Ok guys so to jump right in, I bought my 1995 jeep cherokee with a never quite right dimmer switch (I.E. no dash lights, dimmer function, buzzer, just headlights and tail lights). Well fast forward a little bit and surprisingly the switch melts into a gob of plastic one night on my way home. I pry into the dash and find a ford switch had been wired in, so I pull that mess out and hit my local wrecking yard and pull two switches and associated harness. Right off the bat one switch looks to be a no go, pulled it from a late 80s or early 90s cherokee and the wiring seemed to be different. So I match up switch number two and things are looking better, however I have 2 black with orange stripe wires on the scrapyard harness but only one black with orange stripe on the jeep and a leftover wire corresponding to the door buzzer with no matching wire to on the harness I pulled from the yard.

So just to check I then pull the **** one click out...not a single light. Pull to its second click and I have full running lights and headlights, dash, everything. I then switch to hi beams to find I only have headlights...nothing else. Now all other wires besides the ones mentioned matched up fine, I even traced back into the dash and have no damaged or crossed wiring.

So guys, where do I go from here? Does anyone have a picture or list showing which wires correspond to what function?

Below is a picture of the harness I pulled from the yard, disregard the e-tape and caps, they are only there while testing the switch.

 

Best bet buy a repair manual in back pages theres wiring diags then just lay book on floor board and match them up make sure swith is turned all the way to left the turned back just after it clicks . [ brighest dash light setting ]

 

So, the wires did not match up, but you still put power to it and operated the switch?


Well, that's as good a way as any to fry random components.


Manual, meter, work it out.

Don't apply power to anything without having good reason to think it's correct. Leave the gambling in Vegas.

 

As I stated, everything short of the two wires stated matched up and I was able to figure out the fused hot wires were connected correctly. But I do appreciate the word of advice.

Are there different harness' with different wires depending on what trim level/options are on the cherokee?