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Rear cargo light wiring

D

dudeinanxj

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Georgetown, KY
I bought a 1997 XJ and the previous owner removed the sound bar and cut the whole wiring harness that went to the speakers/dome light. Once I get the headliner back in, I am going to add a dome light back there.

Does anyone know what wire is what that is for the dome light?
 
all the lights have constant battery power (pink?) so they can work when the car door is opened. the yellow wire provides switched ground for the cabin lights whenever a door is opened or the knob is twisted. purple/yellow is a separate switched ground from the hatch that goes into the cargo light button. if the button is ON the ground passes through the cargo light into the cabin harness where it turns on those lights too, otherwise if the button is OFF the hatch ground is interrupted at the button.

those colors are for my 91
 
Pic of my stock lights. I wrote this down, then tossed it once I got the meter out. White is switched power (dome, jambs, cargo switch), orange is constant?

DSCF5130.jpg


Check the connection at the A pillar- I think it might be the same colors.
 
Last edited:
ehall said:
the wire color in the housing is different from the wire colors in the harness
Click to expand...

Gah, forgot that little detail.

Dude, I put lights from an 00 in mine, and I had to swap the two hot wires, but the plugs and wire colors were exactly the same. I've got it somewhere around here.
edit- Found it

I've got the following for the 97
Black Ground
Pink Constant
Yellow Jamb

I'll defer to ehall if you've got something different- he's done this more recently than I have.
 
Last edited:
Yes. I could not get my brain around the ground switching until I saw your thread. I have trouble with the factory wiring, being able to see only bits and pieces of any given circuit.

Dude, if you need dome/cargo lights, you can have mine for the cost of shipping. They're just taking up space on my bench.
 
hubs97xj said:
Yes. I could not get my brain around the ground switching until I saw your thread. I have trouble with the factory wiring, being able to see only bits and pieces of any given circuit.

Dude, if you need dome/cargo lights, you can have mine for the cost of shipping. They're just taking up space on my bench.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but I already have one on the way.

The wire colors I have for the rear are Purple, Yellow, and Pink. I put a test light on each wire and no matter the situation, I could not get a light. Yes, the test light works, I tried it on the front dome light and worked just fine. :)

The front dome light had Pink, Yellow, and Black. The test light stayed lit no matter the situation when hooked to the Pink wire, Yellow did nothing, and I assume black is ground.

Is there a separate fuse for the rear cargo light? I don't have an owners manual to see.
 
Pink is constant battery power so that the lights work when you open the doors/hatch for groceries. If you are not getting voltage on the cargo pink you got a problem and no there is not a separate fuse that I know of.

If you have a multimeter you can check resistance between the body and the other two wires. Yellow should go active ground whenever you open a door or turn the headlamp knob. Purple should go active ground whenever you open the hatch.

Make sure you put the ground probe inside a screw hole or something else that is exposed metal, because the paint and zinc coating on the sheetmetal will block the current
 
This is what I got.

Pink is constant like you said, 12.4V no matter what.

Yellow and Purple, no readings no matter what.

Same goes for the front dome light.
 
I get nothing with the multimeter at the plug other than a reading for the constant (Pink) wire. I was going to visually inspect it, but the bulb is shot. I never paid any attention to it coming on or not. I've only had the Jeep about a week and a half and has sat parked since I drove it home.
 
For comparison - the color codes for a 96 center dome light connector are A = pink, B = yellow, C = black (polarizer tab is nearest position C.)

Pink (according to Haynes, and it makes sense based on wiring in my spare dome light) goes to a 10A fuse to the "hot at all times" 12V bus. Yellow is switched ground via all the various switches that can turn the dome lights on. Black is constant ground.
 
The forward lights are different setup from the rear. Some of the consoles have map lights with built-in switches that activate ground when they are toggled. In that setup the constant ground goes to the switch, and the switch passes ground to the map light whenever it is pressed. Conversely the cargo ground is switched when the hatch is opened, and the button on the lamp is in-line with that.
 
Don't want to hi-jack but my 97 cargo lamp doesn't work when the hatch is open. I didn't know it was suppose to. I re-tap my key fob after it goes off to turn it back on. Where should I look for stwich, or problem? Other info in this thread is good....Al
 
if the cargo light works when the forward cabin lights are on but does not work when the hatch is opened then the likely causes are either (a) the button in the cargo lamp is in the OFF position, or (b) one of the hatch ground wires are damaged, most likely (a)
 
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