Rewiring my Jeep, Part 5
Another weekend of work on the Jeep, and it’s getting closer to finished. If it had been just the rewiring, I’d be done, but I’m taking the time to make other improvements as I go (and I’m also a bit detail oriented and cautious when it comes to things like this).
First up this weekend was replacing the old battery tray - a marked improvement, and much safer! (I do notice the battery doesn’t really fit well in the new tray, but then again it didn’t fit well in the old tray. I may have the wrong size battery…)
With the battery tray replaced it was time to move on to the rest of the engine wiring, starting with the starter solenoid, alternator, starter, and battery. Also included was installing a new MIDI fuse that’s part of the Painless wiring kit.
This is the part of the wiring that differs the most from what was there before. Since I can’t find anything online that remotely resembles what was there previously, I’m following the new wiring harness’ manual for the alternator and solenoid I have.
Next up was wiring the headlights. I’d had to wait on new retaining rings, and also epoxied one of the brackets that had been broken prior and “repaired” with using a wood screw instead of the proper bolt. Thankfully I had proper bolts for everything on hand. The signal markers, however, were in very rough shape. The plastic is cracked badly, and the reflective backing is rusted and pitted. The lamp socket was entirely rusted as well. Replacements have been ordered! (I put the old ones in temporarily, they’re easy to swap out, but there are no bulbs in them for now)
Next up I installed the inline 60A fuse for the new amp, along with some strain relief for the amp power cable.
And finally it was time to start on the taillights. It’s funny the things you never notice…. 21 years of owning this jeep, and I’d never thought about how my taillights were round, when cj-7’s had square tail lights. The stock lights mounted externally to the body, mine were flush.
It hit me when I realized the light connector didn’t match the harness at all. It turns out the previous owner had drilled 4.5” holes and used trailer lights. Which also explains why I didn’t have white back up lights.
I googled the lights I had, they’re a discontinued model. So, rather than reinstall those, I decided to order some new LED trailer lights to fit the same holes, but with both the red brake/turn/running light bulbs + white reverse bulbs.
Remaining to do are swap the front turn markers when they arrive, install the rear wiring harness and put the gas tank back in place, and finish wiring the amp & speakers (including installing the new speaker boxes by the roll bar, though I’ve done a test fit).
Then I can do a systems check using a low amperage power source and validate the lights, gauges, radio etc are working properly. Once things all check out, I plan to shorten the dash wiring to tidy things up (recrimping ends on anything I shorten) and cutting off all the un-needed gauge wiring (there’s a lot of it!) so I can cap it all off with heat shrink tubing. That should make any future work on the dash MUCH easier.
Then, finally, I can turn the key and see if it starts up!
The previous owner of my jeep, apparently.
