[quicksilver]

Long story short, all equipment in my relay center doesn't work. This includes horn, turn signal, hazard flasher, power door lock and unlock, radio, and not that I've tested it, but I'm sure the rear defroster doesn't work either.

I've began testing for power after getting a wiring diagram for each relay in there and I'm not having any luck as to what the issue is. Powers where it should be, ground seems to be good from the relay block to body. Relays do click when I hit switches for each item, door locks, horn and turn signal, except with the turn signal it clicks once and locks up. Everything was literally just working about a month ago, now this.

It started with turn signals, they started going out, the relay would click several times, then they would lock up to the on position until I completed a turn. Then last week my horn just gradually quit. Then my radio no longer does anything, and literally, power door locks quit working last weekend.

I tried pulling fuses for the signals first since I've swamped the jeep awhile ago and never really clean the fuse block out afterward, then I just went through and cleaned all contacts I could since they were all dirty and have gone through some mud many times without cleaning. At that point is when I gradually lost everything on the relay panel. Every other electronic works in the jeep, windows, lights, etc.

What am I missing?

 

[quicksilver]

Found this, very helpful for me, unlike the guy on the other site, it seems like I need to replace multifunction switch, not getting continuity where I should be.

Horn works when I connect to battery, I ohmed all wires going to horn from relay center, all is good there. Have good ground in relay center also, verified by ohming to body ground that goes straight to battery. Only thing I can find wrong is that the horn switch grounds the circuit and closes the relay, couldn't get a good ohm reading in that when I pressed the button, so perhaps there's something wrong with the switch, I dunno. Ill test it here soon.

Havent gotten onto the other items in that center yet. But I'll post back when I do.

 

[quicksilver]

New turn signal switch didn't fix turn signal issue, but still needed to be replaced. New relays for all other items in that small bank, still no dice. Tried horn relay and it switches back and forth rapidly, without sounding. Tested door locks and now have nothing happening with those at all.

With that, I think I found the issue.

I hunted down the wiring diagram from the service manual I downloaded years ago. Been tracing the wires for power door locks, checking continuity where it should be and shouldn't be. So in the diagram above, the door lock switch gets power from fuse 9 in the fuse block under dash, the relays get it from fuse 13. You can see the two highlighted points I have on the circuit map, I believe somewhere in there I have a short to ground and perhaps because of that, the rest of the relays in the bank aren't working properly cause power is traveling to that ground, they're all tied together. But I'll find out where the short is soon enough and get this shit figured out. I'm annoyed by this for multiple reasons now, won't bother stating them since those are irrelevant.

 

[quicksilver]

Now that think about this, I had a melted 10A fuse in the #9 slot, didnt think much of it since it was still good, figured it just got hot for whatever reason.

I'm wondering if I have an issue behind the fuse box itself... one way to find out.

 

[quicksilver]

More headaches. I ended up pulling the whole dash apart to find a wire splice for the one circuit eith the ground issue, thank god for the FSM and all the info they provide. Found out that the time delay relay for the lighted circle around the ignition switch was shorted out, so I removed that, thought I was good, so I went ahead and started plugging stuff back in. Still had the short, so I unplugged connectors one by one, and found that the plug that supplies power to the door locks had a short to ground.

Now I need to figure that out. In the mean time I hooked up the battery again to see if everything else would, still no dice. I'm wondering if somethings either are fried, or I just have a really bad connection to power for the other items. Horn relay still buzzes when I hit the button. I even tried jumping the hot side to the wire straight to the horn and barely got a sound out of it. I've ohmed the wires in the circuit, all tested good. Only thing I have done is load test the circuit through the fuse. I'm at getting to the end of my nerves on this thing now.

 

[Gluckmysock]

umm did you run power directly to the horn? to make sure its good?

 

[quicksilver]

umm did you run power directly to the horn? to make sure its good?

Yep, they work, I had to test. Ground is also good, ohmed it to battery. Connection to horn is good from relay center. I'm wondering if there's a high resistance fault in the power supply wires to these circuits. Im going to test it with my ohm meter once I replace the battery in the unit..... again. Ill get out there once it's a little warmer out. I don't feel like buying anymore kerosene this season, gas and diesel is expensive enough.

 

[quicksilver]

As far as the horn circuit goes, every wire is good. I'm wondering if the fuse under dash just had bad contact with the terminals, but I got contact cleaner and wire brushes to clean that out. I put power to the hot side of horn relay and pressed horn button and that all worked.

As far as turn signals and hazards.... I can feel the relay click when I push the hazard button, but that's it. I even pulled fuse in PDC for hazards and put power direct to the contact at flasher relay and tried it, still only clicking. So I have a new relay and I'm about to check that out.

Power door locks. I found that the wire that crosses over the bottom of the floor to the passenger side is shorted to ground. I have no continuity to the passenger side connector, but there is a very high ohm reading, so I'm guessing that it's chewed up somewhere in between, so ill have to rip up the carpet to find that location.

Stay tuned, with Amy luck I'll have this licked by the weekend.

 

[quicksilver]

Hazard flasher relay was shot. Turn signals and hazards work now.

 

[quicksilver]

Horn works now after cleaning terminals out at fuse panel under dash, as does radio. I also put new fuses in this location. Time to figure out the shorted wire, then I can put everything back together again

 

[quicksilver]

Time to crack some cold ones, cause I ****ing won! Bad connection for power door lock at fuse block under fuse 13, 20 amp fuse. Even though I sprayed it all out with contact cleaner, I needed to brush it out a little. The short to ground on fuse 9, which sends power to the door lock switch, was the cargo lamp for the rear hatch. The coil in there must have melted and was only pulling 1 ohm. Other lights still worked but the switch wouldn't operate the relay, I'm assuming since it the coil couldn't ground out the one side.

EVERYTHING WORKS NOW! And I'm taking a break from it until tomorrow. Dinner time and I'm over the headaches with this thing right now! Lol

 

[quicksilver]

Going back together quite nicely. The only issue I have is that my seat bolts on the front snapped upon attempt to remove..... out comes the welder. Been dieing to use it anyway.

 

[quicksilver]

3 out of four ain't bad.

I ended up making a ******* vise in order to hold down the old hardware. I just drilled out the center of the bolt that broke off, there was enough thread that I could make it happen by welding the center back onto the old thread. I could only get one of the two bolts out on the front though, I couldn't really reach into the far one in the photo and scrub the threads of that bolt. It broke free and turned slightly, but there was too much crud on that one to extract it.

So the three bolts holding it down right now are good enough, until I can throw a could of self tappers into the one corner with no bolt.

The seats in though, and everything is back together except the center console. Everything still works, so I'm happy with it. Taking on this venture has me wanting to really tear into this thing more in time, theres a lot of rot and rust that I'd like to take care of, but I'll have that wait til I get the barn in better shape to take on a project of that caliber.

 

[quicksilver]

So, this site will bleep out red neck, but not f*cker... lol I didn't know that the former was so offensive.

 

[quicksilver]

Moved the jeep around yesterday, did a small hill climb behind my house just to get some kinda action with the jeep, and I dont have turn signals again. Radio works when it wants to.... guess all that mud that got in there messed the contacts up really good, gota clean some more. No more mud for me though, I know I've said it before, but this is getting old.

 

[quicksilver]

Went through and cleaned all contacts in the fuse center the best I could, then replaced all fuses in there just to eliminate the possibility of bad fuse contacts, even though I wire brushed them all. Radio and turn signals work once more. Working on speedo, tach and fuel gauge. Feel like I've had that problem before...... and I know for a fact I repaired the broken ground wire at the block for that one. May be at one of the conne tora under the dash or right behind the gauges,,but I'll figure it out regardless.

Aside from that, my compass and temp gauge dont work, so ill get that one too after the more important stuff is taken care of.

 

[quicksilver]

Case closed. Everything is working now, without a doubt. Until the next time I hit a huge mud hole.

The culprit for several guages not working, overhead console included, was a forgotten plug behind the dash. I was trying to trace too many issues and walked away from it for too long. But its time to get back out and wheeling.