure what a 74 would have.

 

First off thanks for the replies guys.

I have had several 74's and never noticed any clips as well but then again I wasn't really looking. On your 74 was there anything at all keeping the harness from just falling out of the frame? Was it tucked in a certain way?

 

The wires were tucked in behind the boxed sections, exhaust hanger, etc. There really isn't that much exposed wiring, and what there is, is wrapped in some sort of cloth loom.

 

'75 was the first year that moved the rear harness inside the cabin, exiting through a penetration on top of the left rear wheel house. This was part of the new fuse-panel wiring design, I expect. Before that, it ran along the frame, under the car. There should be clips.

 

Are they perhaps these clips? http://order.waytekwire.com/products2/M50/160/500/0/1/Chassis Clamps/Clips And Clamps/

 

That is what the wire clips on my 66 CJ5 look like, very close.

 

Awesome. Thanks! Thanks to everyone who chimed in.

Andy

 

TSM that shows all the wiring and how it's ran.........
http://oljeep.com/gw/74_76_supplements/GROUP_03.PDF

 

As timgr stated, 75 up had the harness running under the lip of the drivers side body panel (where the top snaps on) back to the rear wheel well and through the wheel well down to the drivers side tail light, then across the channel under the tailgate to the passenger side tail light. they were held in place with little metal clips ( alot like the ones you posted).
On my 69 they run along the drivers side frame and held on with the same type clips and are routed the same way under the tailgate to the passenger side. those clips, to me just look like a thin metal tab tack welded to the frame or body. You can open and close them with your finger. save some money and tack weld your own on there, or like myself and many others have done and zip-tie it.. those tabs break off over the years and many are missing, so you either weld new ones or zip tie.

 

The path of the rear harness goes inside the frame on the drivers side of the CJ. The it comes out just about at the master cylinder and up the firewall.. I'm in the process of restoring my 69 Cj and have just ran the rear harness yesterday. A real pain with the frame boxed in! I'm glad now that I dimple died all my frame pieces after I cut them out, before I welded them in!! I have pictures of the build so far. Here's the link,
http://s1211.photobucket.com/profile/vidjds

 

Here are the original clips from my '57. Right side is a brake line clip and left side are wire clips. The wire clips ran along the bottom of the driverside frame rail, and the brake lines ran along the rail about in inch higher.

 

Here is the original harness in my 74. You can see it from where it enters under the framerail just behind the proportioning valve, clipped up under the top rail, then you can see where it moves to the bottom rail as it goes over the axle.

 

Here you can see where it got routed to avoid some crossmembers. Looks kind of vulnerable there.

 

I went over the crossmember with my new harness. Everywhere else, it is in the stock location with the original clips.

 

Thanks Dread. That is exactly what I needed to see. I was looking at my frame the other day and pretty much surmised how they would have routed it based on the other feedback here. It is weird they went under the cross member rather than over...I am going to do what you did and go over the cross member it looks as though it is easily torn out. Those clips just slip on to the frame correct? They do not bolt or snap into existing holes correct?

 

Yeah, they are spring steel with two teeth at the end and they just push on and hold with the teeth. Kinda like a paperclip. There are different clips running along the rear valance panel that hold the passenger side tail of the harness.



here is the new harness I made. It is practicaly identicle to the original using the factory colors and packard connectors. All I did to upgrade was solder all terminals,add in a trailer plug, and run separate dedicated grounds to that block. I haven't seen any of the old style cloth sheathing so I went with the plastic.