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Wires thru the tailgate hinges typically crack and develop problems eventually.
Have a look in the FAQ; I think the same thing happens with 700/900 cars and the information should be there.
Anyway, here are some basics:
Wires pass through both hinges. There are five items powered by wires through the hinges. Four for early cars without the center brake light. Later ones include a ground wire, I think one on each side. Early cars maybe no ground wire?
License plate lights
rear wiper
defrost
power lock
center brake light
You can do a semi-ugly job without removing the hinges. If you want an invisible job I think you have to pull the hinges. If doing that, best is probably one at a time with sturdy support holding up the tailgate. One guy used a "skyhook"; a rope from garage doorway looped under the tailgate to hold it up.
I never did a hinge removal. For that I'd recommend a good wire harness kit. OEM wires are super-fine stranded for lots of flex-ability. You can get tailgate wiring harness kits from fcpgroton ("Miscellaneous" page??) and also from ipdusa.com, if I recall. Not tooo expensive.
I did the semi-ugly job twice so far; I ended up with a loop of wire hanging down at the corner that I repaired - that's what made it semi-ugly. Details below.
Headliner removes by grabbing the edge where it wraps over. Grab hard and pull. It will pop back on when you're done. You can route replacement wiring out at headliner edge and back into tailgate at its top edge; you'll find a hole in the sheet metal. I only had to work on the right side hinge wiring. Found a second hole in tailgate along the window edge area. Using the two holes in the sheet metal I was able to route the wiring reasonably.
Cut OEM wires inside the roof and also in the gate, as close to the hinge as you can - probably thru the upper access hole in door. Pull the pigtails out at the lower hole (along side the window). Route new good wire down into door at top hole, along window and out the lower hole, next to the window. Leave enough wire length to be able to splice to existing, up inside the roof cavity.
With the new wires and existing pigtails both sticking out at the lower hole, you can splice them together. Stagger the splices so they're not all at the same place, makes too big a lump to get back in the hole easily. Push the wires back in the hole along side the window. Go back to the upper end of the new wire set; route it into the roof acvity at the edge and splice it to the existing wire there.
Go inside and get warmed up, have a beer, tell your significant other that you just saved $200 in shop costs.
Splicing: Use crimp connectors, and get a decent crimper if you don't have one yet. The connectors come in different sizes for different wire thicknesses. You'll have to deal with the metric wire sizes that don't match the USA sizes but there's always a connector that works OK. If the wire is too thin, fold it over double - but don't tell anyone I said to do that. If it's just a little bit too thick, cut off a couple strands - but I never said to do that either.
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Sven: '89 245 NA, 951 ECU, open-front airbox, E-fan, 205/65-15's, IPD sways, E-Codes, amber front corner reflectors. Wifemobile '89 245 NA stock. 90 244 NA spare, runs.
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