Thought I'd post an update for you fellas. I have discovered, learned, and fixed more things on this Cherokee than I ever thought possible. First things first. The brake lights no working.
I thought screw it - the parking lights can wait. I NEED brake lights. Tore apart the entire circuit until I came upon and ungodly looking aftermarket splice right next to the drivers seat. It had some wires coming out of the splice(s), that looked to have been cut with some dykes, and tossed back under the panel. Ripped all that garbage out, re-spliced the wire using a seamless barrel, and some adhesive lined shrink tubing. Brake lights now working. Awesome.
About 6 inches down from that, the same thing was going on with the reverse light circuit. More ridiculous splices that looked like a 16 year old would use on his first ever car stereo. I could NOT believe this was being used as a gvt. vehicle... Fixed the splices, and moved on. Reverse lights now worked. Awesome.
Now, onto some major stuff. The rear defogger had started blowing the 30amp starter maxi fuse. Everytime you flipped the switch on, you would hear a loud click, and the car wouldn't start. Hmmmm.... more on that in a minute.
After fixing the brake lights, I realized the CHMSL still wasn't working. Peculiar. So I took off the cover, started rooting around with connectors in the liftgate, and pulled gently on the brake wiring looking for anything obvious. Found it. The lightbulb connector and about 6 inches of wiring pulled right out into my had. Oh lord...
So I then decided to remove both grommets from the center top liftgate area and see exactly what was going on. After pulling apart a LOT of sticky mess, I found the jackpot. 3 connectors, 11 wires exiting the cab via the roofline, and entering the top of the liftgate. 8, yes EIGHT on the 11 wires were broken. Not completely snapped off (although the brake lights, and power lock wires actually were), but imagine taking a piece of wire and bending it in between your fingers about a million times. The wire becomes weak, and the insulation falls apart. What used to be a 100 strand 12awg defogger wire, is now a 10 strand exposed electrical nightmare. Everything was touching everything, shorting everything, blowing everything, it was a mess. I ended up cutting about a foot of wire out from all 11 wires, and splicing 2 new feet of wire back in place. The extra definitely helped with re-installation.
Still no more progress on the parking lights. They come and go as they please. However I did prep the car for class tomorrow. There is literally nothing in the interior except for a drivers seat, steering column, and gauge cluster. We'll see what happens tomorrow night.
