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Frankenstien electrical needs help please..

jmeti000

NAXJA Forum User
Location
san antonio,tx
Ok, first i started getting a really strange noise coming from the front of the engine that sounded like the PS pulley bearing was going out...dont ask why, but I grabbed some WD-40 and sprayed it on the belt and the noise went away, but then I could hear a "tick" sound like an arc coming from the harmonic balancer...fast forward to later that night and you could in fact see a little spark coming off it.

Then, for some reason when my a/c compressor would kick on and one day i got a whiff of something burning... very randomly and all at the same time my stereo, cig. lighter, and entire climate control system would all short out.

I checked all my fuses and come to find out that the ONE fuse that blew (more like fried almost in half plastic and all) is actually the fuse for my turn signal/BU lights. Curiosity got the better of me so I pulled my fuse box out thinkin that maybe it ran on some type of circuit board set up...but it doesnt...And for some reason there is a blue wire connecting the power wire to the gauges with the power wire for the turn signal backup fuse (later found out the wire is what supplies the power for it...but doesnt look factory at all).

So, I put it all back together since its worked fine for the last 3 years till now, and on my way to work today I heard the noise again from under the hood and got the burning smell again. Once i got to work, I checked the fuses and everything was fine, no burning wires and melted fuses. I got back in the jeep, started the engine again and clicked on the a/c only to hear the awful noise come back, and go away when it was turned off. I unplugged the compressor, started the jeep, turned on the stereo, and turned on the blower motor. My stereo blinked off only while going past the a/c settings once, but never again and the noise was completely gone from then, and the whole drive home which leads me to believe that the compressor is grounding out.

Does that sound right? and if so, how is that affecting everything else when the radio actually has its own fuse in the block? (I still cant figure out how the turn lamp fuse has anything to do with everything, but whatever)...can you tell im lost??

thanks,
jmeti000
 
Check all your grounds, battery to engine and battery to chassis, and particularly the braided wire running from the rear of the head to the cowl. It may look all right but actually be nothing but powder. Strange things happen when your grounds are bad.

edit to add: I had an 87 4.0. The wiring in those is minimal at best already, so you might even consider adding a ground or two, especially for the radio, whose factory harness, as I recall, shares a skimpy little ground wire with the cig. lighter.
 
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