1998 Cherokee sport. Ok so the other day I was driving and started to smell burning plastic/electrical. I pulled over but had no idea where it was coming from. I then realized that my rear windshield wiper was not working and my left side running lights as well as all brake lights were not working. I checked all the interior fuses and #7 and #22 were blown. I replaced #7 and it blew, I then replaced #22 and smelled burning again so I pulled it. So I figured at this point I've got to have some shorted/melted wires.


Today I pulled back the rear panel where I had an etrailer.com wiring harness for my trailer. I found several wire connections melted, they had gotten wet from a rust hole below them. One by one I cut/stripped/and then wire connected the wires individually. This got my rear wiper working, trunk light to turn off, rear license plate light back on, running lights working and #7 #22 fuses are good now. Now when it came to wiring the left rear brake light I have a problem.


On the body side there are 8 wires and on the light side there are only 5 wires. I connected the 4 wires that were of identical color. This has my turn signal working and probably my reverse lights, but no running light and no brake light.


The last wire coming from the light housing is brown. The body side has a brown/red, brown/yellow, brown/white, and red. I got the running light to turn on if the brown was connected to the red or the brown/yellow. My guess is that I will connect more than one wire to the brown on the tail light but which ones??


I still have no brake lights at my third brake light or right tail light. This leaves me to believe that maybe the pedal switch is bad? That would be one hell of a coincidence, or it got burned out in the short? Or there is another relay or fuse I should check for the rear brake lights? Which pins/wires do I jump to check if the brake switch is bad?

 

Hope this helps

VT/BK BACK-UP LAMP, DG/RD*LEFT TURN SIGNAL,VT/BK*BACK-UP LAMP BK/YL HEADLAMP SWITCH OUTPUT(tail lights) , WT/TN*STOP LAMP SWITCH OUTPUT

 

Those connections are going to need heat shrink or other means to make them water tight.

 

For everyone who couldn't sleep last night I got my lights working. Thanks to captainwoot I hooked up the last running light and left the other 3 safely tied off. I then replaced my stop lamp switch at the brake pedal and still no brakes. Then I looked at the fuse block under the hood and found a mini 15amp fuse that was blown. I replaced this and now my brakes and everything work! Why would the owners manual not have anything listed for the fuse block under the hood, and none of them are marked/numbered like on the inside...

 

I used "weather proof" crimped wire connectors but I am also going to "Great stuff" fill the rust holes so that I do not have this issue again.