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Power Door Lock Switches (Fixed)


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I thought I was pretty good with electronics, but I have no clue what's going on here.

 

I have the cross-body harness and power window and door lock setup from a '92 XJ powered out of the vehicle by a 12V drill battery. I have the power windows working fine, but the locks are acting funny. With both the driver side and passenger side switch panels plugged in, the door locks only work using the driver side switch panel. The lock and unlock relays are getting signals from the passenger side switch, but they are extremely weak (test light glows very dimly), and the relays don't trigger. If the driver side switch panel is unplugged, the door locks operate perfectly using the passenger side switch panel. This harness is in overall pretty good condition. I don't see any evidence of broken wires.

 

To summarize:

 

DS and PS switches both plugged in:

- Locks only work from driver side

- Relays get very weak signal when passenger side lock switch is used, PS switch still gets 12v feed

 

DS switch unplugged, PS switch plugged in:

- Locks work from passenger side

- Relays get strong signal

 

What the hell is going on? I suspected the driver side lock switch, but according to the FSM's test procedure it tests good.

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Is there a disable on the driver's door? On my 2000 XJ, there's a push button switch on the driver's door control panel to lock out the other doors.

 

No lockout switch for the locks. I'm using a 2-door old style switch panel with a lockout switch for the windows only.

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I fixed it!

 

My switch panel came from a 1988 Comanche with power everything. The Renix era power lock wiring is VERY different (and far inferior) from the 91+ wiring with lock and unlock relays. I foolishly believed that the switches would be the same despite the change in door lock wirig, but the back of the switch pack has a very important difference:

 

88 and earlier (or maybe 1990 or earlier? need to confirm) switch panel with no lock/unlock relays:

mRx61hEl.jpg

 

Late model switch panel, with relays.

i7fNDiNl.jpg

 

Everything the copper foil touches is grounded - That means that both the lock and unlock control side wires are normally grounded (through the bottom left section of copper foil) in the pre-89 switch panel. On the post-89 switch panel, the copper foil doesn't even touch the lock/unlock switch contacts (the bottom left set of 6 in the pictures). The fix is to disconnect the copper foil from that area of the switch panel. There's 3 tabs that connect the top left and bottom right contacts of that switch to ground. Bend them out of the way, and the locks will now work from both sides. This wouldn't have been an issue if I was using a switch panel from a model year with relay-controlled locks.

 

Fun fact: The switches are Ford parts as found in the boxy Crown Vic and other products.

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Good troubleshooting.   :cheers:   If you even need any switches I have a ton of them. I had the left side power window switch that controlled the right window self-destruct internally a few weeks ago with no visible damage on the switch housing. That was fun trying to find where the problem was.

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This Jeep lives a life of luxury these days. I have a far rustier and uglier one to haul stuff in now :)

 

The '91 basically has every factory option except 4x4 you could load up a '91 shortbed Comanche with now, and I've always hated having to reach across to unlock the passenger side door and roll the window down. A week ago I found the right switch panels out of an '88 Comanche with power windows and locks, so after thinking about it for about 3 years it's time to actually do it :)

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You have to add the wiring from the fusebox out. The factory wiring uses fuse taps and 30 amp circuit breakers for the power accessories, and the fusebox on a '91 at least is wired for them. You'll need both the cross-body and door harnesses from (preferably) a 91 or 92 XJ. The 91 and 92s have the lock and unlock relays located by the passenger side kick panel in the crossbody harness, but later years have them as part of the dash harness in a relay center under the dash. 90 and earlier wiring sucks because they don't use relays for locking and unlocking.

 

Dr2GyFZl.jpg

 

Just add power from the fusebox taps and ground and it'll work just fine. I was running this off a drill battery on the floor. It's pretty much standalone.

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Did this to my 91 more than 5 years ago when somebody hit the truck.  Since I had to fix 1 door, I just purchased a pair of doors from a Cherokee with the power windows and locks.  Doors also came with the interior door panels in the correct gray color.  I paid $200 for both doors.  Then I just had to come up with the cross body harness.  Don has a simple wire diagram.  Frankly, I have gotten used having them in all my cars.

 

Minuit:  Very nice job to describe the issue and the what to do for installing the power door locks/windows.  I need to look in the DIY section to see if their is a write up on installing the power windows and locks.  If there is, then this thread should be linked to that DIY.

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Old post of mine from 07 below. Unfortunately the regulators are more expensive now, but they are still going strong. 
 

Manual window regulators are waaaaaaaay overpriced, and used XJ regulators are mostly junque. I got sick of the manual windows and bought a pair of new Electric Life XJ front door power regulators for $150, picked up a set of window switches on Ebay for $10, and wired them in. Then sold the old manual regulators for $125 for the pair. Been going strong now for a couple of years, and so much better.

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Are these it Don?

 

That's 50% more than the Dorman junk but not really that bad if they're good quality. My regulators (pulled from a '94 so they're attached with bolts rather than rivets) weren't the fastest thing in the world when I tested them in the junkyard but they are functional.

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  • 3 years later...

That piece of deduction, that impressed me. I had never seen a later-model door switch group, so I assumed they were all the same, and that the relays were only for the RKE module to run the door lock motors. I drew a couple diagrams, one of the wiring color conversions between the early '90s relay wiring colors and the '96 wiring colors (the cross-body harness is from a '96, and the relays are from a '90 or '91). I'll go ahead and shoot high-res photos to post up here (I don't have a flatbed scanner).

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