Most all YJs that had hardtops came with a dome light, a wiper, and a washer sprayer.
The early ones 87-89 I believe did not get the wiper or sprayer but some of them had an optional defrost on the upper models like the Sahara. They should have all had the dome light I’m pretty sure.
1990 got the wiper option but as far as I’m aware, no sprayer and the wiper arm is very different from 91-95.
1991-1995 got the new wiper and washer standard, they still had the dome light, and the defroster was optional. Pretty much only Saharas and Renegades got that option. Maybe the 95 Rio Grande but I’m not sure.
I have a 1994 original hardtop, wipe/wash, no defrost. I’ve been looking into adding defrost just because. It’s cool, why wouldn’t I want it? The factory service manual showed that only 7 wires are needed to operate all the functions. Sure enough, my top had all 7 wires! So I got to digging to see if maybe the defroster wires are hiding in my hardtop.
Above the lift gate mounts are some little holes, covered by black plastic caps. I pulled off the caps and started on the passenger side. Sure enough I saw a black wire in there and fished it out with a screwdriver. Crazy enough, it was the unused ground wire for a hardtop defroster.
I went to the other side and did not see the wire. I pulled off the dome light so I could grab the wiring harness from above and pull on it some. It’s pretty loose in the hardtop and moved easily. After pulling a few inches, the brown defroster power showed itself in the hole I uncovered. I pulled it out. Sweet, my top can easily be converted to defrost!
The way the defroster activates is the defrost tops have special liftgate struts with metal tabs on them. The wires come out of the top near the liftgate strut mount, and clip to the top of
the liftgate strut. The liftgate struts provide continuity down to the bottom of the struts where there is another tab on each. The wires from the glass connect to the strut tabs at the bottom.
Note: for this to actually work, you need a rear liftgate glass with the heater built in (the black lines), you need the factory switch to go on the dash, and you need the factory defrost harness with the red timer relay. I am buying the harness off of eBay and I will buy a piece of PPR heated glass later.
I just think this is really cool that the wiring is there. I thought surely if they don’t give you the tub harness, then they’d skimp on the wiring in the top too. Guess not. So now I can just buy parts and have a heated top. And the bonus is that now I will finally fill all 3 switches under the steering column. I like the “complete” look.
Passenger Side Wire
Driver Side Wire
Switch Panel with Defrost Added - I Will have the stock fog light switch in there too
Picture of the harness needed - can get from eBay. This harness runs from the dash, alongside the driver side, down to the driver tail light, across/above the gas tank and to the passenger tail light. I don’t feel like running all of that, so I bought this and will just remove the heated aspects of it and integrate them to my stock harness.
The early ones 87-89 I believe did not get the wiper or sprayer but some of them had an optional defrost on the upper models like the Sahara. They should have all had the dome light I’m pretty sure.
1990 got the wiper option but as far as I’m aware, no sprayer and the wiper arm is very different from 91-95.
1991-1995 got the new wiper and washer standard, they still had the dome light, and the defroster was optional. Pretty much only Saharas and Renegades got that option. Maybe the 95 Rio Grande but I’m not sure.
I have a 1994 original hardtop, wipe/wash, no defrost. I’ve been looking into adding defrost just because. It’s cool, why wouldn’t I want it? The factory service manual showed that only 7 wires are needed to operate all the functions. Sure enough, my top had all 7 wires! So I got to digging to see if maybe the defroster wires are hiding in my hardtop.
Above the lift gate mounts are some little holes, covered by black plastic caps. I pulled off the caps and started on the passenger side. Sure enough I saw a black wire in there and fished it out with a screwdriver. Crazy enough, it was the unused ground wire for a hardtop defroster.
I went to the other side and did not see the wire. I pulled off the dome light so I could grab the wiring harness from above and pull on it some. It’s pretty loose in the hardtop and moved easily. After pulling a few inches, the brown defroster power showed itself in the hole I uncovered. I pulled it out. Sweet, my top can easily be converted to defrost!
The way the defroster activates is the defrost tops have special liftgate struts with metal tabs on them. The wires come out of the top near the liftgate strut mount, and clip to the top of
the liftgate strut. The liftgate struts provide continuity down to the bottom of the struts where there is another tab on each. The wires from the glass connect to the strut tabs at the bottom.
Note: for this to actually work, you need a rear liftgate glass with the heater built in (the black lines), you need the factory switch to go on the dash, and you need the factory defrost harness with the red timer relay. I am buying the harness off of eBay and I will buy a piece of PPR heated glass later.
I just think this is really cool that the wiring is there. I thought surely if they don’t give you the tub harness, then they’d skimp on the wiring in the top too. Guess not. So now I can just buy parts and have a heated top. And the bonus is that now I will finally fill all 3 switches under the steering column. I like the “complete” look.
Passenger Side Wire
Driver Side Wire
Switch Panel with Defrost Added - I Will have the stock fog light switch in there too
Picture of the harness needed - can get from eBay. This harness runs from the dash, alongside the driver side, down to the driver tail light, across/above the gas tank and to the passenger tail light. I don’t feel like running all of that, so I bought this and will just remove the heated aspects of it and integrate them to my stock harness.
