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Rear brakes and axle seals. Now running lights blow fuse

Steve_Moore

Steve_Moore

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Missouri
As the title say, after I had rear brakes and both rear axle seals as well as the power steering pump high side hose. Everything went well and I was on my way home in the dark, when the dash lights went out, which of course means the tail's and fronts went too.

Next morning I searched here and changed the fuse. All seemed well . I had drove it around for 2 days with the running lights on without a problem . On my way home tonite they did it again. Twice.

I will be checking things out when the rains stop, but I was wondering if anyone had advice on where to start?

Any advice appreciated.
 
trace wires
 
stewie said:
trace wires
Click to expand...

Ok. Exactly "how" are you talking about doing this? If I could just look at the wires and follow them , that would be great, but we know that won't be the case.

It hasn't stopped raining yet, so I have not messed with it. Strange thing it seems to do it at random times. The first time I had drove for 30 minutes before it did it. I changed the fuse and it was fine for 4-5 30+ minute stints at a time. Last nite it was about 15-20 minutes the first time. 5 minutes or less the second time, and wouldn't work at all after that.

I'm just at a loss right now.
 
Most likely place for wire to short out is where the license plate light wire goes into the lift gate. Pull trim in the rear to find that wire and disconnect it. See if that fixes it. If it does, you can trace that wire or run a new one from the rear harness through to the light.
 
winterbeater said:
Most likely place for wire to short out is where the license plate light wire goes into the lift gate. Pull trim in the rear to find that wire and disconnect it. See if that fixes it. If it does, you can trace that wire or run a new one from the rear harness through to the light.
Click to expand...

I'll look there first. THANK YOU! :cheers:
 
Ok, I looked at the wire going to the liftgate and all looks good. BUT, before I did anything I thought I would check with another fuse to see if it works right now. A 15 amp is what was there, so I put a 10 as not to waste the 15's. Low and behold, the lights came on, where the other night after about 15-20 minutes of driving it would blow a fuse immediately. I left the lights on with a battery charger on it to see if it will blow after awhile.

It's seeming to me the common denominator in this thing is it happens AFTER it runs for awhile. :tears: I'll keep ya posted.

If it matters, it's a '93 Country model.
 
Alright, it has to have something to do with it getting hot. Like I said, I put a fuse in when it was cold today, and it was on for 1 1/2 hrs, although only about 30 minutes was actually driving, the rest was sitting in the drive with the charger on it.

After I actually drove it for !30 mins, it blew, then when I went to put another, it stayed on for about 10 seconds. After that, nothing but blowing them. I do see a spark on one side of the fuse block where the fuse goes in when it happens, though.

This sound like anything to anyone? I'm stumped.
 
Unplug the wire to the liftgate lic. plate light. You can't see the wire where it passes through the door. Driving and vibrating can make a short come and go. You also never said what year. The wires are different.
 
I'm no electrical guru, but seems to me that you should be looking in places where the work took place to see what might have happened. Not many wires can be affected with brakes and axle seals, but there are a ton on wires that run near the power steering pump. Someone might have pinched a wire with re-installation of things that probably were removed to access the power steering hose. As the engine bay warms up, metal expands and wire insulation becomes softer. Maybe a wire sagging and shorting after it gets more pliable, maybe metal pinching only after warming up?

Just my $0.02. Let us know what you find.
 
Sorry, I missed the year at first. Do you have a wiring diagram? Usually you can find key spots to disconnect and test, but an intermittant is the worst. If you get it up again and want to test, look for a bumpy road to make the short show up.

Clear out your PM's a little for more info.
 
Last edited:
winterbeater said:
Sorry, I missed the year at first. Do you have a wiring diagram? Usually you can find key spots to disconnect and test, but an intermittant is the worst. If you get it up again and want to test, look for a bumpy road to make the short show up.

Clear out your PM's a little for more info.
Click to expand...

NP on missing the year. I cleaned it out also, thanks.
 
***UPDATE***

This thing has been driving me nuts all day. It's cold out as well as muddy, so laying in it wasn't what I wanted to spend my day doing obviously, but we all know these things won't fix themselves. :banghead:

I sorta started doing what Flyfisher was saying. There weren't really any wires in the immediate vicinity, but I kept looking. I put a fuse in and it blew right away. :mad:

I wiggled the wires coming out of each front running light because they were right there within reach. I put another fuse in and it worked! :yelclap:

I again, with the lights still on, began to wiggle one side, then the other. I got to the driver side and the lights went out when I wiggled them.:idea: Blew another fuse. I was on the right track. :sunshine:

It was dark out already so I got my light out and bundled up. I crawled underneath. Looky what I found.

This is looking up towards the drivers side light. Notice the sharp metal lip where wires come through at what looks like a bundle of wires.:

jeepwires007.jpg


After careful inspection, something looks amiss....

jeepwires002.jpg


There is the culprit.

jeepwires006.jpg


BINGO!
jeepwires011.jpg


So I taped it up with a few layers of electrical tape, and put some of the leftover fender trim on the sharp lip!
jeepwires024.jpg



jeepwires021.jpg


I appreciate ALL your guys help in giving me some ideas. I felt like I should take some pics as it happened so I could show you guys what was wrong. You know, the picture worth a thousand words stuff....

This place is great! Thanks!
Steve
 
Awesome work! Electrical gremlins are real fun aren't they...

I think this is the shortest solved lights/electrical gremlins thread I've seen so far. I know the last one I semi-followed hit about the same number of pages as this one has posts.

Now I feel motivated to try and figure out why my intermittent rear wiper stops erratically :smsoap: Should have figured that out long ago.
 
looks like stewie was right, trace the wires.

in his defense, its really tough to give suggestions/advise to electrical problems because of the vast levels of abitlity/knowledge that people have when it comes to 12vdc circuits.
 
It's also difficult due to confirmation bias or conflating correlation and causation... "I just worked on my brakes and axle seals, now my lights are flaky, how the hell is this related? But it MUST be!" - it's just human nature, we like seeing patterns and will see them even where no pattern exists. In reality, Murphy's Law just kicks us hard every time :roll: And it doesn't make it any easier that such tiny hidden defects in electrical stuff can screw the whole thing up, nor that they're usually a lot more intermittent than mechanical failures.
 
kastein said:
It's also difficult due to confirmation bias or conflating correlation and causation... "I just worked on my brakes and axle seals, now my lights are flaky, how the hell is this related? But it MUST be!" - it's just human nature, we like seeing patterns and will see them even where no pattern exists. In reality, Murphy's Law just kicks us hard every time :roll: And it doesn't make it any easier that such tiny hidden defects in electrical stuff can screw the whole thing up, nor that they're usually a lot more intermittent than mechanical failures.
Click to expand...

well the repair work for the power steering pump and front axle seals are near where the problem was found. i know that when working on the front axle, i needed a little help getting my balance to stand up and i have reached up to grab something to hold. maybe the person who did the work grabbed there and didnt realze he had pulled the wires?
 
That wire would have eventually vibrated through anyway and you'd have the same issue. Also, always be suspicious of little blue "trailer light" connectors like the one next to your problem short (in your picture). I use them myself (lame, I know) but when my stuff quits working, the first thing I do is trace in and out voltage at those makeshift connectors (and wiggle them around.
 
winterbeater said:
That wire would have eventually vibrated through anyway and you'd have the same issue.
Click to expand...

I think it was bound to happen anyway, and I'm not sure one had anything to do with the other anyway. May have just been time.

winterbeater said:
Also, always be suspicious of little blue "trailer light" connectors like the one next to your problem short (in your picture). I use them myself (lame, I know) but when my stuff quits working, the first thing I do is trace in and out voltage at those makeshift connectors (and wiggle them around.
Click to expand...

Good tip.

I posted here because we all know these Jeeps have little "quirks" about them. I defiantly don't know as much as most of you, and some are just Jeep-Genius'. I didn't know if the same would fall true for the problem I was having. As you pointed out earlier about the liftgate, I can see that being a problem but never thought of it myself.

I was gonna have to look for it weather or not anyone answered this thread, but I wanted to see if the "hive-mind" had any insight before I did.
Thanks again . :)
 
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