wiring woes of a resto mj

[cherokee]

Almost done (theoretically anyways) with my MJ project, but I've got some wiring issues. This is the first time it's had 12v power in well over a year.

 

I have no brake lights or parking lights. The rear lights will light up when the headlights or hazard flasher is turned on. The hazard flasher does not cause the lights to flash. Brake lights don't come on when the pedal is pressed. The turn signal lights in the dash will light up solid when the hazard flasher or headlights are turned on. No fuses have blown.

 

I kept the wiring as stock as possible with some exceptions. The headlight and taillight harnesses were rewired. For the headlight harness I followed the pattern of a 95XJ headlight harness with blinking side markers. For the taillight harness I followed the original MJ pattern with new bulb sockets. The engine bay harness and under dash harness were replaced with an automatic's harnesses that didn't have the fusebox/clutch fluid problem. The truck is now an automatic too. The steering column is still the original from a manual. The cargo light has been turned into a 3rd brake light that uses a splice to the switch on the brake pedal arm as the 'signal' wire. Most if not all of the bulbs in the truck have been switched to LED bulbs. I'll admit that might be the cause to the problem.

 

I've checked the tail light, engine block, and engine bay grounds. Those seemed good. Forgot to check the dash ground.

 

Any help or ideas about what to check are appreciated.

[Eagle]

For testing, use conventional bulbs. LEDs don't draw enough current to make a standard flasher flash. Once you get things working normally, you'll have to use an electronic flasher that's NOT load sensitive (i.e. the type you use with a towing package).

[BPB]

I would head down to a junk yard and grab a new harness for the portion on the front clip ie blinkers headlights ect. Just get one off a similar year xj or mj, and if you can find an mj I would do the same with the rear tail light harness.

[cherokee]

For testing, use conventional bulbs. LEDs don't draw enough current to make a standard flasher flash. Once you get things working normally, you'll have to use an electronic flasher that's NOT load sensitive (i.e. the type you use with a towing package).

 

Turned out to be the front LED turn signal bulbs. It's good to know that my rewiring wasn't at fault. I do have a brake light switch issue though.

 

I'll admit I thought about reusing a harness, but after sorting through 3+ header panels and not finding any with decent plugs I gave up. Perils of the rust belt.