YouTube to the Rescue

Three years ago when we bought my wife's Jeep Wrangler we saved a lot of money by getting it with just a soft top. Then earlier this year we decided to pay the $2000 and get a hard top as well. Now as we get closer to winter, I thought I would install all the wiring and plumbing for the hard top.

I ordered the kit from Mopar and it didn't come with printed instructions. It came with a CDROM. I pulled up the instructions a few weeks ago and printed them out so I didn't have to keep a computer near me as I worked on the Jeep. My hands always seem to get dirty when I work on cars and I don't want to get my computer dirty as well.

I started working on the wiring at 9:30 this morning and quickly ran into problems. So I pulled up YouTube and found a video of someone else installing the the hard top kit for his Wrangler. I watched the beginning of the video and found a quick solution to the first problem: use a pre-run wire to pull the wiring harness through the firewall. Going back to my printed instructions, no mention of a helper wire could be found but I did discover that your run the wiring from the inside of the car into the engine compartment. Had I read the instructions more carefully I would have figured out the trick with the wire. The video did help though.

Working on the car took all day. I did stop for lunch, dinner, and to make a run to Home Depot to pick up a T50 bit for my socket set and a siphon hose so I could empty the windshield wiper fluid. At dinner, I thought about calling it a day and finishing up next weekend. Then I realized that I just wanted to be done and so I pushed through. I finished up at around 8:30. Yes, the job took me 11 hours. Any time I got stuck, I would go back in the house, wash my hands, and continue watching the YouTube video.

Having an online resource to help get through the tough spots made my job a lot easier. Unfortunately it didn't solve all of my problems. Both the printed instructions and YouTube video were for a 4-door Jeep while my wife's is only a 2-door. While I had a few shortcuts I could take, there were a few times I stood there scratching my head wondering what to do next. The video also missed a few tricks that I would have liked to know. Ultimately I am glad I had the help.