Hi everyone i am new to this site but not new to jeep , i have had 2 wranglers and this is my 4th Cherokee that i have owned in ten years i've been driving , so here is the deal i am stumped., i bought this Cherokee 3 months ago for $2500 it was a 2000 4 door XJ Sport 4x4 with 93,000 miles , everything worked like the ac etc etc, when i bought it the only thing that didn't work was the stock radio that was in it , so i went and bought an aftermarket CD player and some cleaning supplies the next day and went to town. well here is when my problems started.

Problem #1 :

i discovered that when installing the radio that there was power being back fed into the ground wire for the radio... (like enough to light a test light.)

(temporary fix) = i ran a new ground wire for the radio and it works fine...

Problem #2

my gauges only work when the doors are open , for the gauges and lights to work (headlights) one door has to be open also my AC/heater will not work with out the door being open...

(temporary fix ) = i unbolted the door jam sensors for the front doors and folded them back out of the way and took all the interior light bulbs out of the sockets...

Problem #3
when i turn my heater or ac on past 2 i get the NO BUS thing where the milage usually comes up and i loose all my gauges, the weird thing is once i turn it back to 2 they all come back and its like nothing ever happened...


OK so here is where i am stumped i have been looking at wiring diagrams and then out to the jeep , then back to the computer and i cant find anything wrong... any ideas would be greatly appreciated or if anyone has had to deal with anything like this please let me know.

thanks,
Zach

 

after I kicked the **** out of the guy that sold me the jeep. I would try and figure out if it was ever under water. I had a ton of intermittent electrical troubles in mine after miss gauging a shallow stream cross.
(just because the guy with 6" of lift and 33's made it through before me) I had rusty grounds a plenty, works good now except on a severe cold morning. When it get super cold my tach and speedo freak out.

 

i dont even know where to start looking... i took the gauges out and cleaned the contact points... and i looked at the blower fan relay and it looked fine any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

i know its been said time and time again. make sure you have good clean grounds. dont just look and think they are good, take them apart and clean then real good. engine to body, battery to engine and body. if you have to, add a good heavy guage ground cable from the battery to the body and from the block to the battery and body.

 

thanks buddy, i'm going to do this , this weekend... any tips on wire gauge, type, etc... or connectors or anything?

 

8 guage should be plenty, connectors and such all depend on you atension to detail. some guys are happy with the crimp on ends. if you off road at all then i would use the heat shrink kind or solder the ends and then heat shrink over that.