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Stock XJ Cherokee Tech. All XJ Non-modified/stock questions go hereXJ (84-01)
All OEM related XJ specific tech. Examples, no start, general maintenance or anything that's stock.
I hit a large puddle of water going to work one day and my transmission slipped out of gear and then wouldn't drive. I shut it off for a minute and it would occasionally slip, but also stayed in 2nd gear for the most part. At the end of the day when I went home it appeared to be fine, but about a week later I lost Torque Converter Lockup ( I have 4th gear, I verified that from some other forum threads).
Then I started looking around in the engine bay for electrical problems sure that was the issue and I found a nasty little connector shown here. This happened several months ago and I've just been driving as it is, but now it's time to fix it. I'm going to try to find another harness from another Cherokee and am curious to know which model years will have the same color wires as mine (2000 Cherokee Classic, 4WD AW4).
My plan is to cut the wires and butt splice the new ones on with a new (old) harness.
This is what it looks like now, when I first saw it it was corroded green and turquoise. Today before I WD-40'd and sandpapered it they were all black, and some still are (there's 1 pin that is so flimsy on the far corner it feels like it's ready to break off at any moment)
I'm not your dad so just do whatever you want and in fact full send. BUUUUUT this is more of a solder job. If you don't solder it you'll probably run into this sort of problem again with butt splicers.
Not sure which one that is.
Is that the one coming from the ECM?
Now here is what I think I see.
That connector it is very easy to unpin and repin.
Watch this video just to see how it is set up. Start at about 35 seconds in.
Now I think that you are dealing with the one that plugs into what he is doing.
But betting it can be unpinned and repinned the same way.
Where I am going with this is that I am thinking you don't have to replace every wire there.
It just looks like a few are fried. And thinking you might need parts for the connector itself.
So you inspect all the wiring but just replace what is necessary.
You won't get that gigantic bulge from crimps or soldering and using heat shrink that can happen.
That is why guys stagger where they do it and not do it all in the same place.
Normally I would agree with Griffyorcono. I prefer to solder instead of butt connect wires.
But I imagine that trying to solder wires with that harness in the Jeep is going to be really hard.
Thinking butt connectors might have to be used.
And that is another reason to replace only what is necessary.
Plus if you can do that thinking the connector off any newer Jeep, '97 and up, can be used just for parts.
Not sure which one that is.
Is that the one coming from the ECM?
Now here is what I think I see.
That connector it is very easy to unpin and repin.
Watch this video just to see how it is set up. Start at about 35 seconds in.
Now I think that you are dealing with the one that plugs into what he is doing.
But betting it can be unpinned and repinned the same way.
Where I am going with this is that I am thinking you don't have to replace every wire there.
It just looks like a few are fried. And thinking you might need parts for the connector itself.
So you inspect all the wiring but just replace what is necessary.
You won't get that gigantic bulge from crimps or soldering and using heat shrink that can happen.
That is why guys stagger where they do it and not do it all in the same place.
Normally I would agree with Griffyorcono. I prefer to solder instead of butt connect wires.
But I imagine that trying to solder wires with that harness in the Jeep is going to be really hard.
Thinking butt connectors might have to be used.
And that is another reason to replace only what is necessary.
Plus if you can do that thinking the connector off any newer Jeep, '97 and up, can be used just for parts.
It is impossible to solder it where it's at. It's one of the 3 big harnesses back by the 6th cylinder of the engine. They all run into a big loom that runs over the top of the engine, but some sires from that loom branch off into another loom that runs down over the top of the transmission. I suck hardcore at soldering so I'm not inclined to spend a weekend dismounting the engine and transmission with a cherry picker just so I can get it free to potentially make it worse. To replace any pins individually all of them will have to come out of the connector anyways since you can't have a few wires shorter than others while trying to fit them back into the connector.
My plan is to replace the bottom connector with the new one butt spliced and heat shrinked. It will be better than it is now as I'm sure all of those pins have some level of corrosion under neath the connector harness anyways.
Yep, that's the connector in the video. Although that's the top one, the one I need to deal with is the bottom one with the male pins in it. Thanks for the video. I was wondering how you take that plastic body apart. I watched some videos on different connectors being disassembled but he didn't have a connector that had the body come apart like that one.
Last edited by CoffeeCommando; 01-16-2021 at 05:04 AM.
Posting this for future reference. Looking at the FSM that connector is C107. Below is the pin out for LHD 4.0 engines with AW4 transmission.
Pin Numbers:
1 - Dark Green/Orange ---> S109 from Ignition Coil to PDC-A19/20, Fuse #18 15A
2 - Green ---> PCM-C2-P10 to Alternator
3 - Brown/Yellow ---> Battery Temp Sensor back to PCM-C3-P15
3 - Brown/Yellow ---> GROUND: PCM-C1-P4 to Fuel Pump Relay & Fuel Level Sensor Signal
3 - Brown/Yellow ---> GROUND: PCM-C1-P4 to TCM-P16 & TPS
4 - White/Orange ---> Veh. Speed Sens. signal to DRL module
5 - Black/White --->NSS & PCM-C1-P6 to C10: Engine Starter Motor Relay
6 - Orange/Dark Blue ---> TPS to TCM-P17 to PCM-C1-P23: Throttle Position Sensor
7 - Dark Green ---> PDC-C12: UpStream-O2 Sensor Relay to O2 1/1 Upstream & out to G101 (same ground as pin 13)
8 - Black/Red ---> Inst. Clust. Part Time 4WD Lamp to C112-P3 to Transfer case Switch
9 - Black/Tan ---> TCM Pin 24 to G101 (TCM Ground)
10 - Dark Blue/White wire ---> TCM Pin 26 (also connects to Junction Block C2, Fuse 11 20A for Start/Run)
11 - Gray --->PCM-C1-12: Police Package Extended Idle Switch / Not Used
12 - Brown/Light Green ---> NSS to C100-P-a15 to C200-P16 to S303
13 - Violet/Orange --->PDC-C17: DownStream-O2 Sensor Relay to O2 1/2 DownStream & out to G101
14 - Dark Green/Black ---> PCM-C1-Pin22 to Fuel Pump Relay (Inside PDC)
I have noted that my 4WD part time light has been faintly on at times for no reason, and sometimes would stay on after taking it out (or fade out slowly)
Pin 6 is in a corner. It's probably for the TPS and is likely a problem given there are two burned out corners and I've had a TPS code for a while, which I replaced the connector for a year ago. Looks like I now know that it runs to the TCM and then out to the PCM. At cold start if I give it moderate throttle from a stop it can stall the engine at times and usually has hesitation even when warmed up unless I floor it. Now I guess I know why.
Given the location of the connector and how often I've seen TPS recommendations with no change in operation in the past (myself included at least 2 different times) it's likely that connector has gotten corrosion in most cases on Pin 6 from water insertion given the nature of most Cherokee usage in offroad settings, and or killing water puddles at high speed (that's where my problem started).
My gas mileage has also gotten worse than initially when torque converter lockup stopped working. Used to get 10, then it went down to 9, now it's closer to 8. I'm guessing the TPS is in the bottom right since pin 7 is O2 sensor relays and those two are corroded together. Pin 7 is quite flimsy.
Last edited by CoffeeCommando; 01-16-2021 at 04:22 PM.
Yep, that's the connector in the video. Although that's the top one, the one I need to deal with is the bottom one with the male pins in it. Thanks for the video. I was wondering how you take that plastic body apart. I watched some videos on different connectors being disassembled but he didn't have a connector that had the body come apart like that one.
Cause I could see the dipstick in your picture kinda knew which connector you were dealing with.
And was aware of the video cause I put an Ext Idle switch in my '00.
When I researching how to do it I liked how the guy did a cleaner job by putting in a wire in the connector that you are not dealing with.
Made for a nice install.
Can't comment on the end that you are dealing with but the other side was a piece of cake to take apart to add that one wire.
Lucky me I only needed to replace the one that broke, #14. The rest of the oxidized mess scrubbed off and there wasn't much on the other pins for the most part.
Last edited by CoffeeCommando; 01-16-2021 at 05:39 PM.
Would have been fun to see a before picture of the connector, but it sounds like you are on the right path. I've done the repin everything in a connector because of the crustys. It's a bit of work. I agree you should be able to get away with a partial rebuild of that connector if the wire slack and position at the connector gives enough room, but as you describe the location in the bay, I can get behind less beautiful fixes to save 40 hours of work making it accessible.
Over near the transmission dipstick tube are 2 rather large connectors. One is black and goes to the NSS and the gray connector goes to the transmission itself
. These 2 connectors carry all the info between TPS, TCU, NSS, speed sensor, and transmission solenoids.
Unplug each one, visually inspect for corrosion or bent pins, spray them out with electrical contact cleaner and plug them back in.
Additionally, if your Jeep is an ’87 to ’90 Renix, it’s always a good idea to reach up under the glovebox area and unplug the connector to the TCU and spray it out along with the receptacle of the TCU. While you’re there, find the fuse right in that area for the TCU. Remove it and spray out it’s receptacle and clean any corrosion from the fuse.
I've had a code for the vehicle speed sensor since it lost torque converter lock. I replaced 1 thinking I only had 1, but there are 2 of them. Could the one located near the rear of the transmission not functioning correctly cause that problem?
01-15-2021, 06:37 PM
Melted Wiring Harness Near Engine
