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low voltage

toates89

toates89

NAXJA Forum User
Location
suffolk
my 89 xj has this issue. my voltage gauge is reading half way between 14 and red(where all other jeeps tend to run at 14 or a hair under), then when the blower motor is on it drop to the top of the red.

today i cleaned my grounds from the battery to block and firewall to block. replaced the alternator(was a ***** ton of sand in the bearings) replaced the battery under warranty.

still reading the same



anything i am missing? where does the voltage take its reading from?
 
That fixes the guage reading but does not address any loss in voltage at the fuse box. My power locks work fine when the motor is running but do not work when it is turned off. I know about the need to rewire my power door locks for this vintage but I am concerned that the power to the cabin is less that it should be. Haven't checked the voltage at the fuse box yet... kind of premature to make these statemets but I am too lazy to check then come back to this thread!
 
Don't trust the Battery gauge in the cluster. Put a meter directly on the battery.
 
What about the volatage of the instrument panel. Is it low as the meter indicates? I did go out and test mine. The voltage at the fuse box was only.1 less than the battery when the engine was running. This indicates a possible issue with the power to the instrument circuit with the VMeter. I guess I will look up the schmatic to see where it is.
 
Have you looked at the ground wire for the entire instrument panel? It's attached up under the dash near the cruise module and intermittent wiper relay. It's pretty chincy. Black wire held on to the lower dash with a sheet metal screw. I removed it, added a length of wire and connected it to a stud near the fuse box on the left kick panel.
 
No. Thanks for the place to look! I will check that out. The whole instrument panel is dim during the day with the clock hard to read (not on the radio). Upgrade sounds good.
 
I have been having trouble with my Cruise lately too, on off or slows down before catching. I looked at the connector to the servo and was surprised to see it is not a sealed connector. I guess if it gets wet there is no threat to the engine running!

I am thinking the connector to the control module may need cleaning.
 
Something I like to do on any newly acquired XJ or one of a customer's is to unplug every connector I can find in the engine bay, spray it out with a good electronics cleaner, add dielectric grease and reconnect.
 
Did a lot of searching but was not able to locate the ground wire. Took the wiper control, CC and Emissions modules out and looked up there with my head by the brake pedal. Couldn't see a ground wire. Did measure voltage at the fuse box, .5 V less than battery voltage.

My weak clock light was due to the original bulb near end of life. Touched it and it was gone.

I also pulled the IP out part way to follow the cable but it goes up under the upper dash and I couldn't follow it. I will start searching through the FSM.
 
There's a diagonal brace that runs from the lower dash panel to the driver's side kick panel. About where the brace attaches to the dash panel is where the ground wire is screwed to it.
 
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