Greetings good people.

I am currently restoring a Norwegian sold 91 2-door XJ and I have hit a snag.

As I am putting the car together after rebuilding the engine, fixing rust and painting the car I am also fixing and removing the previous owners creative wiring...

After removing all scotch locks and yards of red wires the wiring harness is, as far as I can see, back to stock and all external lights works as they should.

But...
The turn signal indicators does not work correctly.
When I turn on the indicators, left or right, both ​​​​​​ instrument panel indicators blink.
When I turn on the hazard none of the instrument panel indicators blink.
(It was like this before I started tearing into the car, and I expected removing all modifications and going back to oem would fix it)
I have checked that the issue is not relate to the instrument panel by removing it and checking that pin 11 and 7 are blinking on the connection with the panel removed.

Complicating the issue a bit more is the fact that this is a Norwegian sold Jeep, so it was built for export with European indicators, which is not exactly the same as the US intended cars.
My Jeep is using the 3-pin flasher relay for indicators, and the normal 2-pin for hazard.
Images of the fuse box:

Google album
The position for the 2-wire flasher is not wired.

Have anyone here worked or seen how the wiring is done for Jeeps with 3-pin flashers?
Does anyone have access to turn and hazard wiring diagrams for export Jeeps?

Any good ideas on how to proceed?
I expected that my next step must be to lower the steering column and trace wires from that to the instrument panel, fuse box and instrument panel....

TIA

Trond Jarle


​​​​​​
​​

 

I'd be very surprised if the indicator/turn signal electrics are different on export models (apart from repeaters on the front wings/fenders). I could compare the wiring diagrams in my Haynes manual - but not to the weekend.

I thought the two flasher relays were interchangeable (unless that came later) which might give a clue to the problem.

 

well,
​​​​​​There must be some differences since the orange front light are/was not legal as marker lights in NWY, they are only allowed to be turn signals.
​​​​​​

The flashers are definitely not using the same connector so something is different there as well.
I forgot to mention that I tried to hook up a 2 wire flasher between the 12v terminal and the load on the three wire connector and then the external blinkers worked but the instrument panel indicators did not flash.
(So same as in hazard mode)
This makes sense to some extent since the 3 wire terminals normally have 12v, load and indicator.
(Not talking about the aftermarket 3wire that have a gnd to work with LED bulbs)

it is probably something the previous owner have "worked on" that is the root cause, he had large amounts of scotch locks, wire nuts and red house (solid single) wire to play with. But I thought I had found all of his modifications
(He also had several rolls of masking tape to wrap around for isolation...)

Br

Trond

 

The only difference between US & export indicators is the colour of the front lenses (the difference at the back is even less as - apart from Wagoneers, of course - they both have amber indicators [the big difference is the rearrangement of the functions as not having a minimum tail light size, the Europeans (God bless the Swedes & Germans ) could get the rear fogs in the same size lamp unit (i.e.housings)]. That's why I said there probably wasn't any difference in the electrics.

I've absolutely no doubt the root cause of this problem is the PO's handiwork, so undoing it all should have solved it.

I have a '96 parts XJ which I imagine is the same & if I could find anything at all under/behind the dash but, after 10 years, it remains a complete mystery, even how to access anything, or I'd try & find some points of reference for you. If you, or anyone else, can guide me to where I'll find the relays, which I'd probably recognise if/when I saw them, I'll gladly have look.

 

Thanks for checking,
I guess the next step is lowering the steering column to get good access to the wiring and see any modifications and trace the wires.
Should not be impossible to find just a hassle.
Hopefully it is obvious when I get proper access and can see what is going on...

​​

 

I'm not sure about the column, as wouldn't have thought you could see any more than by removing the shroud but, as I've said, I've never had any luck with anything behind the dash.

 

Yes, watched a couple of videos on how to lower the steering column, and see that removing the lower cover of the dashboard probably will give me the access I want.
To used to bimmers and old GMs that one need to drop the column to see anything I guess...
Will play with it this weekend and report back.

Trond

 

So I removed the lower cover of the dashboard, loosened the fuse box and pulled the instrument panel.
Going into the instrument panel connector pin 11 and 7 is a white and green wire on each.
These Two wires go directly into the original taped harness so they are definitely original.
​​​​​Going into the third wire of the flasher connector is two white and green wires.
These two also comes directly from the original wire loom
Measured resistance between the instrument panel connector and the flasher connector and it is close to zero.
The connector for the turn signal (under the steering column) does not have any connection up to the instrument panel.

So the conclusion is that the indicators are connected as it was when manufactured and different from the us wiring schematic, and this xj is supposed to blink both indicators when I use the turn signals.

Extremely strange, but if it is factory I'll put it in the "it's a Jeep think" and leave it be...

 

Hello @TrondPedersen !
I have been searching all over for this!

I have a German export, 1990 XJ.
Problem: nothing apart from dash arrows blinking simultaneously at turns, and not at all on hazard. External lights all work fine.

Same setup,
-3 pin flasher which didn’t look like it has been exchanged, very stock looking. I put a new one in there and got better flashing, but still nothing on the dash.
-The other thing different is that my position lights have aftermarket 2 wire bulb sockets, and a single filament bulb. Same laws apply in Sweden as in Norway on the position lights so makes sense to not use them for turn signals.

-The flasher is taped to the wiring harness under dash and not mounted in the fuse box. Even the tape is the same as everywhere else so I suspect stock.

i have checked all possible fuses, grounds, sockets etc.

My latest weird notion: the dash connector wiring does not correspond to the FSM. As you mention, for slot 7 is supposed to be brown- mine is green/white. It’s also bridges over to 11so they both get power when turning any direction.

TL;DR @TrondPedersen I hope you are still on the forum, would love to hear more about resemblances and if you fixed it or if it’s supposed to be like this.


Brown goes to 7 right?

Double white/green goes to 7, one bridges over to 11

 

I'm here :-)
My conclusion was that it was a Jeep thing and that it was original and un-molested...
At least i could not find any indications that it was tampered with...
So my plan was to just leave it as it was, which i did until i failed the bi-yearly vehicle control due to this...

To keep the car on the road i then ended up modifying the harness so that it is similar to what the FMS shows, and everything now works that way...
Not what i would have wanted, but...

TJP

 

oh no, that was not the answer I was hoping for haha. Did you have to change out anything or did you just splice and reroute things up to the inst panel connector pins?

also-is your connector corresponding to the FSM? Mine doesn’t look like in the diagram at all.

 

Good question, i can't remember :-)

[/QUOTE]

Another one that I cannot remember,
The car is in winter storage, to avoid the road salt, but i will be working on it (the spring for auto cancel of turn signals is broken) this weekend so i will se if i can take a snap or two for you.

TJP

 

@TrondPedersen is the jeep alive and kicking out of the storage? Would love to learn more about your wire modifications for the turn signals, and if you have something that resembles the FSM colours for the instrument cluster. My 1990 XJ seems to have e been modified in Germany after export from Canada and I believe it’s there they had fun with the wiring…I believe you had the same-ish story?

 

Hi Skuggan,

Sorry for the delayed reply but I was traveling for work.
The XJ is not alive and kicking...
I took it out of winter storage and during winter it figured out that two gears was more than sufficient...
(First and reverse)
After debugging, the speed sensor on the output shaft of the transmission is stuck closed, I pulled it, heated it in boiling water and put a neodymium magnet to it and after some attempts it was switching again.
Reinstalled it and it works up to 70 km/h before glitching and giving up.
The sensor is of course not easy to get hold of, being out of stock most places I have looked.
I will head to a friend that have a parts car and get his old sensor...

As soon as it is on the road again I'll try to get some picks of the wiring for you..

 

Wow that was a new one, at least to me. Sounds like we are more challenged than our friends across the pond who can drive down to the junkyard and find cheap parts. Sweden and Norway is not Cherokee land I suppose. I am on my third brake booster after switching out the Bendix 9 abs system on my 1990. One crap from China, one expensive from the Us but not 100% correct fitting and finally I found a junk yard one in Sweden, that I just ordered.

6 months in and haven’t still driven one meter 🫠

If you remember please take some pics of what special xj export wiring you had to swap out for the turn signals on dash to function correctly. I’m just leaving mine as is for now and hope that I will get a pass on it. Good luck with the sensor!