Rewiring my Jeep - Part 6
This entry covers 4 days of work, and is likely the final entry in my rewiring project.
I started out Saturday installing the tail lights (weather pack connectors suck), then doing a gauge check. The Painless manual said to use your battery charger, not the battery…. but my charger was too “smart” for that and wouldn’t deliver any juice. So I just hooked up the battery and went for it.
The dash lit up - all of the SpeedHut gauges worked (and looked amazing!) and the new ID lights all looked good too. The only thing not coming on was the Radio…
I checked the radio wiring with a multi-meter, and was getting a good 12v current with the key in the ACC position. However, the 12v constant for the Radio clock had no power. Checking the Painless manual, that wire comes off of the Horn fuse. Sure enough, the Horn fuse was blown. I disconnected the Radio, and tried again. Blew another fuse. Disconnected the horn and tried again, blew another fuse. I checked the manual, but couldn’t find a nice list of everything off of that fuse, so I pulled the manual up on my phone and searched for “horn”, eventually spotted that the cigarette lighter was on that fuse. Disconnected that, tried again, no more blown fuse.
I hooked the Radio back up (not the horn, my steering wheel horn button doesn’t work anyway) and gave it another go - now the Radio worked, too.
The gauges that didn’t require the jeep to be running at least seemed OK, so it was time to tackle the fuel. I used a multi-meter to check the ohms (78, empty), then connected the sending unit & ground. The SpeedHut fuel gauge has different ranges to match different sending units, so I chose one where empty was 0 ohms and full was 100 ohms. The tank showed 3/4 full. I switched back to the 70 - 10 which matches the jeep range, and it showed near empty. All set (note, since the tank was empty, I should have did a custom “empty” setting…. I’ll have to siphon the gas back out and do that. Doh)
Once I knew the gauge worked, it was time to reinstall the fuel tank (with the help of my sons). My rear crossmember has some damage that makes installing the fuel tank a real pain in the butt, but it’s back on and secure.
On Sunday, the next thing I noticed was the turn signals and hazards only worked with the lights off. If I turned on the parking lights or headlights, they stopped working. Google told me that could be a bad ground on the front parking/turn lamps, or incorrect wiring. So I pulled the front lights back off and checked. Sure enough, both of the new turn/park lamps I got had been wired wrong. I corrected that, and connected the ground wire (meant for fiberglass bodies) to them for good measure. Turn signals worked properly after that!
Finally, it was time to crank the engine. I’m happy to report it turned over and fired right up pretty quickly (once some gas got to the engine). No signs of leaks from the new sensors, no wires burning or burned out. It just worked. Couldn’t be happier!
Also super cool was seeing the Tach work - sometimes it’s the little things. 21 years of ownership, and I finally have a working Tach. (Also verified the oil pressure & Temp gauges are working as well)
While the Radio had power, I hadn’t finished wiring the amp & speakers, so that was next on the list for Monday. I installed two 6x9’s in the rear by the rollbar, the amp is located in the center console.
With the radio working (and sounding great!) the remaining work for Tuesday was to remove all the wiring leads not needed, and tidy up everything. I waited to do this until I was sure everything was working correctly.
For the wire ends, I labelled them all, clipped them, and covered the end in heat shrink tubing (the marine grade tubing with glue in it). This was if I do ever need them, I have a chance of finding them, and they won’t short out against anything. I added some additional split tubing around the wires where I could as well. I removed quite the pile of wiring from the dash. It’s still cluttered back there, but much better than it was.
I have some very minor follow up tasks to do. I have a new firewall seal to install around the steering column. I have a new seal coming for the shifter cover. I’ve ordered better quality 8 gauge cable for the power to the stereo amp. I need to find and order a new cigarette lighter (you can see the cable for it hanging down in the last photo).
I also want to do some 3d prints - a mount for a USB port that can go below the dash, and a cover for the extra hole above the oil pressure gauge.
All of that can be done as the bits arrive, or I have time. So this will likely be the last update on the jeep rewiring project - it was a lot of fun, I learned a LOT about my jeep, and it’s much better off now that this is done!
