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Fixed the rear hatch wiring mess. I’m blown away on how dumb the engineers were with the crazy angle. I did a criss-cross style entry this time (I needed to splice in more washer hose) and used high quality silicone wire for the 13 wires. I used some Lexel copolymer rubber sealant to hopefully keep out water. Everything works fine back there now. Wow if you don’t have an issue yet I’d do this job ASAP as you could have some serious electrical fire/shorting issues all over the place due. I watched a YT vid of a guy that had melts wires all the way up inside the dash area due to those hatch wires. Thankfully I got lucky here.
Fixed the rear hatch wiring mess. I’m blown away on how dumb the engineers were with the crazy angle. I did a criss-cross style entry this time (I needed to splice in more washer hose) and used high quality silicone wire for the 13 wires. I used some Lexel copolymer rubber sealant to hopefully keep out water. Everything works fine back there now. Wow if you don’t have an issue yet I’d do this job ASAP as you could have some serious electrical fire/shorting issues all over the place due. I watched a YT vid of a guy that had melts wires all the way up inside the dash area due to those hatch wires. Thankfully I got lucky here.
There is no need to pull the entire wiring harness out like he did. Just remove the top rear trim piece and the entire hatch piece. You are only installing a 14” or so pigtail of wires. Two 12 AWG, three 14-16 AWG, rest you can use 18 AWG. Took me about two hours plus the 24-hours or so for the rubber sealant to dry enough (technically cures in two weeks).
Don’t forget about the two-wire CMHSL wires (18 AWG).
There is no need to pull the entire wiring harness out like he did. Just remove the top rear trim piece and the entire hatch piece. You are only installing a 14” or so pigtail of wires. Two 12 AWG, three 14-16 AWG, rest you can use 18 AWG. Took me about two hours plus the 24-hours or so for the rubber sealant to dry enough (technically cures in two weeks).
Don’t forget about the two-wire CMHSL wires (18 AWG).
This makes me want to put some inline fuses on those wires above the headliner. That way if it shorts out there it's isolated to the hinge and hatch.
I knew this was a problem with WJ front doors (& Cadillac Seville trunk lids) but never had a problem with my XJ's. However when I replaced the liftgate I did take the precaution of checking - & made a couple of repairs. It fixed the puzzle of the tag lights coming on instead of the cargo light. Maybe the rear wiper will work now, but considering the washers are operated by the rear wash switch (dunno, something a PO did/had done), probably not (which is why I've never got round to refitting it.
When I got my '98 the rear wiper didn't work but I understood they were prone to failure, so I found another one for a good price - but hadn't got round to fitting it before I discovered the strange things a PO had done in that dept and learned about these wiring issues.
I had that same problem from almost day 1 with the front doors (they were on their 2nd wiring harness when I got rid of it) and several lift gate wires were broken. Strangely enough at that point, only the 3rd brake light didn't work.
If I would do this again, I would have planned this out a little better and using some thin flexible enclosed wire loom in lieu of just wrapping it with 3M Super 33 tape. It won’t see much UV so that isn’t a factor but it would certainly look cleaner.
As the Lexel sealant has definitely dried up enough today, I buttoned up the rest of the parts and you can’t tell that I did any of this as it all tucks neatly under the plastic trim. I did wrap some Super 33 around the inside wires to bundle them up and i moved over some of the plastic wire holders as the wire was slightly longer than before.
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I fixed the floppy passenger side headlamp assembly today. The PO or PPO used two DECK SCREWS at the bottom outer corner in lieu of a spring! A quick trip to my True Value with the spring off of the driver side and $1.72 later I was good to go. Sun just set so I just aimed the headlamps. I put the hotspot a few inches below the 25’ mark. I’ll have to take it for a rip later to see if I need to raise them higher. I have brand new LED modules but I’m an OEM type of guy. I think I’m gonna do the $25 harness upgrade in lieu of LED’s. We get a lot of snow here and it’s nice how old school headlights inherently melt the snow off. I’m not ready to drop $300+ on the heated LED lamps.
If I would do this again, I would have planned this out a little better and using some thin flexible enclosed wire loom in lieu of just wrapping it with 3M Super 33 tape. It won’t see much UV so that isn’t a factor but it would certainly look cleaner.
As the Lexel sealant has definitely dried up enough today, I buttoned up the rest of the parts and you can’t tell that I did any of this as it all tucks neatly under the plastic trim. I did wrap some Super 33 around the inside wires to bundle them up and i moved over some of the plastic wire holders as the wire was slightly longer than before.
…………
I fixed the floppy passenger side headlamp assembly today. The PO or PPO used two DECK SCREWS at the bottom outer corner in lieu of a spring! A quick trip to my True Value with the spring off of the driver side and $1.72 later I was good to go. Sun just set so I just aimed the headlamps. I put the hotspot a few inches below the 25’ mark. I’ll have to take it for a rip later to see if I need to raise them higher. I have brand new LED modules but I’m an OEM type of guy. I think I’m gonna do the $25 harness upgrade in lieu of LED’s. We get a lot of snow here and it’s nice how old school headlights inherently melt the snow off. I’m not ready to drop $300+ on the heated LED lamps.
Previous owner neglect and hacks are something to be feared. lol
Our 2000 came with Morimoto projector 5x7 headlights. Nowhere near 300.00
While they do not melt ice, I keep a spray bottle of 98% alcohol with me which removes all ice before I drive with just a pump or two.
We live at 8000' asl. So far so good.
I have used this type of silicone tape for decades via Seatac Boeing.
No glue. It is the right stuff. Stretch and it seals as you wrap.
If you have never tried/used it. Do.
What have I done to my Cherokee? Not one thing in over a year, including driving it. Because of that, I figure I should buy another one. So once this rain stops, I am going to go look at a clean bright yellow 99 that doesnt need any major work. Was hoping to find a green one but no good luck so far. Hopefully this next one checks out!
I swapped the rear bulbs all out to LED and I installed a new flashing relay (Novita EP27) that is designed to handle LED bulbs (no need to install resistors). The photos below don’t really portray how much brighter the LED’s are but they are MUCH brighter. I had to order two more Amber LED’s for the front as I didn’t realize the front turn signals have two bulbs per assembly. I also had replaced the CMHSL with a red LED 921 bulb. All of the rear bulbs (stop/turn/reverse) are 3157’s. You’re looking at like $10-12 per pair of 3157’s on Amazon for a very bright set of modules . I got all of mine for free so it’s easy for me to say lol.
02-17-2023, 02:46 PM
