Jakers

I have a 90 cherokee laredo and the fuse for the dash cluster and running lights keep blowing... I thought it might have been the switch itself, but after replacement it keeps happening... not sure what the issue may be... It calls for a 10 fuse but it has blown a 10, 15, 20 and 25. I have a 30 in it right now which seems to be working for now but I'm anticipating that's not going to last for very long....

Any thoughts/ideas?

Thanks.

Aljay

So you put a fuse in that's 20 amps ? Will you just might find your issue the hard way hope you have a fire extinguisher in your rig !

Why not get someone to help you fix it right instead of rigging it ?
Does the rig have trailer wiring ? Does it look like a blind person has been into the under dash area ?

Jakers

That's a negative on the fire extinguisher lol, but after seeing your comment I think I will remove the fuse haha.

Yes it has trailer wiring and as for the blind person under the dash I'm not too sure .everything "appears" normal but obviously that's not the case. Previous owner did however rig the radio up wrong seeing as how its always on, only way to kill power to it is to remove the faceplate. So it wouldn't surprise me if something else is.messed up

Aljay

Sometimes trailer wiring gets messed up might start there . I'd start at the plug that the trailer lights plug into . The radio would be suspect too , I hate hacked wiring jobs . If you don't have the knowledge maybe take it to a car stereo shop and get that issue fixed ? I let an issue with wiring go one time and burned up the wires from the key switch to the starter .

cruiser54

Is the trailer wiring factory or "home brew"? First place to look for shorted wires.

Jakers

Trailer wiring looks legit, hard to tell at the moment cause its dark but it is all connected through the yellow box and I popped it open and it looks okay (i believe that's the trailer wiring but pmease correct me if I am wrong).

Feel like I should maybe take it into a shop and have it checked out... I prefer to try and figure things out on my own but after reading around online it seems like electrical issues are something that you don't wanna dabble in unless you have the know how...

Aljay

If your tempted to check it out disconnect the battery , I'd look at the trailer plug all it takes is one strand to cause feed back and popped fuses .

Jakers

Is the best way to do.this is just check all the wires from the yellow box all the way to the back of the jeep at the plug?

Aljay

Not familiar with the yellow box .

Jakers

Oh man... Maybe I don't even have the slightest idea of what I'm talking about... will upload a few pics in about 5 min lol.

Jakers

So ya, totally have no idea what that yellow box is (pic below), I also included a shot of the the wires under the dash (so many things going on under there not sure if anything "jumps" out at any one). The third picture is of the wiring harness at the back of the jeep, there was electrical tape wrapped around the two wires that are bare but I just removed it to make sure there were not any gaps etc... Not sure if this is the problem? Also, in the fourth pic, there is a red wire that is just twisted together, coming from the front of the jeep and making it's way to the back of the jeep going up through the same opening as the trailer harness but does not "appear" to be part of the harness itself. What's the best way to trace the harness? Take off my rear interior paneling? Also, is there a way to just disable the stereo or trailer harness completely that way I can see if its one of those or is it just a matter of tracing all the wires?

Thanks again for all the help everyone, I really appreciate it!!

Jakers

I apologize if my previous posts seemed lazy or uninformative. I will NOT let this defeat me lol. So, I went back out and brought by handy dandy Ryobi 18V worklight and my Ryobi Tek 4 Flashlight and work light. I took off the back quarter panel interior paneling and found where the wire harness was attached to. There appear to be several issues.... See the pics below...

Pic #1, electrical tape was wrapped around these wires so they were not touching each other or any other metal, the seem a bit stiff but other than that they do not look too bad.


Pic #2
Wiring harness found!!!


Pic #3
Shows what colored wires go to each item, Picture is a little blurry its listed as follows:

White = Ground
Brown = Tail
Green = Right Turn
Red (small wire) = Brake
Yellow = Left Turn
Red (big wire) = Battery



Pic #4 (Possible problem #1?)

The green wire is not attached to anything.... wtf?


Pic #5
White = Ground, attached to the bolt in the picture below (possible problem #2? Is this ground sufficient?)



Pic #6

Brown wire (tail) connected to blue wire with no black stripe



Pic #7

Small Red wire (brake) connected blue wire WITH black stripe






Pic #8

Yellow wire (left turn) connected to grey wire WITH black stripe



The above connections had electrical tape wrapped around them but I removed them so I could take some pictures and investigate.

So a few questions did the previous owner hook this trailer hitch up correctly? Brown to blue no stripe, Small red to the black stripe, yellow to grey stripe, white to sufficient ground? Obviously the green is hooked up to nothing, any ideas where to connect it? When reconnecting all these should I just buy a new trailer hitch harness or is it safe to use some wire nuts to reconnect them all?

Next set of images I traced the Large red wire to the battery... interesting findings...

Pic #1

Previous owner didn't even bother to wrap this with electrical tape....



(I took several other images, tracing this wire up to the engine block, but all it is, is a wire running under the Jeep...)

Pic #2
The stupid thing isn't even connected to the battery!!!!!!



Recap of my plethora of questions ha ha
1. Did the previous owner make the correct connections from the trailer harness to the actual Jeep wires?
2. Where does the green wire connect into?
3. Should I just buy a new harness and tap into the wires again, or can I just reconnect all these wires with some wire nuts
4. With it not even connected to the battery does that mean I can omit the trailer harness from causing the blow fuses or would that be considered a major cause?
5. Seems kind of odd the previous owner would wire the power cable under jeep, seeing as how its out in the elements and has a higher chance of being damage, shouldn't I re-run this through the inside of the jeep and out of the firewall to the battery?

Many thanks!

Aljay

On wireing jobs like that mess in the rear I usually cut it out and start over . First get a factory schematic for your rig .

cruiser54

Remove everything the PO did regarding the trailer wiring leaving only the factory wiring.
Repair/isolate any areas in the factory witing that the PO monkeyed with.
Are you gonna pull a trailer?

If so, rewire it yourself with new stuff.

Aljay

Better said than me ... No caffeine yet .
I hate hacked wireing I have ripped complete harnesses out of my hot rods and replaced with new harness tho . It's awesome when some tool adds an alarm or stereo to a late model tho . Let me see I'll just tap into power anywhere and poof there ya go ! Why do I have a check engine light now .