IndianaJohn
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Indiana
New XJ owner here, but not new to Jeeps. First Chrysler built Jeep tho....
Anyway, just bought a 98 Sport 4.0, auto, 4x4 for $700. It has an electrical issue carried over from a hack job a DPO did. They had spliced into the start wire from the key switch and ran it straight down to the solenoid on the starter, bypassing the start relay and 30 amp maxi fuse in the PDC. Unfortunately I didn't know what that stray yellow wire running thru the firewall was for, so I removed it when I took out all the cobbled wiring that was for the old snow plow lights that I removed. A couple days later I tried to start the Jeep. To my surprise, it refused to crank over. So I started to troubleshoot the problem. Quickly found the Starter/HBL maxi fuse blown in the PDC. Replaced the fuse, but still no start! Did some reading online and learned about the infamous starter actuator failure issue. Ordered a new one, replaced it, still no starter action. But that's when I noticed the cut wire with a yellow wire spliced into it off the ignition switch. So I removed what was left of the yellow wire and spliced the original back together. You guessed it, still no crank. Started to get really frustrated now. So after some serious troubleshooting with the meter, I determined that the start relay was getting power with the key in the start position and was activating, but not getting to the solenoid. So, assuming the wire going down the the solenoid was bad, I ran a new wire from the output of the relay down to the solenoid. Jeep cranks over and starts right up. Problem solved, right? Not exactly. A couple of weeks later, I was fooling around with the dash switches trying to figure out why the rear wiper wasn't working (a problem for another time), and hit the rear defrost switch too. Went to start the Jeep. You guessed it, no crank again. Checked the maxi fuse and of course it was blown. After thinking about for a minute, the bulb lit! Apparently the DPO had tried to fix a problem with one circuit (rear defrost), by "fixing" a different circuit. :flamemad: Replacing the fuse and hitting the defrost switch confirmed it. So now I have to fix the real problem, the rear defrost circuit. Which is complicated by the fact that it also has heated mirrors running off that same switch, so it could be an issue in three different locations. However, my skill with Google has yet to turn up a schematic for these circuits. And without a schematic it's pretty tough to trace thru the circuits to find the apparent short. If anyone has a link to a site where I could find this schematic, I'd sure appreciate it. Or if anyone has a clue how I can at least separate the heated mirrors from the RWD to narrow down where the problem might be, I would be thankful for that too.
Sorry for being so long winded, but I figured it might help to give the background on the problem. Or at the least, someone might enjoy a good DPO story!
Thanks for listening.
IJ
Anyway, just bought a 98 Sport 4.0, auto, 4x4 for $700. It has an electrical issue carried over from a hack job a DPO did. They had spliced into the start wire from the key switch and ran it straight down to the solenoid on the starter, bypassing the start relay and 30 amp maxi fuse in the PDC. Unfortunately I didn't know what that stray yellow wire running thru the firewall was for, so I removed it when I took out all the cobbled wiring that was for the old snow plow lights that I removed. A couple days later I tried to start the Jeep. To my surprise, it refused to crank over. So I started to troubleshoot the problem. Quickly found the Starter/HBL maxi fuse blown in the PDC. Replaced the fuse, but still no start! Did some reading online and learned about the infamous starter actuator failure issue. Ordered a new one, replaced it, still no starter action. But that's when I noticed the cut wire with a yellow wire spliced into it off the ignition switch. So I removed what was left of the yellow wire and spliced the original back together. You guessed it, still no crank. Started to get really frustrated now. So after some serious troubleshooting with the meter, I determined that the start relay was getting power with the key in the start position and was activating, but not getting to the solenoid. So, assuming the wire going down the the solenoid was bad, I ran a new wire from the output of the relay down to the solenoid. Jeep cranks over and starts right up. Problem solved, right? Not exactly. A couple of weeks later, I was fooling around with the dash switches trying to figure out why the rear wiper wasn't working (a problem for another time), and hit the rear defrost switch too. Went to start the Jeep. You guessed it, no crank again. Checked the maxi fuse and of course it was blown. After thinking about for a minute, the bulb lit! Apparently the DPO had tried to fix a problem with one circuit (rear defrost), by "fixing" a different circuit. :flamemad: Replacing the fuse and hitting the defrost switch confirmed it. So now I have to fix the real problem, the rear defrost circuit. Which is complicated by the fact that it also has heated mirrors running off that same switch, so it could be an issue in three different locations. However, my skill with Google has yet to turn up a schematic for these circuits. And without a schematic it's pretty tough to trace thru the circuits to find the apparent short. If anyone has a link to a site where I could find this schematic, I'd sure appreciate it. Or if anyone has a clue how I can at least separate the heated mirrors from the RWD to narrow down where the problem might be, I would be thankful for that too.
Sorry for being so long winded, but I figured it might help to give the background on the problem. Or at the least, someone might enjoy a good DPO story!
Thanks for listening.
IJ
