Headlight/Parking lights ground

1990 XJ
4.0L
AW-4
I am trying to clean(refresh) the ground connections for my lights. The shop manual wiring diagram says the ground attachment is on the "left shock tower". Unless I am missing something I do not see this attachment point. It must be somewhere I am missing. Does anyone with a similar XJ know where to look??
Thanks for your help. Dandxj

I'm not sure what they go to but this is what I have.



89 XJ
4.0

That's it. And a crappy ground it is!!

Best to add a supplemental harness and bypass the crappy headlight wiring.

http://www.cherokeeforum.com/f51/hd-headlight-harness-write-up-11306/

cruiser54 said:

That's it. And a crappy ground it is!!

Best to add a supplemental harness and bypass the crappy headlight wiring.

http://www.cherokeeforum.com/f51/hd-headlight-harness-write-up-11306/

Click to expand...

...Or, dissassemble and treat with Caig DeoxIT products

http://store.caig.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.188/.f

SuperB60ce said:

...Or, dissassemble and treat with Caig DeoxIT products

http://store.caig.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.188/.f

Click to expand...

Do a harness.

I thank all for your input. I found the attachment shown. I guess I was looking for something closer to the shock mount not up on the fender. I will clean the attachment for now and look at getting a harness as suggested for a correct fix. I am surprised how many items ground through this attachment.
Thanks again.

DanDXJ said:

I thank all for your input. I found the attachment shown. I guess I was looking for something closer to the shock mount not up on the fender. I will clean the attachment for now and look at getting a harness as suggested for a correct fix. I am surprised how many items ground through this attachment.
Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Get the harness. Your stock headlights will become 35-40% brighter and the switch will last forever as a result.

I discovered something the other day regarding all the things that ground there. One is the blower motor which is about 10 feet from there as the wire runs. I cut the ground wire and put both ends into a ring terminal and fastened it on the passenger inner fender. Blower moves more air now.

I picked up one of these HL harnesses and installed it in my MJ yesterday.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221349534772?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

Met some family for dinner last night and it made a big difference. Currently running some stock replacement sealed beams that came with the 97-up header panel I have. THe lights are brighter and a nice white. Vs the dull Yellow-ish that they used to be. Easy to install, basically plug n pray.

cruiser54 said:

That's it. And a crappy ground it is!!

Best to add a supplemental harness and bypass the crappy headlight wiring.

http://www.cherokeeforum.com/f51/hd-headlight-harness-write-up-11306/

Click to expand...

Had to construct my own harness. Ran the ground back to the same inner fender lug that has the short direct ground wire from the battery. Its there to the right of the relays. Big black wire goes from that lug to the battery negative clamp. (Clamp off battery in this pic) Can't get much more direct than that.



Here are the details on curing the blinks from under sized harness: Especially in frequent or extended high beam mode. This is on the waggie quad light setup.

I couldn't find a Putco or other prefab harness upgrade for the quad light so I made my own.

Old high and low beam wires were cut just on the header panel side of the harness connector. New wires were connected and run along the old harness and then back by the battery to operate the primary side of the relays mounted near the battery. One each for high and low beams. (Separate bulbs on the waggie.)

Power for the secondary side of the relays was taken from the PDC main battery/fusible link connection nut (96 has this and not the big fuse there). Separate high and low beam circuit fuses are in the short run from there to each relay. See pic.

The load side of each relay secondary serves the respective high and low beam bulbs. All new sockets were used at the bulbs. 16 gauge wire was used on these circuits. Same with the grounds, which were run from each bulb back to the body lug at the short battery neg terminal to body wire. Its on the inner fender right by the neg terminal of the battery. Good, clean, and direct grounds. Cruiser54 will like that.

All works very good. High and low circuits are completely independent and fail safe from each other. Each is independently fused as close to the battery as possible. This is an added safety feature should one circuit fail.

All connections were soldered and shrink wrapped. UF relay is for the UF upper bulbs-the low beam circuit. The LF relay is for the LF lower bulbs-the high beam circuit.

I know it's kind of counter intuitive, but the low beam bulbs are mounted high for better downward shine. The high beam bulbs are below them. Anyone running the quad light waggie front appreciates the independent aiming flexibility of the separate high and low beam bulbs. Something not available on most cars anymore.

Happytrails said:

I couldn't find a Putco or other prefab harness upgrade for the quad light so I made my own.

Click to expand...

There is an LMCtruck harness that has the "quad light setup. Fur future reference. Years ago, when I ordered one on ebay, I received the "wrong one". Which is the quad light one. I have it installed and the spare connectors just sitting out of the way. I've thought about potentially using these for add-on lights using H4 adapters.

Cool option! Right off your shelf! I had the itch to make it from scratch. Since I have spools of wire left over from my 49 Plymouth Woodie project.