Hi,
The power door locks in my '87 Cherokee stopped working the other day, and when I went to check my fuses today, I burned my hand on a very, very hot breaker. Sure enough, this was the 30amp power lock breaker.

So I tried replacing the breaker, and the locks kind of worked for a short while - but would only activate when the switch was moved to the LOCK position. Moving the switch to UNLOCK did nothing. After about a ten minute drive, they stopped altogether, and the new breaker was also hot.

Normally I could live happily without power locks, but of course my gate is keyed differently, and I'm totally reliant on the power locks to unlock it and now that it is stuck in the locked position, I can't get my bike out of the back!

While I'm mechanically sound, my electrical knowledge is pretty poor, so what follows may be bonkers.

I figured that an overheating breaker = something keeping the circuit connected. For the time being I have removed the breaker as I'd rather not come out in the morning to a burned out jeep. I have also taken out the driver's door switches to see if there was anything obviously wrong that would perhaps have it stuck in the lock position. It doesn't look like the switches are too serviceable, so my plan is to put the breaker back in tomorrow morning and drive to work with the driver's side switches removed. If the breaker gets hot, then I'll replace the driver's switches, remove the passenger, and try the same thing going home. I figure whichever one heats the breaker is the problem.

Does that make any kind of sense? Any other suggestions? Many thanks.

 

check for a short were the wires go through the doors. Hot beaker means either a short ( bad switch or a wires to ground), or a possible bad motor or relay or solenoid or whatever the heck actuates the locks.

 

Exactly. At the doors is where the wires see the most mechanical stress. Eventually they all fail.

 

see if you have a sticking door lock... also next time you are in a junk yard grab a lock a with a key for your tailgate... then you dont need the power locks lol..

 

Yeah, a new lock is definitely on the shopping list now!

Thanks for the tips folks. It got a little stranger today. When I parked my car at work all the windows were closed. When I came out after work, the rear passenger windows was open. I figure the disconnected harness probably slid down towards the bottom of the door, changing the angle of the wires and causing some kind of short.

Or it's possessed.