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Doorless mod help

B

Ben824

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Woodstock, GA
Ok so I have been researching how to do this for over a year and a half so I know how to cut the hinges on my 97. The only thing keeping me from doing this is my XJ has power everything and every option so I counted and I have about 20 wires going into the driver door. I thought ok I will just get a weather resistent quick connect. Didn't think it would be that hard to find a quick connect that holds 20 wires. Anyone know where I can find one? And if so please give me a direct link to the site. I have googled it and found commercial sites that may offer what I need but I can't navigate them. Please help me out here the weather it starting to warm up here in south georgia and I am dieing to get the doors off!
 
I'm not a fan of leaving the kick panels off because I like to keep things clean with a factory feel.

I thought about multiple connectors but I'm worried that it may be alot to fit in the door jam when the door is closed.
 
whitexj98 said:
Well you can always put the panels back on. There is already a connector there. Why put one ahead of it?
Click to expand...

I have pulled the panels off before and it is annoying to do. I want the to be as simple as pulling wrangler doors off. My Jeep is a daily driver and does not have a garage to stay in so I need to be able to pull the doors off easily and quickly.
 
BigGuy said:
I think this is what you're looking for.
http://naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=965728
Click to expand...

I have seen that thread before and was useful in getting a lot of the information I needed but I have not been able to track down that military grade connector on the site for that manufacturer and the AMP ones seem kind of cheap and not very weather resistant. I would hate to be cruisin down the road and not be able to roll the windows down because the connectors going faulty or the doors not lock when I hit the lock button on my remote and my doors left open.

MSD Ignition makes some nice weather resistant connectors nothing in 10 pins or 20 pins but they do make an 8 pin and 12 pin so I think that is what I am going to go with. I did notice however that 3 of the wires coming from the door going into one of the connectors under the kick panel were a bit larger gauge than the others. Anyone know what they are for and what gauge wire they might be? I was thinking maybe power wires for the power windows.
 
One more thing you will most likley have to do is make some shims to move the door back up. Mine sagged pretty bad because the bolt was not the exact size as the hole. I just traced the factory shim and made some more out of some plastic and replace the torx bolts with regular hex head bolts, makes it much easier to deal with.
 
Not sure on the size of the wires exactly... 10 0r 12 guage. Yet another idea would be just extending the factory harness? There is already a plug in. If removing the kick panel every time sounds like to much of a pain, just cut that plug off and extend to however long it needs to be. I have a 94 XJ and did this mod. Highly recommend! Its awesome! Another thing to consider is the weight of the door. I have non power doors and it still sucks trying to put them on at night by myself. I removed the door speakers and made kick panel pods for them. Hope this helps. The larger wires run that window switch. That switch needs power to run all the windows, not only drivers.
 
Last edited:
Here's those mil-spec connectors:
Male Plug
Female Plug

They look really nice because they have 4 larger 12-gauge pins for the power window and lock motor wires then 18 more smaller pins to work with. You should really give ehall's writeup a thorough read through. He lists everything he uses and tells you where to find it. One day, when I finish my current XJ to do list, I would love to do a doorless mod. And I think ehall's method is probably the best I've seen.
 
BigGuy said:
Here's those mil-spec connectors:
Male Plug
Female Plug

They look really nice because they have 4 larger 12-gauge pins for the power window and lock motor wires then 18 more smaller pins to work with. You should really give ehall's writeup a thorough read through. He lists everything he uses and tells you where to find it. One day, when I finish my current XJ to do list, I would love to do a doorless mod. And I think ehall's method is probably the best I've seen.
Click to expand...

Those are nice but way out of my budget. The male connector alone is $63! I'm thinking at this point I might just go to a junkyard and cut out the factory connectors that are hidden under the kick panel and splice them into where the wires run through the door jam and hope they fit under the rubber boot. I can't mix up the wires when splicing them together since they will be the same as long as it is the same year atleast and the connectors are reasonably small so I think they should work.

ehall's writeup has been hands down the most helpful source of information that I have found. Most writeups just cover how to cut the hinges. I have seen alot of write ups where they replace that factory pin that runs through the hinge with a bolt. Is this necessary?
 
Ben824 said:
Those are nice but way out of my budget. The male connector alone is $63! I'm thinking at this point I might just go to a junkyard and cut out the factory connectors that are hidden under the kick panel and splice them into where the wires run through the door jam and hope they fit under the rubber boot. I can't mix up the wires when splicing them together since they will be the same as long as it is the same year atleast and the connectors are reasonably small so I think they should work.

ehall's writeup has been hands down the most helpful source of information that I have found. Most writeups just cover how to cut the hinges. I have seen alot of write ups where they replace that factory pin that runs through the hinge with a bolt. Is this necessary?
Click to expand...

Are you talking about the pin the keeps the door from flying open? If so I left mine out but if you still want that functionthen I think a bolt would work better because the factory pin sucks to get out.
 
whitexj98 said:
Are you talking about the pin the keeps the door from flying open? If so I left mine out but if you still want that functionthen I think a bolt would work better because the factory pin sucks to get out.
Click to expand...

I was referring to the pins that run through the two mounts for the actual door itself. I know you cut the lower ear off and they can just lift straight up but alot of writeups say to pound out those pins in the mounts and replace them with bolts.
 
You can always fine a set of manual doors to install, this is what i did..I use a sound bar just behind the drivers seat so i still have a radio with my doors off..I to had all ELEC doors

HTH..
 
scottmcneal said:
You can always fine a set of manual doors to install, this is what i did..I use a sound bar just behind the drivers seat so i still have a radio with my doors off..I to had all ELEC doors

HTH..
Click to expand...

That makes perfect sense since the manual doors are lighter and you don't have to worry about wiring. However, my Jeep is my daily driver and my only vehicle and I like my creature comforts. Its the creature comforts and cargo space that made me choose a Cherokee over a Wrangler and to be more unique since more people lift and wheel Wranglers than Cherokees. Also my neighbor had a bad a$$ red one that I just drooled over when I was 15 haha
 
wacho4 said:
There don't seem to be a whole lot of full manual doors out there for the 97 + body style
Click to expand...

i've been looking for a set of manual doors in the same color for my 99 for almost a year now
 
Ok so I tried to tackle this project today on atleast the front doors and as with every project I seem to try on this Jeep I have run into a problem and it has become a pain in my a$$.

The pins that go through the hinges holding both halves of the hinge together for some reason came from the factory installed upside down with the head of the pin on the bottom instead of the top like I have seen on most other XJs. So this means getting the lower ear off once it has been cut will be especially difficult and take some serious force. So I thought I would just remove the torx bolts off and take the door off the hinges I could have enough room to work. Well I got out the torx socket that was big enough for these bolts and put it on the ratchet and go to remove the bolts and there isn't enough room to get the ratchet and socket in there to remove the bolts.

So what should I use here to get these bolts off?
 
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