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repairing headlight switch help?

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Old Sep 5, 2020 | 07:30 AM
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Default repairing headlight switch help?

So when I bought my XJ, the previous owner installed a toggle switch to turn the headlights on and off. This toggle switch did not allow for any dash lights to come on. I bought a new switch so I could hopefully fix this issue, and went to install it, and this is what I found:

Obviously that switch is meaningless with just one wire attached to it, so I think it was hooked up to that other green wire that is lose, since one of the screws on the switch was lose as well:

Before I burn my jeep to the ground, do you have any thoughts on what the PO was trying to accomplish? should just replacing the switch and connecting the green wire to the green and white wire in the box (and removing the green and white wire connected to the red wires) fix me up?

TIA.
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Old Sep 5, 2020 | 08:29 AM
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This help?
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Old Sep 5, 2020 | 09:06 AM
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Unfortunately not, there have been several splices it looks like and so the wire colors don't match up at all.
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Old Sep 5, 2020 | 11:26 AM
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Looks like the PO spliced into the red wire to get power to the toggle switch, and then grabbed the green wire for the headlight off the back of the failed switch. I'm just not sure what the other green wire next to the red battery wire on the original switch goes to. Cruisers diagram says NU, which make me think "not-used".

When you're done sorting out the mess, install a headlight hardness to take the load off the switch and get brighter headlights.
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Old Sep 5, 2020 | 11:41 AM
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So I wired the two wires together that I circled, and now my headlights work! (yay!) but my turn signals do not. (boo!) so I get to work on that next.

Yeah, somebody else posted about the headlight harness. I have dual headlights, so I'll have to see what my options are (wagoneer, not cherokee).


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Old Sep 5, 2020 | 12:07 PM
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Ok, more investigation, The emergency flashers work, swapped the relay between the two, and the emergency flashers still work but turn signals do not, Turn signal fuse is good, so am I looking at the stock itself? or unit controlled by the stock?
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Old Sep 5, 2020 | 02:33 PM
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Well... Turn signals work now. Went out and put everything back into place, and moved the turn signal stalk up and down a few times and it worked fine after that... What ever.
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Old Dec 22, 2025 | 02:46 PM
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Default Same issue on 89 Wagoneer XJ

Hey I have almost the exact same issue on my 89 Waggy. PO hacked up my light switch and I’m trying to make sense of it. Any photos of how it should be wired would be greatly appreciated.
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Old Dec 22, 2025 | 03:48 PM
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Default Same issue on 89 Wagoneer XJ

Hey I have almost the exact same issue on my 89 Waggy. PO hacked up my light switch and I’m trying to make sense of it. Any photos of how it should be wired would be greatly appreciated.
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Old Dec 25, 2025 | 12:14 PM
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This is from the 1988 FSM



I also have these from some other misc 1984-1993 manual



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