2002 Town & Country ?install a backup monitor

[smitty887]

Santa brought me a license plate mounted camera & inside monitor now I need to remove the inside panel of the rear hatch, & get a wire from the backup light to the camera and remove the front overhead console with the maplights for power to the monitor. Need help on how to remove everything without breaking them!

[RIP]

Probably best to buy a manitenance manual. I could say they just pry off but vans are different from year to year. I'm sure the back hatch has screws you need to remove first then its held on with those tree fasteners around the edge that just pop out. I use a stiff putty knife to get behind the panel and pry. Plan on breaking a couple.

If this doesn't help at least your thread is back at the top of the forum. Cheers.

[smitty887]

Thanks for the help. I was able to get the inside panel of the rear hatch off using your suggestion. Now All I need is a wireing diagram to locate the backup light wire in the wiring harness and figure out how to remove the front overhead console. I removed the one screw holding it but the front, with the map lights & mileage info display, won't come loose.

[RIP]

As for the overhead console I wouldn't get warm fuzzies trying to pry that off either. Swing by the dealership and ask if someone could show you how it comes off. Can't imagine it would take more than a minute out of their time.

As for the wiring, you could just ID the wires by color at the back of the backup light bulb socket and splice in the same wires elswhere in the bundle.

[smitty887]

Thanks RIP, I located the backup lite feed (white wire with light green tracer) behind the tail light assembly but it the feed didn't appear in the harness on the rear hatch so I ran a wire out of the tail light into the body channel and back to the rear hatch and connected it to the camera lead. Replacing the inside hatch panel went fairly well once I got the fasteners lined up, pushed them in and replaced the two screws in the inside handle.
You get an "A+" for your instructions!

[RIP]

Where there's a will there's a way. Good job. Once you get the upper console squared away and have had a little time using the camera let us know how it works out. It wasn't long ago a rear view camera seemed an extravagance. Today they are much more common and at first glance, a great safety device. Keep in touch.

[smitty887]

FYI Got the monitor temp.mounted on the edge of the rearview mirror and using a power outlet (cigarette lighter) to provide the 12 v untill I can connect it into the upper console. Gives a great color view of what's in back of the vehicle. Got the VR3 system from Wal-Mart for under $100!
Again, thanks for your assistance RIP.