Replacing the wiring on the 1992 XJ

[XJ4IV]

last night on the way home from work I had a bunch of smoke come up from floor board... I pulled over fast and shut down the XJ but to my surprise it DIDNT shut down... I had to pop the hood and pull the ignition coil wire
so upon roadside inspection I found a wiring loom that goes from under the center console that comes out then UNDER the carpet on the drivers sideand goes along the transmission hump... i only pulled the carpet bac about a half foot to realize I needed to limp it home and prepare to remove the seats and carpet....
I have yet to pull the carpet n seats as I worked a 16 hour day yesterday and yeah by golly im sleeping in today!
but Im wondering how FAR that loom goes and what all is related in that loom.


Things I know so far that are affected
parking lights stay on
engine wouldnt shut down
interior lights dont work
power locks dont work
stereo wont work
windows dont work
there may be more but this is what I found out on the way home last night
the loom is about the same diameter of a quarter


basically The reason why im aiming to the folks who have removed the carpet is cause I need to know where this wire goes prior to taking everything out and is it better to save bucks and splice new wires in or get a new harness....
ALSO NOTE none of the affected things were MY wiring :thumbsup:

[XJ4IV]

ok so I been looking stuff up for about an hour to find this pic
http://memimage.cardomain.com/ride_images/2/4427/741/23565370031_medium.jpg
Its the wire loom that goes across the drivers side floor area in this pic... I guess it goes straight across to the drivers side rocker area

[4.3LXJ]

It runs things like power seats if you have them. It is also on the same circuit as the power windows.

[XJ4IV]

guess how bad MY day was...
I got a call from a buddy of mine to go hang with him at a bikini carwash... I was down for that so I went... damn washers boycotted cause all the cars were already clean
anyhow I stayed at the "twin peaks" for a few hours with old friends just putting off the innevitable and I get back to my jeep and say a little prayer....
I started by pulling the seats n center console out to locate that specific wire loom that was smoking last night...to my surprise... or should I say SURMISE after pulling the carpet all out fo the front of the jeep I found the wires connected to both doors harnesses as well as to the fuse block... ohhh and whats better than THAT you say???
how about THEN realizing the melted mess of wires didnt stop there.... it went UPWARDS to the dash... soooooo I removed the lower dash piece to find the culprit... the factory headlight switch had caused the problem...
and heres what I NOW have to deal with tommorrow
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m590/XJ4IV/IMG397.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m590/XJ4IV/IMG396.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m590/XJ4IV/IMG395.jpg
tomorrow is gonna be pretty freakin busy i suppose!!!

[LizardRunner]

Wow, that is going to be quite the challenge. Did you find where the short occured and what caused it?

[XJ4IV]

not sure WHAT caused it but I think it was due to my factory lights... I was heading home from work then I hit a backroad that had no street lights so I turned on my lights... few seconds .later smoke everywhere, stopped to check it out turned everything off and NOTHING would actually turn off :hmmmm2:anyhow Im leaning towards the factory light switch... I gotta research into that as I found alittle blurb yesterday about there being an issue with the light switch on the XJ's

[XJ4IV]

ok let the nightmare begin....
I got REALLY lucky at teh junkyard today... that usually NEVER happens
anyhow I decided to go to dallas' biggest salvage yard to get my goodies...
Ive been to this place probably 20 times before and NEVER had an issue finding XJ's but for some messed up reason they had like 10 xj's.... pre 97 and 8 post... however the ONLY ones that fit into the category that I needed didnt have power features so ONE of the harnesses was not able to be found.
heres the bonus, When I got to the first jeep it already had all the cluster out of it and somebody had pulled out the wires EVERYTHING except the fuse block.... Im guessing because it needed a torx bit... I was prepared
Anyhow I had all the wiring out in less than 5 minutes
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m590/XJ4IV/IMG398.jpg
I only had to cut one wire which is REALLY good because that wire I had to cut goes WAY back to the rear of the jeep Anyhow I think im gonna wait till sundown to start on this crap!
Wish me luck!

[XJ4IV]

LIttle more diggin found this...
NOT the headlight switch WHEW... ever tried to remove that thing... NOT EASY
Anyhow I found the culprit I believe to be the power door lock system
heres what the Haynes book shows for a 1992 with keyless entry system
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m590/XJ4IV/IMG399.jpg
and that stupid wire is melted through out the whole wiring which in turn took other features with it I suppose

[MaxxTraxx]

bummer man....how goes the repair? btw, thank you for picking up that switch for me. I'll come by tomorrow and trade you some cash for it.

[XJ4IV]

Sweet hopefully at fuzzy pink tacos!!!

[XJ4IV]

progress today did not resume... I spent the evening hanging out with my sister and brother in law... sorry guys bloods thicker than water

[gearheadette]

what about mud?

[Mudderoy]

what about mud?

He's not a mud kind of guy. He had a bad experience once. :poke:

[gearheadette]

What about rocks?

[XJ4IV]

LOL which bad mud experience??? and ROCKS.... ohhhhh how I LOVE ROCKS!!!!

[XJ4IV]

So last week I finished installing the wiring... sorry about not having pics for ya but the job in and of itself was pretty involved and with my ADHD stopping to snap pics would have led to NOT finishing the jeep
anyhow while I had the whole dang dash in pieces I decided to fix some old issues as well like the A/C selector would never go all the way over to cold=Fixed
My antennae wire broke a few years back=FIxed
Rusty floor boards =FIXED
miscelanneous wiring strewn through out the underside of the dash =fixed
nasty stained carpet......=FIXED
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m590/XJ4IV/IMG423.jpg

[XJ4IV]

ok installed the seat brackets today and dropped in the 3rd and 4th coats...
Tomorrow I toss the seats back in and zip tie all the wires out of the way...
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m590/XJ4IV/IMG425.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m590/XJ4IV/IMG426.jpg
http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/m590/XJ4IV/IMG427.jpg

[oderdene]

well done scott, keep posting :D