Access to passenger firewall grommets

[towe0609]

I am about to install an overhead console with UHF and HF transceiver. As such I need to get some rather fat cabling from under the roof lining to the engine bay.

I was thinking of bringing it down the pillar on the passenger side of the windscreen, and then through the firewall. How do you access the grommets on the passenger side? I pulled the top of the dash off my other defender yesterday, and all that reveals on the passenger side is the vents.

I have rooftop air con, so thats not in the way on the dash if that makes any difference. I just want to pull as little apart as necessary.

[Don 130]

I have UHF in a roof console and 4 speakers mounted in the headlining for the stereo, and all the cables go down the A pillars. Going through the fire wall happens behind the dash where the speedo cable goes through.
Don.

[towe0609]

I have UHF in a roof console and 4 speakers mounted in the headlining for the stereo, and all the cables go down the A pillars. Going through the fire wall happens behind the dash where the speedo cable goes through.
Don.
Thanks Don, I was really looking to use the passenger side. You must have to pull more of the dash that the top plate to get to them, or can you get in from underneath? Pulling more of the dash down looks like a real headache based on what I saw yesterday when I went that far on my other defender.

[defender_i_hardly_know_er]

On the passenger side there is a little flap that undoes with two plastic screws (quarter turn things)

Now snake your arm up in there and you can feel the grommets in the firewall. It's rectangular with two nipples.

I snipped one nipple off from the engine bay side and fed a super long zip tie down it, then pulled through from the passenger side.

[Wallaby Ted]

When I used the ones on the passenger side on the 2010 Defender I pushed a coat hanger through from the engine bay on a sort of a downwards towards the centre angle and it came out in the passenger side foot well. Then attached the cable to the coat hanger and pulled it back. It did need 2 of us (one pulling and one pushing) as it was very tight but was possible.

Richard

[towe0609]

Should have said its a tdi/td5 style dash

[Don 130]

Should have said its a tdi/td5 style dash
So is mine.
Don.

[Jode]

I drilled a suitable hole beside the flap thing that defender_i_hardly_know_her mentioned (suitable for the cables plus rubber grommet, that is) and fed a bit of wire that was thinner than a coathanger that I had laying around, using that for a fish line to pull the cables themselves through the grommet, then through the hole, having first fed the wire from the engine bay up through the opening behind the radio in the centre of the tray. So I was pulling gently from inside the cab, then pushing from the engine compartment to ensure that I didn't tear the grommet to bits. Once the cables were well in I pushed the grommet into place to protect the cables from the rough edges of the hole that I'd drilled.