DannyD

I recently got a 1996 Cherokee Limited HO which me and the missus has come to love like a family member. Needless to say the obvoious chioce for a beater living in Sweden would have been a Volvo. However living in Sweden also means Volvos just seem a bit too common plus they don't come with a 4.0. The only gripe I have so far is electrical.

Straight after getting her we noticed that running the AC would make the engine die, particularly at low speed but also high. She wouldn't start up straight away after dying but waiting 15 sec or so always did the trick. Kind of made me think the AC sucked too much juice for some reason. To verify this I turned the key to On and fired the AC up. Sure enough everything went black after a few secs. No fuses ever went though but at least it made me think it's an electrical thing as the engine wasn't running.

Bad thing is that this is getting worse. Now she stalls randomly, AC on or off. I'll have to clean the battery connectors to rule that out. I guess rubbing cables might be the culprit as well but i haven't seen any relation to bumps or whatever as of yet. Will do a bit of cable wiggling. Any thoughts on the above will be greatly appreciated!

And this is where the mystery cables comes in. Upon closer inspection of the under dash as well as engine compartment fuse and relay boxes the question marks started piling up.

Please meet exhibit A.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53011013@N04/5028726117/http://www.flickr.com/photos/53011013@N04/5028726117/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/53011013@N04/, on Flickr

At some point the 60 amp fuse in the engine compartment fuse box went and someone decided to jerry rig it with copper wire. Does anyone know what it's for? Seeing how the car doesn't start without it I guess it's pretty central. Will swap it for a real fuse today to see what happens. For the position it's the 60 marked one in pic below.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53011013@N04/5028726377/http://www.flickr.com/photos/53011013@N04/5028726377/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/53011013@N04/, on Flickr

As for exhibit B we're diving into the under dash driver side fuse box.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53011013@N04/5029342876/http://www.flickr.com/photos/53011013@N04/5029342876/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/53011013@N04/, on Flickr

Simple question is where the heck is this flat cable end supposed to go? The car is pretty much stock so I don't believe it's from the fuse box. The cable runs into a separate fuse, and then into the center console. Does anyone recognize the cable?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53011013@N04/5028726219/http://www.flickr.com/photos/53011013@N04/5028726219/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/53011013@N04/, on Flickr


Finally, we're at exhibit C.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53011013@N04/5028726271/http://www.flickr.com/photos/53011013@N04/5028726271/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/53011013@N04/, on Flickr

How should I put this? Seems like a torn cable to me. And I can't make sense of where it came from. It runs down the left side kick panel if that's a clue.

Now, I have no idea i any of the the exhibits above are related to my stalling issue. But since I ran into them while trouble shooting the stalling I need to rule them out.

My thought is that you guys in the US probably are way more experienced than the Swedish community when it comes to XJs since they're a lot more common where you're at.

Any thoughts or comments to help me out will be hugely appreciated!!!

Oh, and I should take this opporunity to extend my appreciation for the community of the USA which has given me the opportunity to drive such a beatiful, gas guzzling, incredible piece of machinery as the Cherokee XJ!

/ Danny the Swede

XJcountry

Does it have an aftermarket alarm system?

DannyD

That's a good thought.
Not that I know of and nothing to show it on the outside.
Maybe I'll just plug it in and see what happens.

Going out in a minute to put the new 60 amp fuse in...

/D

dukie564

60 amp fuse is the ignition (starter) circuit

those other wires / connectors are not stock

DannyD

Ok cool, the 60 amp went in without problems.
At least it didn't blow straight away like I was afraid of.

Yeah, I'll just leave the other cables be for the time being as I think I just solved the stalling mystery all by accident.

Seems like it everything dies when I bump my knee against the steering column and it's extra sensitive with stereo, AC and so on fired up.
Had a look underneath and some cable has just about melted through the plastic.
Can't get the plastic off at the moment though as some previous tinkerer less blessed with intelligence messed up the screws.
Going to need a bit of drilling to get the canopy off and all my drills are at the work site.

/D