I totally agree with this. There's no real reason NOT to take the hinges off the door and the roof and just slip the new ones in the right way. The correct harnesses are what? $13 from FCP? I just did them for our 88 wagon a couple months ago and I think it was 2 hours altogether including getting all the trim back on right.

The hinges are not too hard to get off, and with an extra pair of hands it'll go really smoothly. There are a couple of points where you'll be glad for just a little bit of help to hold something down, or up, or whatever. I find that a towel, floormat, or carpet scrap is good to keep the center of the tailgate from scraping the roof- just in case.

I tape a length of scrap wire to the old harness before I pull it through the sides of the window- it makes life much easier to pull the new harness back this way. You'll be glad you did that. I also found that one or two of the bigger blade connectors need to have their plastic cover end removed when fishing through, then replaced once it's all down into the door where they connect. These have a locking tab on the metal pin that you depress or straighten with a tiny screwdriver, and they snap together again when you have everything where you want it.

All in all it's a good afternoon job and it is pretty satisfying to get all that stuff working right again.
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: 87 244DL, 88 245DL, 90 745GL, 84 242DL project, 89 244 parts, 88 244DL to replace the 87