242 to 231 swapp 4wd indicator question

Kid I got my 97 from blew up the 242 case that was in it and swapped in a trans and case out of another jeep with a 231. 4wd light doesn't work (i'm ocd about stupid crap so it bothers me) and I want to get it working. My understanding is the reason for it not working is that the 242 used a 3 prong plug at the case while the 231 uses a 2 prong. To get it working could I just follow the harness up to a connector/splice and run 2 wires from there or would I be able to swap the switch for a 3 prong and make it work?

you'd need to get a 231 connector and replace the 242 connector.

I figured a little bit out about it while under it. Looks like the previous owner "tried" to fix it when they did the swap. There was no adapter for the wires installed they basically cut the wires and spliced 2 of them to the 2 wires coming from the switch. I tried reversing them to see if it changed anything it didn't tried the 3rd wire in place of each plug still nothing. the 3 wires from the harness are black black/white and red/white. I know now that if I hook the black/red to the to the black wire (these are from the harness side not the switch side) it will turn on the part time light on the dash but when hooked to the switch it does nothing

See if this helps. Page says 1996 but it's for the 1997 XJ.

97jeepxj1 said:

Kid I got my 97 from blew up the 242 case that was in it and swapped in a trans and case out of another jeep with a 231. 4wd light doesn't work (i'm ocd about stupid crap so it bothers me) and I want to get it working. My understanding is the reason for it not working is that the 242 used a 3 prong plug at the case while the 231 uses a 2 prong. To get it working could I just follow the harness up to a connector/splice and run 2 wires from there or would I be able to swap the switch for a 3 prong and make it work?

Click to expand...

The 231 and 242 use different switches on the transfer case, both are 2-pin but different genders and wiring. The 242 also came with a secondary mini-harness to reach the switch, which has to be removed to connect to the 231 switch (different gender).

The 3-pin connector you're looking at is something else, probably a speedo

if i replace the switch do I need to run all 3 harness wires into the 2 wires for the switch or just the 2 that kicked on the part time light when I touched them together?

I suck at reading wire diagrams I don't even seen the solid black wire in that one just the black/white and black/red. The black and black/red wires are what turn on the part time light if I hook them together.

The solid black wire is the output side.(ground)./look to the south side of the 4wd switch.