86 wire nightmare

[adobson06]

my 86 was previously loved by some college student who did a 2.8 to a 2.5 swap i decided to replace the enire dash and not surprised at all almost every single wire in the dash have a terrible cheap splice done to them.... After replacing the dash and clicking everything back together now when i hit the brakes the dash lights come on with the brake lights, and the left turn signal doesnt work unless the lights are off or if i don't hit the brakes, but it still doesnt work after that just flashes the both rear lights, and the front left turn signal works though...my question is can i just rip the entire fuse box out for the interior and find one out of a same year or near same year cherokee? it doesnt appear anything was spliced in the engine bay so i wasnt sure.... ive done this before in my close to ancient trans am, but I'm not sure if for these things it would have to be engine specific, or if it would have to be out of a mj

 

 

thanks

[88ComancheMitch]

I think it's engine specific...so you'd have to get one from a 2.5 Xj. 

 

Wait for someone else to respond to be for sure though. Why not just get a whole wiring harness and fix it, hopefully for good?

[adobson06]

thats what I'm shooting for the engine harness is untouched thats what I'm confused about makes zero sense to me i was going to check and see if i could find a box cherokee with a 2.5 and just unbolt the interior harness and rebolt it to mine i've been struggling with this thing for over a week and i would think it would be a hell of a lot easier to just replace the entire fuse box for the interior but i wasnt sure... thanks for the quick response

[Eagle]

Your symptoms sound like a ground problem in the lights.

 

As far as I know, the fuse panel is the same for the 2.5L and 2.8L -- within the same year vehicle. I don't know if or how much the fuse panel changed from one year to another. But I don't think the fuse panel is your problem.

[adobson06]

i may be wrong about fuse panel i just know on the T/a all the wires for the dash were mounted into it and i know they are a two piece design block for the engine bay bolts to the fuse box for the interior wasnt sure if the comanche was the same i was just hoping to pull all of these terrible wires out with the box with "one swift motion" and replace it with "fresh" old wires out of a junkyard cherokee that hasnt been splice and trashed.. when i took the dash out and replaced it the only things that were removed were roof lights that the kid spliced into a line that i assume turned them on when the light switch was engaged. the other issue is when I'm driving down the road at night i don't even have to hit a bump and the headlights will randomly shut off forcing me to to hold the high beams on by hand while i steer and shift (fantastic multi tasker right there)  i will have to take pictures and upload them this thing is straight out of a horror film.. the weird thing is there is a white wire with way to much slack that runs from the cab to back lights with a couple cheapy butt connecters that the guy splice into i wanna say both turn signals poor poor mj

[shelbyluvv]

Did you use a MJ dash and harness or a XJ harness?

[adobson06]

I haven't done it yet I am going to attempt to run a xj interior harness and I may just use the gauge cluster from an xj and see how it works anything has to be better than what I got

[thejim42]

I've got a complete engine and dash harness out of an 86 2.5 5speed i could sell you