Re: Fire Damage Wiring Repair
 

I'm blowing a 20 amp fuse for the park and tallights and a 25 amp. fuse
next to the a/c electrical socket that I'm going to have to go back and
try again to read the label on.

I was traveling for a week, but this morning, replaced the headlamps,
the headlight dimmer swtitch, the fuses, and rewired the one suspicious
wire that could have gotten mixed up between the panel light pin and
the headlight pin. Once it was all back together, I had parking lights,
taillights, I now have the rheostat for the panel lights on the switch
(i.e., by turning the switch knob); however, the panel lights still
come on with the ignition switch, which isn't right.

I think at this point that I have exhausted all the possible solutions
I can think of, and have reached a level of frustration that requires
that I take this Jeep to a shop and turn the whole problem over to
them.

Randall Brink

Re: Fire Damage Wiring Repair
 

I'm blowing a 20 amp fuse for the park and tallights and a 25 amp. fuse
next to the a/c electrical socket that I'm going to have to go back and
try again to read the label on.

I was traveling for a week, but this morning, replaced the headlamps,
the headlight dimmer swtitch, the fuses, and rewired the one suspicious
wire that could have gotten mixed up between the panel light pin and
the headlight pin. Once it was all back together, I had parking lights,
taillights, I now have the rheostat for the panel lights on the switch
(i.e., by turning the switch knob); however, the panel lights still
come on with the ignition switch, which isn't right.

I think at this point that I have exhausted all the possible solutions
I can think of, and have reached a level of frustration that requires
that I take this Jeep to a shop and turn the whole problem over to
them.

Randall Brink

Re: Fire Damage Wiring Repair
 

I'm blowing a 20 amp fuse for the park and tallights and a 25 amp. fuse
next to the a/c electrical socket that I'm going to have to go back and
try again to read the label on.

I was traveling for a week, but this morning, replaced the headlamps,
the headlight dimmer swtitch, the fuses, and rewired the one suspicious
wire that could have gotten mixed up between the panel light pin and
the headlight pin. Once it was all back together, I had parking lights,
taillights, I now have the rheostat for the panel lights on the switch
(i.e., by turning the switch knob); however, the panel lights still
come on with the ignition switch, which isn't right.

I think at this point that I have exhausted all the possible solutions
I can think of, and have reached a level of frustration that requires
that I take this Jeep to a shop and turn the whole problem over to
them.

Randall Brink

Re: Fire Damage Wiring Repair
 

Lee:

Actually, the fire was of known origin--the switch itself. It burned
the switch and the wire connector badly, and caught the instrument
cluster on fire as well.

The radio has been replaced the a JVC after-market box, but when, I
don't know. The radio works, but the radio light comes on with the
ignition switch like the panel lights, whereas it should come on with
the headlight switch.

The panel and interior lighting rheostat does not work when the panel
lights are illuminated just with the ignition switch on (acc.) However,
the interior under-dash courtesy lights and the instrument light
rheostat work normally by turnning the the headlight switch handle, as
norma.

Randall

Re: Fire Damage Wiring Repair
 

Lee:

Actually, the fire was of known origin--the switch itself. It burned
the switch and the wire connector badly, and caught the instrument
cluster on fire as well.

The radio has been replaced the a JVC after-market box, but when, I
don't know. The radio works, but the radio light comes on with the
ignition switch like the panel lights, whereas it should come on with
the headlight switch.

The panel and interior lighting rheostat does not work when the panel
lights are illuminated just with the ignition switch on (acc.) However,
the interior under-dash courtesy lights and the instrument light
rheostat work normally by turnning the the headlight switch handle, as
norma.

Randall

Re: Fire Damage Wiring Repair
 

Lee:

Actually, the fire was of known origin--the switch itself. It burned
the switch and the wire connector badly, and caught the instrument
cluster on fire as well.

The radio has been replaced the a JVC after-market box, but when, I
don't know. The radio works, but the radio light comes on with the
ignition switch like the panel lights, whereas it should come on with
the headlight switch.

The panel and interior lighting rheostat does not work when the panel
lights are illuminated just with the ignition switch on (acc.) However,
the interior under-dash courtesy lights and the instrument light
rheostat work normally by turnning the the headlight switch handle, as
norma.

Randall

Re: Fire Damage Wiring Repair
 

Ok, so you can run the parking lights and then when you pull on the
headlights, two fuses blow, the park/tail fuse and a mystery fuse which
is likely the signals and brake lights.

Do I have that figured?

If so, then I highly suspect you have a melted spot inside the wiring
loom still. Or maybe the switch wiring is still suspect.

Do you have the pin out for the headlight switch wires? If it is the GM
one, I can look it up and post it so you know what wire is supposed to
be what.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view!
Aug./05 http://www.imagestation.com/album/in...?id=2120343242
(More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

"randallbrink@adelphia.net" wrote:
>
> I'm blowing a 20 amp fuse for the park and tallights and a 25 amp. fuse
> next to the a/c electrical socket that I'm going to have to go back and
> try again to read the label on.
>
> I was traveling for a week, but this morning, replaced the headlamps,
> the headlight dimmer swtitch, the fuses, and rewired the one suspicious
> wire that could have gotten mixed up between the panel light pin and
> the headlight pin. Once it was all back together, I had parking lights,
> taillights, I now have the rheostat for the panel lights on the switch
> (i.e., by turning the switch knob); however, the panel lights still
> come on with the ignition switch, which isn't right.
>
> I think at this point that I have exhausted all the possible solutions
> I can think of, and have reached a level of frustration that requires
> that I take this Jeep to a shop and turn the whole problem over to
> them.
>
> Randall Brink

Re: Fire Damage Wiring Repair
 

Ok, so you can run the parking lights and then when you pull on the
headlights, two fuses blow, the park/tail fuse and a mystery fuse which
is likely the signals and brake lights.

Do I have that figured?

If so, then I highly suspect you have a melted spot inside the wiring
loom still. Or maybe the switch wiring is still suspect.

Do you have the pin out for the headlight switch wires? If it is the GM
one, I can look it up and post it so you know what wire is supposed to
be what.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view!
Aug./05 http://www.imagestation.com/album/in...?id=2120343242
(More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

"randallbrink@adelphia.net" wrote:
>
> I'm blowing a 20 amp fuse for the park and tallights and a 25 amp. fuse
> next to the a/c electrical socket that I'm going to have to go back and
> try again to read the label on.
>
> I was traveling for a week, but this morning, replaced the headlamps,
> the headlight dimmer swtitch, the fuses, and rewired the one suspicious
> wire that could have gotten mixed up between the panel light pin and
> the headlight pin. Once it was all back together, I had parking lights,
> taillights, I now have the rheostat for the panel lights on the switch
> (i.e., by turning the switch knob); however, the panel lights still
> come on with the ignition switch, which isn't right.
>
> I think at this point that I have exhausted all the possible solutions
> I can think of, and have reached a level of frustration that requires
> that I take this Jeep to a shop and turn the whole problem over to
> them.
>
> Randall Brink

Re: Fire Damage Wiring Repair
 

Ok, so you can run the parking lights and then when you pull on the
headlights, two fuses blow, the park/tail fuse and a mystery fuse which
is likely the signals and brake lights.

Do I have that figured?

If so, then I highly suspect you have a melted spot inside the wiring
loom still. Or maybe the switch wiring is still suspect.

Do you have the pin out for the headlight switch wires? If it is the GM
one, I can look it up and post it so you know what wire is supposed to
be what.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's
Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: Non members can still view!
Aug./05 http://www.imagestation.com/album/in...?id=2120343242
(More Off Road album links at bottom of the view page)

"randallbrink@adelphia.net" wrote:
>
> I'm blowing a 20 amp fuse for the park and tallights and a 25 amp. fuse
> next to the a/c electrical socket that I'm going to have to go back and
> try again to read the label on.
>
> I was traveling for a week, but this morning, replaced the headlamps,
> the headlight dimmer swtitch, the fuses, and rewired the one suspicious
> wire that could have gotten mixed up between the panel light pin and
> the headlight pin. Once it was all back together, I had parking lights,
> taillights, I now have the rheostat for the panel lights on the switch
> (i.e., by turning the switch knob); however, the panel lights still
> come on with the ignition switch, which isn't right.
>
> I think at this point that I have exhausted all the possible solutions
> I can think of, and have reached a level of frustration that requires
> that I take this Jeep to a shop and turn the whole problem over to
> them.
>
> Randall Brink

Re: Fire Damage Wiring Repair
 

randallbrink@adelphia.net wrote:
> Lee:
>
> Actually, the fire was of known origin--the switch itself. It burned
> the switch and the wire connector badly, and caught the instrument
> cluster on fire as well.

Hurm. From what I've read in this thread I'm not sure that we do know
the origin. What we know is that you had a fire at the headlight
switch, but we don't know _why_. It could have been rust on the
contacts making it overheat (as happened once to my CJ's headlight
dimmer foot-switch), it could have been a mechanical failure in the
switch causing a short that melted stuff, or I suspect that it _could_
have been simply a symptom of a fault someplace else, the switch gave up
before the fuses did and the switch fire was just the most noticeable
part of it. I'm not trying to be harsh here, I'm just trying to help
keep you from being like Yossarian in _Catch-22_ and bandaging the wrong
wound on Snowden.


> The radio has been replaced the a JVC after-market box, but when, I
> don't know. The radio works, but the radio light comes on with the
> ignition switch like the panel lights, whereas it should come on with
> the headlight switch.

OK, I was looking for recent (as in just before this happened) work on
the radio, so it wasn't an original cause of the problem.


> The panel and interior lighting rheostat does not work when the panel
> lights are illuminated just with the ignition switch on (acc.) However,
> the interior under-dash courtesy lights and the instrument light
> rheostat work normally by turnning the the headlight switch handle, as
> norma.

OK, that's weirder still. There's a wiring fault someplace besides the
headlight switch and its harness, there shouldn't be any key-switched
voltage anywhere in the lighting system (engine indicator lights are not
lighting circuits).

Don't be misled by the physical proximity of the panel lamp rheostat and
the courtesy light switch: The panel light control takes power (B+)
from the parking light switch, squeezes it down on the rheostat and
sends it out to the panel lamps, after the lamps it goes to ground (B-)
on the instrument panel. The courtesy light circuit feeds B+ directly
to the courtesy lamps which then look for ground through the door
switchs or the "courtesy" setting on the headlamp switch.

I ran back through Google-Groups but couldn't find any mention of what
year Grand Wagoneer you've got. In the other message you posted you
mentioned that now you pop the tail/parking lamp fuse and another fuse
next to the A/C socket. Is this your fuse block? Is the other fuse
that pops the one shown on the lower right corner -- the heater fan fuse?
<URL:http://oljeep.com/gw/elec/84-86_FuseBlock.jpg>

When it was acting normal, did your heater fan always come on at a
low-low setting when the ignition switch was on? (Pressurized cabin, the
fan was always on with the key switch to keep exhaust gases out, like
GM's, it was a Cherokee feature from at least 1989 on, dunno about GWs).
In an early message you mentioned that you replaced the instrument
cluster and the _heater controls_ for fire damage. I'm wondering if
your initial problem might have been someplace in the blower circuit.
Because you mentioned that the headlight switch rheostat smoked when you
first replaced it I suspect that the problem is not in your parking
lights or headlights but in the panel lamp circuit and that the switch
was simply the weakest link.

Another way to try to narrow this down -- with the headlamp switch off,
turn the key switch on so your panel lamps come up (the fault you
describe -- light switch off, key on, panel lights come on). One by one
pull and leave out fuses from the panel until the lights go out or dim.
This tells you which fused circuits are feeding the panel lamp
circuit. Now pull all the fuses and replace them one by one, leaving
out the one(s) that you found powering the panel lamps, check at each
step to see if any of these are also powering the panel lamps. This
should tell you which fused circuits are _not_ involved.

I'm betting that you'll find that the TAIL and the FAN HTR fuses both
feed the panel lights.


This link might be useful to you, depending on your year:
<URL:http://oljeep.com/gw/elec/GW_wiring.html>