Cascade Crew

Twilightoptics · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 8:52 pm Post subject: STOOOPID people wiring

Just have to vent for a minute. Girlfriend bought a Cherokee. Got it cheep. Needs a transfer case... and it has a no start issue so a previous installed a pushbutton start switch. The E-Brake light and Low Fuel light stay on. All the time. The Steering Column was busted up.

Replace the usual bulbs and oil change and find one of the turn signal lights up front... has a jumper wire connected to it with the side splice blue terminal piece of shizzle thing. Take it off. Follow the wire... Leads to nowhere. Yeah just sitting there. Okay.

Replace steering column (what fun that was. Had to dig in to tighten the tilt and swap the black over to ditch the red of the new column).

Unplug the ign switch.... brake/fuel light still on.

Wiring diagrams in the books SUCK ROAYLLY!
It's not that you cannot read them..... it's that they are say... oh.... 1/16 of the number of wires there really are.

Discover no light plug in the check engine light hole. Great I figure. Got MAJOR problems and someone's covering it up. Find out that it's a combination of Renault, Benix, and GM! They call it the RENIX era of Cherokee and there is no check engine light. They apparently figured OBD1 was beneath them... so they only used it on the GM 2.5L versions. No stored trouble codes... nothing.

Okay fine. Get a few wiring diagrams from work I could dig up. Find out some of it goes through the headlight switch. Okay. Pull out headlight switch. WTF... mmm mmelted wires, patch wires spliced in with household twist cones! Unplug the switch. Brake/Fuel still on.

Start roaming through fuses. Parking lights fuse. Pull it out. Lights go out. Fuse melty, but intact.

Okay so parking light problem. Someone must have patch something into this circuit and fried a whole bunch of shizzle.

Unplug the connector running the wires to the back of the Jeep. Lights go out!

Pull the tail light out. Another dozen household connectors. Jebuz. Not even butt connectors.... oi vey.

(@&$^@*^%#)*@%$)@*&$#^@&#^@&#^_@(&*^#_@(*&#

That is all.
-P

chevymad · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 8:57 pm Post subject:

OH joy. You've got the renault computer, and the spendy ignition system. Thats one i specifically warned John to stay away from. Talk about an orphan setup. Anyway, good luck. The mechanicals at least were pretty decent.

Twilightoptics · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:00 pm Post subject:

LoL. Great! Bastardized!

Wonder if I can just yank the crap off and put a stand alone on it or something. Rock the megasquirt LOL.

What ignition parts are spendy?

I went to pick up a cap and they asked me if it was a motocraft distributor or not. I was WTF?

chevymad · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:03 pm Post subject:

Hehe.. ya.. amc days.. they used whatever they could buy cheap. The ignition module is like part of the coil. That thing is spendy. Then I think theres a crank trigger as well as a distributor. The whole thing is just odd. And when they start having driveability problems they're insane.

Twilightoptics · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:27 pm Post subject:

lol. That's the funny part. Engine runs pretty damn good!

So when I unplug the rearward connector.... the brake light goes out... but the fuel light DOES stay on... and the fuel gauge starts to rise.

So the power short must be up somewhere. Looks like the gauge is getting power as is the brake light.

Weird.....

Twilightoptics · Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:59 pm Post subject:

I think this was a semi-professional job.

The splicing was done color coded, and neatly wrapped... just with household twisties.

If the e-brake was down, and the fuel level full... one would never know.

The parking light post fuse wire melted 4 other wires together with it. Unhooked those, taped them up, parts work fine again.

I'm a little nervous to install trailer wiring though!

brandyland · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:37 am Post subject:

Do you feel better now that you've vented?

Xophertony · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 9:56 am Post subject:

is it the 4L straight six? what year?

what color? Smile

brandyland · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 12:06 pm Post subject:

1987.
Color? Hmmmmm, was probably purpleish once upon a time. Now faded. More brown/magentaish.
Don't know the other part.

chevymad · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 4:44 pm Post subject:

It may be a 258 still. 4.1 I think. Nothing really wrong with the mechanical parts. It was all the weird electrical stuff. You take a company like amc, and combine it with renault.. things cant end up well. They seem to work well.. till they dont. By now Paul knows how to get around these kinda dilemmas anyway.

Twilightoptics · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 5:35 pm Post subject:

Dewey316 · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:54 pm Post subject:

Twilightoptics · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 10:49 pm Post subject:

us.... US.... U.S....

Usa, China?