Soon after we bought the nine-year-old Jeep, the automagical popping of the rear window when you work the rear door handle stopped working. Fob button still popped it. Wife has the fob, I got no fob. So anyway I researched it and bought what I thought was the right part to fix it. (Search for rear gate switch). Threw it in the basket by the kitchen door. It sat there for months and months.
A couple of days ago, the weather was nice and I had a couple minutes to investigate so I decided to do the deed.
Popped the interior panel off the door. It pretty much just popped off. I see the wire in question and the business end (it's a microswitch that gets activated when the door handle is opened) looks kinda hinky, rusty, crusty.
Here's what the whole component looks like, the white connector on the right, the wires snaking into the door behind the handle.
To give it a test, I unplugged the white connector and plugged in the new part. Working the micro-switch got a satisfiying ker-chunk sound from the window locky thing.
This clip holds the micro-switch in place. I found that putting the connector straight in through the small hole with a pair of pliers, then re-installing the clip, finally snake the white connector through the small hole then to its mate.
The panel connector in the lower left corner is oriented horizontally, the rest are vertical. What worked for me was sliding the horizontal connector in place first then settling the rest in place using a downward sliding motion. I popped back on pretty easily. I was pleasantly surprised.
Hope this has an opportunity to help some other Steemian fix their Jeep....
MichiganCowpoke