DocTwinkie
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
There are a lot of good vids out there showing the basics of installing these. There is however several parts they leave out and a special hiccup for the manual transmission. Learn from my failures.
First installing the brackets on the body bolts. I used the mini ductor 2 bolt heater to melt the loctite (and reuse it). See my write up here.
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...-and-how-not-to-break-them.43242/#post-954019
Okay. Now the bracket won’t fit on there... I had one bolt I had to completely remove and file down the threads to give me enough room on the washer to put the bracket on. I then sprayed the bolt with rustoleum.
Brackets are on. You’ve hung the steps on the punch bolts. You’ve tightened everything up. Now to run your wires to the steps. The rear passenger floor has two small plugs (body colored) for accessories. These are NOT your drain plugs. Where you will run into problems is the driver side is oval making it easy to pass the large connectors through but the passenger is circle. Also the sheet metal is sharp.
You will need rubber grommets, Lowe’s. Pics below.
You will also need to swing by Advanced Auto parts for lisle wire terminal tool. Pick below.
Flip the plastic retainer up on the connector heads on the harness (take a pic first so you know which color goes to which side) and then insert the long end of the terminal tool down the end of the connector. You’ll feel a click and then the wire will slide out the back. Run your wires through the grommet then the holes, then insert the grommets.
When you’re totally done with the install and you’ve zip tied the wires under the car your last step will be to plug the middle of the grommets with silicone. I put some Reynolds wrap under the carpet on top of the grommet so I didn’t silicons the carpets to the floor.
Okay. Now you’ll need power. You have a manual so guess what... you have no pass through to the engine compartment. Whoops. Here you can drill a hole (rust alert), use the driver drain hole (and try to run that wire over the axles and all the other drivetrain components), or you can use the Aux Switches assuming you have the HD Electrical Group. Let’s hope you have the HD group.
Okay. Install your switch next to the obd plug. Then run the battery power cable from the passenger footwell to the driver footwell. There is a nice pass through under the carpet on the inboard side at the bottom of the center console. Pull back the carpet and you’ll see a hole. Run your wires across. Attach the black/red connector on the driver side. Pile all that wire under the driver carpet.
Now on the passenger side you’ll have a red battery connector and a black neutral. Whelp. You’re not getting to that battery so plan B.
Remove the passenger outboard kick panel. There’s several grounding points here.
I split open the sheathing on the battery harness so I had more slack on the black wire. I went OVER the kick panel with the black wire and attached it to a grounding post that was empty. Replace the kick panel.
Okay. Now you have your red hot battery post with a 20amp fuse on it. Remove the fuse. Snip the battery connector off. This is a short wire so do so right at the base of the circular steel battery connector. Now you have exposed wire. You can connect this to either aux 1 or aux 2. To find your bundle and learn how they work here ya go.
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...c-switches-wires-and-fuses.43304/#post-955677
Only Aux1/2 will work as they are 40amp lines (you need 20amp). So connect there. You can use your method of choice. Butt connector or whatever. I chose to use a wire nut since there isn’t a bunch of moisture here and if I ever have to open that wire I don’t want to have to cut more off. There is very little wore from the end to the 20amp fuse. I wrapped it in electrical tape.
In your infotainment go to settings, aux switches, choose 1 or 2 (whichever you used) and set it to LATCHING and BATTERY. Turn the switch on and leave it there. This will make it hot at all times.
Replace the 20amp fuse. You done. Steps should cycle.
You will now have two switches to turn them on/off. The Aux and the one by the OBD port. You could probably splice today remove the OBD switch but I’m lazy.
Don’t forget to plug the grommet holes with silicone and zip tie your wires. I zipped the passenger side wires up behind the glove box. And if you scraped the brackets installing them (you know you did) blast them with some rustoleum.
If you need to drop the steps while you are in the car you can cycle them. Turn the aux switch off, then on, then they will both drop, and then off again. This will keep them in the down position until you turn the power back on. I use this to pick my kid up at school so he doesn’t accidentally get too close and get hit (not that they hit hard).
Whew. Ya did it. Go get a chocolate milk... or a beer if you imbibe.
First installing the brackets on the body bolts. I used the mini ductor 2 bolt heater to melt the loctite (and reuse it). See my write up here.
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...-and-how-not-to-break-them.43242/#post-954019
Okay. Now the bracket won’t fit on there... I had one bolt I had to completely remove and file down the threads to give me enough room on the washer to put the bracket on. I then sprayed the bolt with rustoleum.
Brackets are on. You’ve hung the steps on the punch bolts. You’ve tightened everything up. Now to run your wires to the steps. The rear passenger floor has two small plugs (body colored) for accessories. These are NOT your drain plugs. Where you will run into problems is the driver side is oval making it easy to pass the large connectors through but the passenger is circle. Also the sheet metal is sharp.
You will need rubber grommets, Lowe’s. Pics below.
You will also need to swing by Advanced Auto parts for lisle wire terminal tool. Pick below.
Flip the plastic retainer up on the connector heads on the harness (take a pic first so you know which color goes to which side) and then insert the long end of the terminal tool down the end of the connector. You’ll feel a click and then the wire will slide out the back. Run your wires through the grommet then the holes, then insert the grommets.
When you’re totally done with the install and you’ve zip tied the wires under the car your last step will be to plug the middle of the grommets with silicone. I put some Reynolds wrap under the carpet on top of the grommet so I didn’t silicons the carpets to the floor.
Okay. Now you’ll need power. You have a manual so guess what... you have no pass through to the engine compartment. Whoops. Here you can drill a hole (rust alert), use the driver drain hole (and try to run that wire over the axles and all the other drivetrain components), or you can use the Aux Switches assuming you have the HD Electrical Group. Let’s hope you have the HD group.
Okay. Install your switch next to the obd plug. Then run the battery power cable from the passenger footwell to the driver footwell. There is a nice pass through under the carpet on the inboard side at the bottom of the center console. Pull back the carpet and you’ll see a hole. Run your wires across. Attach the black/red connector on the driver side. Pile all that wire under the driver carpet.
Now on the passenger side you’ll have a red battery connector and a black neutral. Whelp. You’re not getting to that battery so plan B.
Remove the passenger outboard kick panel. There’s several grounding points here.
I split open the sheathing on the battery harness so I had more slack on the black wire. I went OVER the kick panel with the black wire and attached it to a grounding post that was empty. Replace the kick panel.
Okay. Now you have your red hot battery post with a 20amp fuse on it. Remove the fuse. Snip the battery connector off. This is a short wire so do so right at the base of the circular steel battery connector. Now you have exposed wire. You can connect this to either aux 1 or aux 2. To find your bundle and learn how they work here ya go.
https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...c-switches-wires-and-fuses.43304/#post-955677
Only Aux1/2 will work as they are 40amp lines (you need 20amp). So connect there. You can use your method of choice. Butt connector or whatever. I chose to use a wire nut since there isn’t a bunch of moisture here and if I ever have to open that wire I don’t want to have to cut more off. There is very little wore from the end to the 20amp fuse. I wrapped it in electrical tape.
In your infotainment go to settings, aux switches, choose 1 or 2 (whichever you used) and set it to LATCHING and BATTERY. Turn the switch on and leave it there. This will make it hot at all times.
Replace the 20amp fuse. You done. Steps should cycle.
You will now have two switches to turn them on/off. The Aux and the one by the OBD port. You could probably splice today remove the OBD switch but I’m lazy.
Don’t forget to plug the grommet holes with silicone and zip tie your wires. I zipped the passenger side wires up behind the glove box. And if you scraped the brackets installing them (you know you did) blast them with some rustoleum.
If you need to drop the steps while you are in the car you can cycle them. Turn the aux switch off, then on, then they will both drop, and then off again. This will keep them in the down position until you turn the power back on. I use this to pick my kid up at school so he doesn’t accidentally get too close and get hit (not that they hit hard).
Whew. Ya did it. Go get a chocolate milk... or a beer if you imbibe.
