Driver's door removal

[Ltcjc754]

Trying to replace my '07 Driver's side door. Have the replacement, I can't find where the door wiring connects with the wiring harness. Any suggestions? There are three basic wires coming from the driver's door: 1 ground wire (found its location), 1 double wire going to the parking brake assembly (found its location), third is the speaker/? 6 wire connector to the main wiring harness? Not sure exactly where it goes. Hard time squeezing under dash.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[ericbphoto]

You’ve got parking brake wires going to your door? Weird.

depending on trim level, I would expect;
Door ajar contact wires
Door lock wiring
Speaker wires
Power window wiring
Power mirror wiring

anyway.I would take the inner door panel off. Unplug, disconnect wires there and pull them out of the door. Thread them into the new door after you hang it. Then reconnect.

 

[Ltcjc754]

Thanks for your response. I'll take your advice.

 

[don4331]

We just redid my daughter's door (replaced to repair damage caused by someone's attempt to steal).

While there is a disconnect in the kick panel behind the parking brake it is royal PIA to access.

We removed door panel, threaded all the wires out, (@ericbphoto 's process) unbolted the old door, removed and replaced with new door. Floor jack is real handy to support door when reinstalling (even with 2 people).

 

[scotts90ranger]

Yeah, the previous owner of mine just hacked the wires off when they swapped doors so I had to fix that but what Eric said is the easiest, if you have power mirrors or windows there's more wires but unplugging at the components in the door is easiest.

 

[Ltcjc754]

We just redid my daughter's door (replaced to repair damage caused by someone's attempt to steal).

While there is a disconnect in the kick panel behind the parking brake it is royal PIA to access.

We removed door panel, threaded all the wires out, (@ericbphoto 's process) unbolted the old door, removed and replaced with new door. Floor jack is real handy to support door when reinstalling (even with 2 people).

Just removed all the wiring from the donor door, marked all connectors and where they go. I'll strip out the old damaged door and replace the donor door. Thanks for the advice.

How was realigning the replacement door? Any special tricks I may need to use? Thanks again.

 

[sgtsandman]

When I changed the passenger side door on the 1998, I just aligned the bolts to the bolt marks left on the hinge. I may have gotten lucky but it latched closed and the gaps were pretty much even. It helps if you use a jack to lift and hold the end of the door while aligning and bolting the door in place.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I don't remember there being much wiggle room in the holes... I got my '97 with a replacement door on it already and it was overextended or something (drivers fender was bent up) since they said it had been in a ditch... I had to put a 2x6 under the door while open a little and jack it up some to get it to latch right but it aligned just fine...

 

[don4331]

My daughter's truck was darn near perfect using the historic mounting marks. There is more adjustability on the hinge to body mount that the hinge to door. As we hadn't disturbed those, it was more/less right.

 

[Ltcjc754]

Well, with the help of my wife, I removed the old door, and using a floor jack, raised the new donor door and got the 4 bolts into the hinge, top and bottom. I snugged the bolts up, but not all the way. I slowly closed the door and it latched, but.......when I tried to open the door, the door's leading edge overlapped the left front fender.....so....I've tried to put pressure on the window frame to try and move the door back towards the pillar but to no avail. Any thoughts? the door will open approximately 1 inch before catching the left fender......

 

[sgtsandman]

Well, with the help of my wife, I removed the old door, and using a floor jack, raised the new donor door and got the 4 bolts into the hinge, top and bottom. I snugged the bolts up, but not all the way. I slowly closed the door and it latched, but.......when I tried to open the door, the door's leading edge overlapped the left front fender.....so....I've tried to put pressure on the window frame to try and move the door back towards the pillar but to no avail. Any thoughts? the door will open approximately 1 inch before catching the left fender......

Which bolts did you remove? I think the hinge to the door has little adjustment to them. Hinge to the body, I believe has slotted holes.

If it is hinge to body that has the slots, you will need to slide both hinges back a little to clear the front of the door to the fender.

 

[don4331]

Well, with the help of my wife, I removed the old door, and using a floor jack, raised the new donor door and got the 4 bolts into the hinge, top and bottom. I snugged the bolts up, but not all the way. I slowly closed the door and it latched, but.......when I tried to open the door, the door's leading edge overlapped the left front fender.....so....I've tried to put pressure on the window frame to try and move the door back towards the pillar but to no avail. Any thoughts? the door will open approximately 1 inch before catching the left fender......

I've had that issue, but I can't remember which way to move it (and if I am recalling correctly, it was counter intuitive - like you had to push the door out, not in... What I do remember is I didn't have to be gentle with it.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Mine did that when I got it, I took a thin trim prybar (Estwing wonderbar or whatever), put some thin cardboard around it and pried the top section of the fender away from the door to get some gap and room for the door to open.

 

[Shran]

Easy way to align the door is to remove the fender first so you can get at all the bolts on the hinges... make the door perfect and then make the fender match the door.

 

[Ltcjc754]

Tried multiple approaches, with negative results. Finally, swallowed my pride and drove to a local body shop. They got it open and aligned (they had to shim it up) and it works and looks good. $100 was the damage, but now I have a driver's side door that work. Thanks for the suggestions.