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Stock XJ Cherokee Tech. All XJ Non-modified/stock questions go hereXJ (84-01)
All OEM related XJ specific tech. Examples, no start, general maintenance or anything that's stock.
So I didn't have lights on my right tail light. After googling a lot and reading up on it I realized it had to be bad wiring. I took out the back paneling and found that the harness was pretty much completely rotted. I pulled out the turn signal, brake, and driving wires and match them up and taped them together for the time being. I've tried to find what kind of parts I could get to replace both ends of the harness, but i'm not having much luck. I found this, which seems to be what I would need from the light side http://www.partstrain.com/store/deta...iABEgLnnPD_BwE
but i'm not sure about the other side, it needs replaced too.
I noticed too, that there seems to be one extra wire coming in on that side, so i'm not sure if its possible to cut and hardwire it.
Any suggestions? I tried to look at the wiring chart, but I can't seem to identify where this harness is and all the wires coming in.
Attached are pics of both sides of the harness. light side connector coming from the front the brake light wire came right out of the side that is coming from the front of the jeep
That particular harness in my 2000 XJ went up in flames so I had NO connectors left! I just butt spliced the wires together after getting a connector out of a wreck just so I could figure out the color codes. Be advised the color codes don't always continue on both sides of the connectors! The other side harness shorted out as well because the trailer lighting module fried. The cause of this mess was rust holes in the wheelwells letting water into the areas behind the side panels. Salt water off the road, to make matters worse. It took me from Christmas 'til the end of February working in single digit cold to get it sorted out.
It turns out there's a fellow down the road that might be of help.
For now I'm thinking of simply cutting the connectors off and matching wires, there's not so many to match.
As an aside thought, the connector in that location must simply have been for assembly ease; if designed for repair ease the harness would have extended to the socket/bulb housing.
Further, now I know that section of the body needs rust repair...sigh...
As I said though, Match the wires cavity to cavity, not by color codes. I don't remember exactly which ones it was, but one wire, say green with a yellow stripe, went in on one corner of the connector, but the same color wire came out the OPPOSITE corner on the other half of the connector. What I wound up doing was pulling the tail light assembly loose and finding out which wire on the sockets did what, then labeled them inside the body. Then turned the flashers on and found which wire had the pulsing current, connected them. Then the tail lights on, found the hot wire and connected them, etc, until all I had left was the brakes. I connected them and they worked. Matching wires by color codes was frustrating because nothing worked right. By the time I got them all to work, I had to add short sections to what was left of the original wires to have enough length to connect them. I just used crimp connectors because I couldn't solder in the cold, then used liquid electrical tape.
After getting the wiring right, I used plastic trash bags to cover the rust holes, then put parts of a shipping pad inside the body to hold the bags in place, finishing with more plastic behind the wires. They've stayed dry in the torrential rainstorms we've had in April and May. Maybe someday I'll get around to replacing the sheet metal. It's that badly rusted. The flares are in my garage.
11-05-2018, 02:43 PM
2001 xj tail light wiring harness
