Used Jeep Blues...

[USMC 0369]

Anyone that has purchased a used Jeep will inevitably come across something that makes them scratch their head and say, "What was he/she thinking?"

Today I was taking Valdez on his first REAL trip up the mountain...we were going to have a nice little campfire and I'd cook brats while the wife got the ingredients around for smores. As we were making our final checks to make sure we had everything we needed and a few things we hoped we wouldn't, Barb says to me, "go ahead and hit the brakes"...(me), "I am hitting the brakes"..."Nope, nothing....no lights honey."

Ten minutes of cussing later, I'd finally had it. Fed up with a project that I've been pushing to the back of my mind for months upon months... I said, "To hell with it, I'm digging in."

Now...you must understand... I HATE wiring. Erik's wiring job was so impressive that I feel stupid even trying. But, necessity is the mother of invention...or in my case the mother of education.

So...here is where I started this morning...
[CENTER][SIZED]http://images28.fotki.com/v1029/photos/9/9459/5464843/SANY0077-vi.jpg[/SIZED] [SIZED]http://images27.fotki.com/v1019/photos/9/9459/5464843/SANY0078-vi.jpg[/SIZED][/CENTER]

And tonight when I walked away it looks like this...
[CENTER][SIZED]http://images18.fotki.com/v86/photos/9/9459/5464843/SANY0081-vi.jpg[/SIZED][/CENTER]

I realize it doesn't look a heck of a lot better, but it's coming along. I have some connectors to pick up from NAPA tomorrow...and another full day of work ahead of me I'm sure.

Funny thing is, I've taken out about 30 yards of wires that lead absolutely NOWHERE...just dead ends...
[CENTER][SIZED]http://images27.fotki.com/v1018/photos/9/9459/5464843/SANY0082-vi.jpg[/SIZED][/CENTER]

[paulhead]

UGH. I hate electrical stuff. UGH, that's ugly dude. At least mechanical I can half ass figure out. Good luck.

[RAT]

Just bust out that jar of Prego and some garlic bread, you have enough spaghetti

[The-Hurricane]

man i wired on 2 lights earyer this week and that was a bitch, next i gotta figure out how my cb will mount//wireup. sorry to thread jack, but how exactly do i do that? anyone know? wire up my cb that is

[Davisrats]

good luck. the only good thing is the old cjs have simple wiring compared to the new junk.

[USMC 0369]

Just bust out that jar of Prego and some garlic bread, you have enough spaghetti

I couldn't possibly eat a whole jar of Prego...wanna come help?

man i wired on 2 lights earyer this week and that was a bitch, next i gotta figure out how my cb will mount//wireup. sorry to thread jack, but how exactly do i do that? anyone know? wire up my cb that is

There have been lots of discussions about it. Just do a search real quick and it should bring up someone else's experience with it. I did a search and it brought up this thread that talks about it. Good luck! And thanks for reminding me that I have to remember to hook up my aux lights and my CB too...JOY!

good luck. the only good thing is the old cjs have simple wiring compared to the new junk.

I'm SO thankful for that. I can't imagine if I had to deal with a computer and emmissions junk on top of all of this! I just hope that I can get it started after I'm done ripping out all this, replacing the worn through wires and trying to organize it all under there. Busy tomorrow?

[provin1327]

I got lucky, dad tought me about wiring and mechanical.

[USMC 0369]

Here's where I'm at thus far, and I'm waiting on some connectors from NAPA to come in. It sucks living in the boondocks.

[CENTER]I've got the dash back in, but working in that little space was getting to me...so I had to remove the driver's seat. NBD.


OCD wouldn't let me keep the 'daisy chain' wiring going to the instrument panel any longer. I installed this cheap fuse panel.


Below the fuse panel, I installed a 'grounding strip' to keep things organized and provide a better ground. Inside the firewall the strip is grounded to the battery.
[/CENTER]

Yea, it seems like this is taking forever. If one of you experts want to come help, I've got plenty of beer.

Wiring the rear lights is confusing me...but since they didn't work before, I didn't really have any kind of an 'example' to go off from. Chilton's wiring diagram is no help at all since the painless has been chopped at gnawed at various points. Maybe I'll ask painless how it was supposed to go. (?) What's giving me the hassle is how the blinkers, brakes, hazards all connect to one wire going into each light without completing the circuit to both lights.

[Davisrats]

the tail light should have one wire, the stop/turn light should have one wire (going into each housing on the back of the jeep).
Both tail and stop/turn get the ground from the light housing. The stop/turn wires one for the left and one for the right should come through the turn signal and fourway switch.

[Davisrats]

http://www.painlessperformance.com/M...0504Manual.pdf
This is 74 and older jeeps.

http://www.painlessperformance.com/I...ch/manuals.php

[USMC 0369]

Thanks Ron. I'll print out the brake portions of the manual and take a look at the CJ when I get home. Pictures may help with this also. I'll try to snap some.

[swbooking]

Man i would love to come over and help out i just never have time for anything anymore.

What guage is that line coming into the fuse block? Looks kinda small for that many things pulling current from it. I would say use at least an 8 guage wire to the block.

[USMC 0369]

Man i would love to come over and help out i just never have time for anything anymore.

What guage is that line coming into the fuse block? Looks kinda small for that many things pulling current from it. I would say use at least an 8 guage wire to the block.

That new "cheap" fuse block is for instrument lights only. It's 16 gauge wire, same as the wire coming from the original fuse block to power the same lights. I couldn't stand the 'daisy chain' wiring that was on it before though. So I 'fixed' it.

[Davisrats]

looking at my book the left rear turn(and brake) wire is light green with a trace and the right rear turn(and brake) is light green. Both marker lights and tail lights are white wire.

[swbooking]

oh, well in that case carry on hahah... :beer: