Well, I managed to get my XJ going again.

Not too bad, considering two weeks ago it was under a mound of snow along side a ranchers barn.

Well, at least it was mostly complete.

A bit of history before the question.

First I replaced the ignition parts that were actually missing. Battery, with new terminals. Starter (that was laying in on the passenger side floor board) tested and reinstalled.

Then it would turn over.

Second I repaired the door hinge on the drivers side. Not much to tell really, bought the Mopar kit and installed it.

Once that was done I could open the door without wondering if it was goingto fall off.

Third I replaced the distributor, since it was only $11 more than just the cam sensor (which was bad)

Low and behold it starts and stays running.

The last thing that was missing was the rear brakes... as in the PO had removed them to use elsewhere. I bought the parts and replaced them.

Call me silly, but I like my cars to stop when I hit the brakes.



Anyhow, thats all done, but it leads me to my current issue. Actually, I think it's the last issueother than perhaps a tune up.

None of my forward lights work.

All the fuses under the hood read good.

Rear lights work, dash and interior lights work.

Hell, even the little blue high beam light works.

Out front, nothing.

I checked the ground for the front end lighting on the drivers side inner fender, it looks good. I cleaned it up anyway while I was there. Also, just to be sure I ran a temporary jumper from that ground point back to the negative battery terminal.

Still nothing.

After looking at the wiring diagrams it looks like there are only two common points for all those lights. There is the power source under the hood (which tests good, and is providing power to the hi beam indicator light). Then there is the ground, which I have already tested.

Looks like I have me a busted wire, likely a ground wire, somewhere in the circuit. I plan to start going through the wiring harness today to try and find the issue.


My question is this,

Are there any common fail points in the forward wiring harness that I might want to start with?

 

This is gonna sound dumb ....

Is the wiring harness from the front header panel to the engine compartment connected?

Disconnect and reconnect to make sure the connection is good.

I only ask because recently I went to the junk yard and pulled the front end off of an XJ from the header panel out. I was about to cut the harness when I realized all I had to do was disconnect the harness in the header panel from the harness under the hood.

I've heard of people having problems with the harness in the header and that is why I decided to pull it all and bring it home.

 

Doesn't sound dumb at all, thanks for the input actually.

Whereabouts does this particular conector hide?

(generally speaking of course, I know this particualr one is in my garage)

 

Went and checked the connector and found several of the wires corroded right at the connector.

Looks like I'll be splicing some wires tomorrow.