Ed in North Ga.

as for the grounding I have never encountered a radio that needed to have a wire run from the radio chassis to ground. most vehicles stock ground wire will provide enough to run the radio perfectly fine unless the vehicle had the stock radio bolt into the car using metal brackets where it would receive a chassis ground. the bolt on the back of the radio is used for support purposes. Jonathan I had 2 that wouldnt ground - wish I still had them- both were Sony XR series- the bolt "is" for support on rear mount stockers- its also the absolute best place to tap a ground if the radio does not have a pig tab with screwhole for the chassis ground- the JVC I have in now actually sparked when I slid it in, after wiring it to the harness- there be a good ground there on that one! ever since those 2 sonys, Ive always regrounded from the lug- just easier I suppose. I was a quick and dirty installer for too many years. :) my main beef with using OEM hots, is the smallness of the wire- I like bigger wire with a better fuse.

The problem you describe, is how to get the ignition to activate the starter while having power to the system- 3ed position on the slideswitch is power on if I remember right-4th is starter , 2ed isunlock, 1st is static- backward is unlock/acc- (recheck for rightness- its early ) 1 switch for general power to vehicle-battery on- 1 toggle/momentary push button to put power to the relay for the starter- nascar style it gets complicated the more you add, but the more you add multiplies the "coolness" factor and removes sellability- the old 4x4 toyota I had in 87 had a switch for everything, and when trade-in time came, it was bad...very bad. I think they sent it to the scrapper and gave me minimum for it. BUT- you have to do 2 things - you must have 1 for power(that you HAvE to remember to turn off), and you have to disable the lock within the column. If the locks disabled, even if you don't have a key-she`ll start with just a little thought. all the wires are accessable in the lower column switch on the GM style plug- you WILL leave the turn signal/horn/multifunction wires alone...or will have bad dreams...

I ran into this installing a few years back- Today, "almost" all radio plugs and wires are universal- red/yello/green ect ect- all correspond to the adapter plug/radio- but there was a time before that-we call it the change over- where the wires didnt match at all, even though the plugs did- red to black, green to orange, and you get squat- the ohms/voltmeter and a D cell battery saved the day- (battery to speaker wires to find which is where) the only way to verifiy a radio`s good is to test it for power before the install starts- 3 wires and a battery- the acc/red to the positive and black to negitive - if it powers on, it gets installed. some of the newer radios are insulated so well, that even though you ground the black wire it still won't cut on- the chassis needs a ground...thats usually the seconday use of the lug and nut on the back- it grounds the outside chassis to the ground wire, to the ground point- Ive never trusted the stock power wires in my jeeps, I always have run new big power and ground wires, and have run a seperate relay just for the acc- I burnt 3 ignition switches before I figured out the acc can melt one if it has some serious amps running through it....I used to like toys, and all the toys used the acc. :doh:

the ballast resistor is an easy check- if its oem, pop it out and look- the resistor is open for the eyes to see- if its a sealed typr, run an ohms meter across it per whatever the specs are for it(imprinted on the ceramic case/outside) it "almost" sounds like a rev limiter problem(which we don't have), but if the lights flicker, I`d suspect somethings loose-- check the underhood ignition box-see if the leads are tight above the fuseable links. Check the positive at the starter, the alternator, and the battery post- anything that would come a hair loose if there was sudden movement on a power wire that would cause a spark- I`d always assumed the ballast resistor is used on startup - have to look into it again.

" Cat has been hollowed out" :doh: check your o2 sensor- quicky test- put in nutrel, rev engine- revs fine? now put in gear and hold brake and rev her...cut out? only falters under load, and downshifting cures it for a few seconds....? man, this brings back some old memories.... I can't find my o2 sensor cheat sheet, but its testable with an ohms meter...."IF" you find your 02 sensor is burnt, get a new cat to go with it. The Jeep mechanic that solved mine problem yearrrsssss ago, said hollowing a cat causes the exhaust gas to pass the o2 sensor too fast and burns it- without the needed backpressure you tend to lose the lower end umph and gain high end- old Renix`s are like that. I hope thats what it be- cause the only other thing that comes to mind is a clogged sock filter in the fuel tank, or a weak pump in the tank. luck to ya!

check all your other stuff first- its not hard to swap out the assemble, its only 3 bolts, 1 wire, and the cable folds over the top of the yoke- you might find a welder who can tap weld the nubs and file them back to new- If you need mine hollar and we`ll hash it out. :brows: I think the correct tension is "you can push the pedal halfway down an no mo"- on XJs its you pull it up 5 clicks an no mo- if the vehicle don't hold, somethings up.

I ran my meter direct- simply because on mine (89) all the inside electricals are run through either the bulkhead or the ignition box switch on the lower column-(not the underhood ignition box) if I remember right (and its been awhile) I think off the lighter I was showing 12.2, and direct I was at 13- very little difference, but still-it buggs ya! I never did retest it after the first ignition switch went bad- might have been just that resistance throwing it off. I did see a sweet stu-warner liquid filled mini guage years back- he installed it in the blank after removing the LED clock- looked nice! I wonder how hard it would be to do a dakota digital dash in one of these.... :doh:

realize that its not like other vehicles- its not a semi-direct connection between the pull and the headlight. Its a long, winding, stupid way to wire headlights. Theres too much wire, and too many connections-shoot, it could be a bad slide connection on the ignition switch- If you pulled and cleaned every connection, replaced every wire that had a little extra resistance on it, and regrounded a dozen times- those lights would be awsome! since thats not going to happen- and if it did, I wanna watch- your best recourse is wiring around the problem- 2 heavey duty relays per side- wire to the battery- wire to the switched hi/low beam OR headlamp positive- its not that much work- I ended up replacing all that wiring and putting on a set of PIAA`s off a 87 grand cherokee(wide batt lens)- it don't matter how dim the headlamps get, I got light. you probably got some of that fine Ocala sand in there gobing up the works...the world has no idea what "powder sand is" until they get stuck in your neighborhood....

This has been drug over and discussed on about every forum Ive been a member of or read- first- its very common for our volt guage to read low, even though the battery is showing 12.9+ and the alternator is running fine- almost ALL xj/mjs of the renix era and early chrysler era do this- the guage lies. There was a guy years ago who did a write-up on how to reroute a circut on the back of the circut board guage cluster so the volt meter shows actual voltage- because what we see, is downstream voltage. The voltage shown is an after volt- after everything-lovely...antoher design brought to you by renix- The easier way to get around this, is a simple voltmeter install- and ignore the dash meter. You`ll find a correctly installed meter will show a happy 12.9+ with everything running IF the battery is good and the alternator is healthy- that said, we move onto those wimpy headlights. Renix era jeeps are known for wires...lots of them, and their long- long wires create resistance- long old wires create more- add some old crud in the connections, and that happy 12.9 volts becomes a liability- the more the accessory wants, the hotter the cable gets- and the less useable amps your going to have- intresting, yes? Cleaning the bulkhead connector is feasable in some situations...but it gets so old, and ya gots to have ittybitty hands.... you`ll not fix the heater/ac- its always going to go up and down with RPM when the headlights are on- weve tried- short of rewiring, its just not worth the effort. you can fix the headlights, by wiring around them and using good quality relays on each side- use the original headlight system to trun the relays off and on- happy bright headlights are good headlights. Ive seen one that was wiried off the alternator, and mine was wiried off the battery for years- Their renix jeeps- you have to work them your way, not try to fix them the "right" way-

or the teeth could be plain worn out- hollar if they are, Ive got a spare I never put in.

yes, it can be done. No its not simple- but it can be done with enough time and patience. If theres clips missing, check the inside portion for burns- if it shows any melting, toss it.