Hello all,

I'm replacing the rear glass in my '81 with defroster glass. It didn't come with it originally, so I don't know what wiring may or may not be present. There obviously isn't a switch up front.

Does anyone have any info on how to wire one in? Can I just use any defroster switch, such as this one?



Or does it need to be the stock one?

Any tips, guidance, advice anyone can give?

Thanks!

 

I have a factory switch if you want to buy one, I pulled it from the gray 86 in my build thread. No idea how to wire it in though. PM me if interested.

 

So, I took a trip to visit my brother last weekend (about 150 miles away) and we parked our Broncos side by side. He has a rear defroster and I do not. I was able to see what all he had and what I was missing.

By the looks of it, the wiring plug to plug into the defroster switch is present on my Bronco. So, all I need to do is attach the stock defroster switch to the dash and plug it in.

However, he has a much larger brick of wires going into the tailgate. I only have 2 wires, whereas he has all the ones for the defroster. So, I will need to see how far the wires up front go before stopping. My guess is that it goes to the fuse box and then stops.

If that's the case, I'll need to run a wire from wherever the power ends to the back of the bronco and solder it onto the window. The window has two prongs on it, so from what I can tell, one goes to a ground, and the other to the power source. Shouldn't be overly complicated.

 

Probably can buy a factory pigtail from a source. Dont know who but they are most likely out there.

 

 

Well... Yes and no.
The vehicle was totaled, so I never got to finish it. But, I got another Bronco and it has defrost.
So, I didn't end up adding defrost myself.

 

 

Thanks for asking. No one was seriously injured. I had a month or two of physical therapy to loosen my neck muscles that spasmed, but that was about it. The Bronco did its job.
Going to miss it though!!

I'll try to remember to get a picture of the defroster cable where it attaches to the switch tonight.

 

 

In this case, it was the rear corner. The car was lower, so they went underneath. The frame was okay, just so much damage to so many different panels of the vehicle that it would have cost a fortune to get it back in fighting shape.

Here's the defroster plug for ya

 

 

Thinking back to when I was looking into tackling this project, the defroster was the only thing that seems like it's not included in the default wiring harness. Most everything else, even if the truck didn't come equipped with it, has the wiring available. Not sure why the defroster doesn't.