Broke

Well at least I'll have the wheel pulled for the blinker switch if that's the issue and the cable snapped. Resident Jeep old-timer took one look at the rear light problem and my steering column and told me my turn signal switch was going out, which was causing both the short in the rears and the turn signal lever to flop around and not go back to center. Even if that isn't the cause of the signal problem I'll have the lever fixed. Is there really enough tension on it when sitting for it to break while parked? It worked completely fine when I parked it.

Alright, I'll give that a check once I get back on monday. It is in fact a column shift. Would leaving the column slightly loose have a similar effect? I left the bezel off and the column not quite tight against the dash when I put it away last week.

Worked on the truck last week some more, threw in a headlight switch to no effect (was free from PO and took ten minutes, no skin off my back) and found out the PO also gave me the wrong speedometer cable, drove it out of the shop and parked it. Came back this week with a new cable, started the truck and the transmission didn't seem to do anything. No clunk indicating the parking pawl had released, no change in engine load, nada. What should I look towards first? I pulled the lower and instrument panel dash bezels when working last week. The lower I reattached to hook the TCU back up at the end.

Sick saturday so I didnt get to work on it. Ran a quick check on my way out the door today. Disconnected the entire tail harness, flipped to the right, hit the brake, and the right indicator came right back on again. Any more points where they could cross?

Yeah, it just hit me that I should have simply unhooked those things while I was there, and snip the one that's taped and checked to see if that did anything. That'll probably solve the issue altogether. I'll do exactly that when I get back to it tomorrow, and just make an afternoon of doing everything I possibly can. I'll bring my laptop along so I can just run through as many of Cruiser's tips as I can in one sitting. The PO (maybe PO to PO? Was told the one before him tried to restore it and gave up) has absolutely awful wiring skills. I'll be making more threads about this truck's wires for sure in the future. Fun thing I learned from the lead tech today when demonstrating the symptoms, the AC compressor clutch is grounded to itself, locked open, with a little loop of wire. I think that's what he meant by "it works, but I broke the cable on accident" and not the control cable or vacuum tube in the dash like I had assumed he meant. This thing is like a kinder egg of disappointment. At least it runs.

Well $#!&. http://i.imgur.com/Ic4EOPK.jpg Doesn't look like there's any $#!&ty splicework for me to undo, it's all attached via penetrating clamp almost at the connector itself. Everything looks damn near stock. I did forget to check the brake pedal switch, which is the next item on my list and I'll be able to look at it tomorrow when I clock out and pull the dash bezel to do the underdash work. The other techs suggested that the radio could be wired incorrectly which while probably irrelevant, is also probably true.

Hey gogmorgo, I saw in another thread you mentioned a JY taillight harness. What does swapping that entail, if I decide to just replace the whole thing and be done with it rather than trying to traverse the PO's (or even worse, PO to the PO) crappy trailer splice? Are there any harnesses that just drop in? I might be interested in swapping out the existing lights anyway because they're subject to the same 'half the screws are missing, all are different, and some of the holes are stripped out to begin with' problem the rest of the truck seems to have.

It was in fine shape, took less than two minutes to check. The grounds I've looked at so far seem to be fairly intact and in good contact but I've cleaned them up as I've gone along regardless. I still have the engine bay to do, but I'll likely get around to that when I pull the dash itself to do the headlight switch, speedo cable, and reconnect the AC vac line to the control box.

Fronts are working 100%. EL12 has them blinking full speed, swapping the old metal flasher from the hazards gives them about 90-95% speed blinking to the left. Everything put together is telling me that, as the harness runs down the left side of the frame, the short is almost guaranteed to be in the rear tail harness between the lights. It's has an aftermarket bumper too, but the wiring looks original to the harness. Everyone else at the shop seems to think it's the tow hookup as well. I'll keep you guys posted once I get back to it and pull the wires out. I will say that it's definitely more beat up than I thought it was once I started pulling panels apart. Not to mention the old coot I bought it from left his grass in the steering wheel and left the screws off the back of the cover. East Texas hicks are a funny bunch.

Well I managed to get back at it yesterday, all the lights were intact and I cleaned out the sockets. Symptoms are actually a bit more than I knew, the right signal is lighting all four bulbs when blinking. The left signal does not. My suspicions currently lie in the aftermarket tow hitch hookup dangling from the harness. Any other tips?

Okay, I'll grab another pair of bulbs and replace all four just to be sure, and do the grounds while I'm in there. The guy I bought it from said it needed a new headlight switch, which came with it and is sitting in the cabin atop the also included new speedo cable, but I decided it must not after trying it and everything worked properly. The backlight to the dash is pretty dim though. I'll go ahead and swap it in, then see where that leaves me.

First post so hey, nice to be here, but I've recently acquired a '89 MJ that has been giving me a bit of trouble. The turn signals began flashing slowly under normal operation, then when the brake is applied they go solid. All four lights are working, tested with the hazards (which the button for is not present so that was 'fun') and they worked. The left seems to be functioning semi-normally, but the right is giving real issues. If the truck is off, with the key out, pressing the brake turns the brake lights on as normal. If I swing the blinker lever to the right, and THEN depress the brake, the blinker dash light comes on solid, and so does the radio and other electronics. I've replaced both the flasher unit (bottom one on the fuse panel, was that right?) and the right rear brake bulb, and the symptoms continued but the flashers worked at the normal rate under all conditions thanks to the new electronic flasher. The truck is actually sitting at work waiting for one of the techs to do the differential rebuild so I don't have it with me, but I'm gonna try replacing the left bulb too since I have it anyway, and double check the sockets of both when I get back to it tomorrow. Grounds have not been refreshed yet. It did spew coolant from the bottle before this happened so I dunno if that screwed with anything.