I was noticing on the XJC yesterday that the grommets that protect
the wiring harness as it passes into the doors are missing.
Instead, the harness has been heavily taped with electrical wire at
the entry point. The L shaped grommet where the harness passes from
the interior of the car through the side panel towards the door is
still there but just about rotted away, as well.
How are these grommets normally replaced when they deteriorate or
if the wiring harnesses that pass through a bulkhead have been
removed and need to be reinstalled?
The grommets do not appear stretchable enough to pass over the end
of the harness with the electrical connectors still attached. Can
new ones be stretched in this manner or do the connectors have to
be removed and resolderd? Can the grommet be installed with an
existing harness still in place (e.g. by cutting it, fitting it
around the harness at the entry point and pushing it into place and
then sealing the cut with something like black silicone)? If the
grommets can be reinstalled where can they be sourced?
Thanks for any tips,–
Mike Kennedy 1977 XJC
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
In reply to a message from Mike Kennedy sent Sun 22 Aug 2010:
Mike, you need to take the door trim off, unclip the wires, pull
them out of the door and feed them through the new rubber.
If you can get new rubbers that is. It’s worth the effort to keep
water out.
Alternatively, if new ones not available and the ends are ok, wrap
them in flexible plastic wiring harness tube.
Jeff–
The original message included these comments:
How are these grommets normally replaced when they deteriorate or
if the wiring harnesses that pass through a bulkhead have been
removed and need to be reinstalled?
In reply to a message from Jeffcat sent Tue 24 Aug 2010:
I’ll toss in my experience even though it involved two
Series One’s.
On both cars, I replaced the rubber tubes not because they
were damaged but because I was adding additional wires. If
you can totally remove the rubber tubes, it’s easy to fit
lengths of polyethylene split loom. A particular standard
diameter (5/8 inch?) fits perfectly into the holes in
bulkhead and door. I cut the piece long, shoving it into
the bulkhead quite a way, then withdrawing it so that it
entered the door. After all wires were in, I secured the
door end on the inside with a nylon wire tie. The other end
was then free to slide in/out of the bulkhead as the door
opened/closed.
I had a lot of trouble removing the rubber, though–it fits
like a large grommet at both ends. I did it with the wires
out, but you might be able to do it with the wires in. I
was able to remove the wires without cutting off any
connectors (bullet in my case).–
The original message included these comments:
Mike, you need to take the door trim off, unclip the wires, pull
them out of the door and feed them through the new rubber.
Alternatively, if new ones not available and the ends are ok, wrap
them in flexible plastic wiring harness tube.
Thanks guys! I removed all the wiring harnesses from a VDP parts cars and
saved as many grommets as I could but I don’t see them being easy to get
over the ends of my XJC harnesses while the connectors are still on, so I
may not be able to re-use them. The rubber tubes on the lower part of the
door/bulkhead didn’t survive removal and the ones on my XJC will not survive
either, whether I pull the harness out or not, as they are dried out and
quite rotten. I think the suggestion to use flex hose in their place will
likely be the best solution.
In reply to a message from Jeffcat sent Tue 24 Aug 2010:
I’ll toss in my experience even though it involved two
Series One’s.
On both cars, I replaced the rubber tubes not because they
were damaged but because I was adding additional wires. If
you can totally remove the rubber tubes, it’s easy to fit
lengths of polyethylene split loom. A particular standard
diameter (5/8 inch?) fits perfectly into the holes in
bulkhead and door. I cut the piece long, shoving it into
the bulkhead quite a way, then withdrawing it so that it
entered the door. After all wires were in, I secured the
door end on the inside with a nylon wire tie. The other end
was then free to slide in/out of the bulkhead as the door
opened/closed.
I had a lot of trouble removing the rubber, though–it fits
like a large grommet at both ends. I did it with the wires
out, but you might be able to do it with the wires in. I
was able to remove the wires without cutting off any
connectors (bullet in my case).
Thanks guys! I removed all the wiring harnesses from a VDP parts cars and
saved as many grommets as I could but I don’t see them being easy to get
over the ends of my XJC harnesses while the connectors are still on, so I
may not be able to re-use them. The rubber tubes on the lower part of the
door/bulkhead didn’t survive removal and the ones on my XJC will not survive
either, whether I pull the harness out or not, as they are dried out and
quite rotten. I think the suggestion to use flex hose in their place will
likely be the best solution.
You can slit the grommets or flex hoses ‘lengthwise’ to fit over the
loom, Mike…?
Yes, in my original post I queried whether slitting one of the doughnut
style grommets might be an option and then resealing it with something like
black silicone. Nobody seems to know where (if?) new ones can be obtained,
though. I don’t think I have enough salvaged good ones from my VDP strip
down to cover all the passages on the XJC so am trying to determine what
other options have worked for others, just in case.
Mike Kennedy
1977 XJC
Frank Andersen wrote:
You can slit the grommets or flex hoses ‘lengthwise’ to fit over the
loom, Mike…?
Yes, in my original post I queried whether slitting one of the doughnut
style grommets might be an option and then resealing it with something like
black silicone. Nobody seems to know where (if?) new ones can be obtained,
though. I don’t think I have enough salvaged good ones from my VDP strip
down to cover all the passages on the XJC so am trying to determine what
other options have worked for others, just in case.
The slitting is just to allow the grommets to easily fit over the wires
without any dismantling, of course, Mike…
Once the grommets are snugged up in the apertures there is no need for
anything else - the grommets are there to avoid the wires chafing on
bare metal? With simple functions there cannot be anything special with
the Jaguar ones that cannot be sourced from generic dittos…?
Frank
xj6 85 Sov Europe (UK/NZ)>Frank Andersen wrote:
You can slit the grommets or flex hoses ‘lengthwise’ to fit over the
loom, Mike…?
