I got your drift with only half a cup of coffee. LOL. OP has some simple work to do and a good starting point. Good call on the harness, and congrats to the OP for tearing into it. Great photos.

 

Sounds like a plan


I was thinking about this last night (about if I am going to pull a trailer). I do not see see myself any time in the near future needing one so I think I will just repair what the PO did... I got the dash apart still from replacing the headlight switch so I might as well take a look into why the stereo is always on as well... Any one have a stereo diagram for the cherokee available? If not I'll do some searching after I check clean up the trailer mess..

 

So, tore out the old harness...



Repaired the old connections...






Fuse still blown

 

Stereo was a simple fix, everything was at least connected with actual connectors and not just twisted together with some electrical tape. Issue was the ACC wire was wired to the direct 12v wire, so that was a real quick fix. Fuse still being blown :-(

Took apart the real taillight assembly, no issues on the passenger side, but I did find this on the drivers side...



Not sure if this could be causing the short or not, but off to Autozone for a replacement... will update soon with results...

 

Well, replaced the bad bulb...Fuse still blown... Anyone have any other thoughts or should I just accept defeat and take it into a shop?

 

So... Literally 20 minutes away from giving up I found this post....


Of course the PO had it plugged in...so I unplugged it and now it works!!!!!
Thanks again for everyone's help! I guess I need to learn how to use the search function a little better haha.

 

No apologies necessary. I think you did great!!!

 

Thanks!

 

Very cool, job well done .

 

Thanks man! I still can't believe it was something as simple as unplugging one wire... facepalm.

 

Somehow I didnt read what that wire was to, what was that connection for again?

Good job on the radio, Id thought that was blowing the fuse, but you caught it and obviously wasnt that.

Where is the trailer wiring supposed to tie into? Im adding a 4 pin to tow a small trailer and trying to figure out where it goes (physically). The book just has wire colors, not where to find them.

(edit: Never mind, poked around and found them. Now trying to figure out how to hook anything up to the thing: unless the "extra wires" are for trailer, it's acting like a 5 wire, which I'll need a converter box for, which was what that yellow box was probably for.

 

The connection wad an extra license plate bulb ground from what I believe, so connecting it caused an extra ground in the system which was causing it to short circuit.

Ya I'm not sure why the PO wires the radio that.way, it was litterally a 5 minute fix...

As for the wiring harness mine was a 4 pin, I'm on my.cell phone right now so its a bit much for me to go back through the posts, but I wrote which wires co.nected to the wires inside the rear quarter panel.

 

Where is this plug at? Im having the same trouble

 

Sorry for the late reply. Mine was super easy to find because my inside rear hatch paneling was already removed. But if you remove the paneling off on the inside of the rear hatch you will see it along the base of the rear hatch window. Mine was actually electrical taped together so it didn't look like a plug, just some wires wrapped in tape, so keep an eye out for that.

 

@Jakers - Thank you for the post and follow up on this issue. My 1992 Jeep Cherokee is blowing the dash light fuse ONLY WITH THE HEADLIGHTS ON WHEN YOU PUT THE GEARSHIFT IN REVERSE. I was Googling and making a LIST of things from easiest to hardest to throubleshoot. This one wasn't on it! Since my rear hatch panel is already falling off [as all the plastic holds are cracked off] I will add this to the TOP of my list. THANK AGAIN! ME.