Worry about pins breaking when removing doors?

[Tar Heel Wrangler]

I just posted a super easy method to pull the door detents back out: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/easy-door-detent-pulling.72165/

As for the plug, if you detach it from the frame, you can easily check if the pins are straight before plugging in:

Any tips on how to detach it from the frame? It's hard for me to see down there.

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[LittleDog]

@Tar Heel Wrangler

Just pull it straight out, perpendicular from the body. It is held on by a glorified Christmas tree clip:

You're probably going to break a "branch" or two, even if you use a panel tool. I never reattached the passenger-side to the bracket, as the wiring there is a work in progress. It just hangs there. You can leave the whole assembly on the door to remove the plug though.

When removing the door plug, you need run a gauntlet of over-engineered Jeep safeties first. Begin by pushing up the red safety in the middle first. Here it is down:

And up:

All of my white levers were very difficult to remove the first time, so take the smallest crowbar you have, stick it in the middle and twist it, to pop the latch loose:

Then you raise the white lever up:

As you do so, two little cams start to push the plug out. Make sure you rotate the lever 180°, all the way flat against the top, because it lines up the two channels for the guide pins on the plug to run down. It will make a little 'click' at the end, and the plug will pop out a tiny bit, showing a white line:

Then you just wiggle the plug a bit to remove:

Hope this helps.

 

[cocaine_white]

Not to be a dick but i really don’t see how you could bend the pins as long as your plugging it in straight. I take my doors on and off all the time and have never felt like I was in danger of that happening. My method is open the door, unplug the harness and pull the strap off the hook, open the door all the way, unbolt the t40 and catch the door from swinging all the way open and then just pick it up. That way the arm doesn’t get stuck in the door. Also make it easy on yourself and don’t put the red lock pin back in the harness. Makes unplugging it a very easy task

 

[LittleDog]

Not to be a dick but i really don’t see how you could bend the pins as long as your plugging it in straight. I take my doors on and off all the time and have never felt like I was in danger of that happening. My method is open the door, unplug the harness and pull the strap off the hook, open the door all the way, unbolt the t40 and catch the door from swinging all the way open and then just pick it up. That way the arm doesn’t get stuck in the door. Also make it easy on yourself and don’t put the red lock pin back in the harness. Makes unplugging it a very easy task

Ha, I was going to say that I don't usually bother to use the red safety clip, because of the other positive-locking safeties. Figure I'll start using the red clip when the others begin to fail.

But you said, "as long as your plugging it in straight".

Imagine if one person always starts the plug on the right side out of habit, and does so a few dozen times. The pins are going bend towards that side. Then one day the original person asks a buddy to plug in the doors as they do something else. But that buddy turns out to be a left-handed freak! If even a single pin had become biased enough to miss the receiver, it will bend, maybe break, and fault the connection.

Nothing wrong with checking frequently-used connections once in a while.

 

[Tar Heel Wrangler]

@Tar Heel Wrangler

Just pull it straight out, perpendicular from the body. It is held on by a glorified Christmas tree clip:

You're probably going to break a "branch" or two, even if you use a panel tool. I never reattached the passenger-side to the bracket, as the wiring there is a work in progress. It just hangs there. You can leave the whole assembly on the door to remove the plug though.

When removing the door plug, you need run a gauntlet of over-engineered Jeep safeties first. Begin by pushing up the red safety in the middle first. Here it is down:

And up:

All of my white levers were very difficult to remove the first time, so take the smallest crowbar you have, stick it in the middle and twist it, to pop the latch loose:

Then you raise the white lever up:

As you do so, two little cams start to push the plug out. Make sure you rotate the lever 180°, all the way flat against the top, because it lines up the two channels for the guide pins on the plug to run down. It will make a little 'click' at the end, and the plug will pop out a tiny bit, showing a white line:

Then you just wiggle the plug a bit to remove:

Hope this helps.

Yes, thanks! The detaching part to be able to see the bent pins is what I needed. Just wanted to be sure if I kept tugging it would the right method. Will try tomorrow and see if I can bend the pins back str8.

This happened on my JT, driver's side. Taken doors off many times on JLs and never had a problem. Other folks on Gladiator Forum same issue.

 

[Punknhed]

make sure you put ur windows down before you unbolt/disconnect the door connections lol.

 

[Maverick909]

i currently have a pin that is failing in my passenger front door. not a huge issue just cannot move my mirror or lock the door from that door. the power window does still work and will lock with the drive lock button will work and fob. so i havent even bothered to look to see what pin is not making good contact. as i rarely have a passenger in my jeep. Now that i think about it wheni get off work im gonna pull the doors on the jeep today and then check the pin connector out.

 

[grady2hig]

Why...it's easy...nothing will break

 

[Bmcfunk]

Some of these responses are funny. It’s a really common problem if you take your doors off a lot. Don’t feel bad. I’ve had 5 Jeep’s and it never happened until my jl and I dug into the issue. Drivers side front door is the most common. Dealer should fix it under warranty or you can delicately bend the pins straight if you chose to do so yourself.

 

[aw2657]

I have taken my doors off a dozen times or more and never had any issues. I was careful to line things up and follow all the tips. But the bent pins happen because of a faulty female connector on the body side. The white sleeve inside of the connector is supposed to come down and protect the pins as you unlock the connector to take off the door. Once you have it disconnected you can look inside and see if the whit sleeve has come down to cover "most" of the pin. In my case, the last time I took the doors off the white sleeve was stuck up inside the connector exposing the entire pin which allowed them to be misaligned when reinstalling the connector. It didn't matter how careful I was installing it. The pins only have to move a tiny bit to go into the wrong slot and then stuff stops working. I had to try to find which pins were slightly bent and bend them back as straight as I could. This took a couple of tries but I finally got everything working. Now I'm afraid to take it back apart again and go through the hassle every time. The Driver's door connector is fine but the passenger connector is bad and there is no fix for it other than replacing the entire cable which involves removing the dash. So now I have a dilemma. Hope the dealer will replace the cable under warranty or keep fighting with bent pins and hoping it doesn't get worse? I only have 3500 miles on it and I have been super careful dealing with the connectors. It's a faulty part that should have a TSB out on it.

 

[Riggs]

After the first time I took the doors off and put them back on, I had issues. Blind spot monitoring wouldn't work, auto start stop quit working and keyless entry stopped working. I took it in to a dealership with about 2,000 miles on it. The dealership tried to claim it under warranty. They were denied the warranty claim. Fiat Chrysler claimed it fell under normal wear and tear and would not cover it!!! This is a 2021 Jeep with 2,000 miles on it!!! The dealership was pretty frustrated with them and told me they would take care of it for free. And I didn't even buy the Jeep from that dealership!!! A bug Kudos to the dealership, Coon Rapids Jeep!!! A big thumbs down to the Fiat Chrysler!!! Apparently the issue happens so often that the part is on 45 day back order!!!

 

[Rhinebeck01]

BUMP ....

This whole thread should be carefully read ... the video posted in the thread watched... if you are going to be removing your doors....

 

[JSFoster75]

Thanks, any tips on disconnecting?

For disconnecting, let the flip up lever do the work (same when reinstalling), I've never had any issues.

 

[Ang1Sgt]

Not to be a dick but i really don’t see how you could bend the pins as long as your plugging it in straight. I take my doors on and off all the time and have never felt like I was in danger of that happening. My method is open the door, unplug the harness and pull the strap off the hook, open the door all the way, unbolt the t40 and catch the door from swinging all the way open and then just pick it up. That way the arm doesn’t get stuck in the door. Also make it easy on yourself and don’t put the red lock pin back in the harness. Makes unplugging it a very easy task

It’s easy to screw up almost any connector if you are careless. While working as an Electrician on USAF Jets we had connector bundles that would have 100 small gage pins in them. Needless to say some hamfisted jerk bent over a number of pins in one connector at night on the flightline. Needless to say THAT Jet didn’t make the morning “GO”. We got it fixed but it took awhile. The guy that did it just walked away………GRRRRR!

 

[cocaine_white]

It’s easy to screw up almost any connector if you are careless. While working as an Electrician on USAF Jets we had connector bundles that would have 100 small gage pins in them. Needless to say some hamfisted jerk bent over a number of pins in one connector at night on the flightline. Needless to say THAT Jet didn’t make the morning “GO”. We got it fixed but it took awhile. The guy that did it just walked away………GRRRRR!

Well nothing in this world is completely idiot proof but I will say this. My boss let me borrow his bronco for the weekend this summer and taking the doors off of that was a CHORE. I never thought about trading my Jeep for a Bronco but if I was that experience alone would’ve been enough to make me change my mind

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