1990 electircal issues.

90cherk said:

When you say "test it" what "it" are you referring to the grounding screw?

I'm not looking for a silver bullet, just the most likely place to start troubleshooting. If a fix has worked for others on this forum then I'm starting with the odds it will also work for me. I'm just trying to tap the wealth of knowledge and experience on this forum and make my weekend a little longer by not wasting time chasing an issue that's not there.

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Ecomike said:

IIRC the turn signals, the radio, the WS Wipers, and AC blower all pull power from one undersized brown wire from the fuse box to the ignition switch that fries the Ign switch and the connector assy/wires, and the fuse holder connections. It also fries the wiring and Blower switch, all the way to the blower resistor pack and the HVAC blower. My 85 was the worst, the 87 almost as bad, the 89 has mostly fired the head light switches and wiring. But I would start there at the ignition switch and that brown wire

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Hardrock2401 said:

Voltage while at idle is 14v+, checking with a good mulitmeter, gauge never moves from 9v in the cluster. Given I cant hold the multimeter under the hood while driving, I could not tell you whether it is any different while driving.

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lawagoneer said:

I had a similar issue with my '89. The dash gauge would read much lower than my multi-meter and I would have problems with starting. I got it fixed but it took a few things. First clean all the grounds, the Renix is notorious for bad grounds causing problems. Like you my alternator was OEM to the XJ so I replaced it, both these things improved the situation but didn't fix it. I finally changed the alternator charge wire from the factory 10 ga to 4 ga, with a 150 amp fuse, and then added 2 ga battery cables. After this my XJ startes and the dash gauge, my multi-meter and the aftermarket volt meter I added all agree as to the voltage, 14.6 at idle. The Jeep spins over faster and starts without issue now.

Short of that make sure ALL the connections in the starting and charging circuits are clean and bright. Also check the ground behind the drivers kick panel to make sure it is clean and tight as it will cause erroneous readings on the dash cluster.

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