So, I have a 1990 XJ Wagoneer, The radio that it had in it died about a month ago. It was right above the heater vent and would get really hot so I figured it was bound to happen at some point. Pulled it out and the wiring for the radio was ridiculous, like they had crimped cm's to cm's of wire so I cut it from the harness and rewired it. The power seats stopped working just before this, too low voltage to it, so I rewired them. I has also rewired the A/C compressor around this time too. I noticed my truck took longer and longer to start so I tested the battery and replaced it. whatever, batteries get old and this one seemed ancient. Replaced the battery, everything was awesome

Couple days later I was driving home, applied the brakes and all the gauges stopped working, all the lights dimmed, and radio died at the same time and came back on. Except the radio, the radio never turned back on after that. Next day pushed on my dome lights and they wouldn't turn on, hours later I look out the window and they're on. New battery starts doing what it did before, tested it, new battery dead. The heater stopped working, and I've been having random lights like the courtesy lights flash when the cars off and I open the door or the headlights when I'm driving.

I tried cutting the a/c compressor out of the system because I know it puts a lot of strain on the belts. No abnormal parasitic draw. All grounds are fine. Haven't tested too much on it because I know this is gonna suck to figure out. If anyone has any idea where to start it would help. I'm not sure what all these systems share that would cause them all to burn out at the same time or if it's just a very rare coincedance. Help?

 

donor hareness start fresh .

 

do you think that was affect the heater and headlights though?

 

apparently you got a short somehere draining battery it would be a clean slate to start with is where i was heading ..seeing so many issues either that start back tracking

 

ok, yea I'll tear the dash out n check the wiring

 

dont think ya gotta go that far checking for electrial draws first will help narrow down problem area .

 

I've been looking over wiring diagrams this morning and it looks like the battery grounds through my starter. I've had some problems with my starter in the past but just gave it a few smacks. I'm gonna add a ground between the battery and the frame and see if that helps anything

 

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but you should have multiple ground points.

Do a search for "Renix ground refreshing" either on the forum search bar or on google: "site:cherokeeforum.com renix ground refreshing".

If it were me, I would start there, then go hunting down the voltage draw.