To bring everyone that reads this up to date on the situation, I have to go back to last November. I left my lights on in my 94 YJ (4.0 and manual transmission of course) and had a dead battery after work. I got a jump and started down the road. About 5 miles later my headlights and dash lights lit up and my gauge was pegged at 14v. I started shutting down electronics as fast as I could and the voltage dropped down to about 8v and then leveled back out at about 12.5. Then a loud POP happened and I lost power so I drifted to the side of the road with smoke coming out from under the hood. The battery, PDU and harnesses were all on fire. After putting out the fire, towing it home and reviewing the damage I decided to use a Painless EMS to replace everything.
Fast forward to when I could actually start wiring the harness and past the learning curve of what engine harnesses fit what year of YJ, I managed to get the Painfull system installed. Since I lost my PDU and never got a replacement I had to wire up a starter relay which was not difficult and now it turns over on command but won't run. If I unplug the IGN relay in the Painfull harness, I have 12v going to the system. BTW, all voltage is rounded because it doesn't matter the exact voltage. Once I plug in the relay, BAM, it drops to 5v and nothing works except the fuel pump and the starter. So now I start the troubleshooting phase.
Relay - checked ok and replaced just to make sure
Ignition Control Module - check and no voltage change when unplugged
Coil - check and no voltage change when unplugged
Distributor - check and no voltage change when unplugged
J1 and J2 on ECM - check and no voltage change when unplugged
Grounds - check and no voltage change when disconnected
So I have known many people that tell you to check your ground but believe me, I have 2/0 wiring for my ground and I have no resistance between any point of metal in this. Ok, I have 1-2 ohms but that is almost nothing and is not the issue. Painless Wiring has been difficult to contact for troubleshooting and due to the time available I might as well try Microsoft's tech support in India as it would be faster. Their forum didn't get a response until after a month later when I sarcastically told them thanks for the help on the subject. SO, this brings me to the point of the post.
1. Do I need to wire in the automatic shutdown relay if the fuel pump is fed separately? Besides this relay did nothing during the fire as the Jeep stayed running for about 5 minutes and then the starter just stayed stuck on until the main positive cable finally broke during me hitting it to put out the fire.
2. Has anyone else gone this route after a fire? The fire portion seems to be a common issue with the early 90 years of the Wrangler and thin power wiring.
3. Can anyone think of anything I am missing here? The Painfull manual is helpful with looking at pictures and captions that follow on the next page but there is no schematic and no diagram of any type. I am flying blind on this which complicates things. I have excellent Wrangler diagrams to follow but without any engine compartment harness it really doesn't matter much.
Thank you in advance. This is long-winded so feel free to use this instead of a newspaper for your reading material in the thinking room...
Fast forward to when I could actually start wiring the harness and past the learning curve of what engine harnesses fit what year of YJ, I managed to get the Painfull system installed. Since I lost my PDU and never got a replacement I had to wire up a starter relay which was not difficult and now it turns over on command but won't run. If I unplug the IGN relay in the Painfull harness, I have 12v going to the system. BTW, all voltage is rounded because it doesn't matter the exact voltage. Once I plug in the relay, BAM, it drops to 5v and nothing works except the fuel pump and the starter. So now I start the troubleshooting phase.
Relay - checked ok and replaced just to make sure
Ignition Control Module - check and no voltage change when unplugged
Coil - check and no voltage change when unplugged
Distributor - check and no voltage change when unplugged
J1 and J2 on ECM - check and no voltage change when unplugged
Grounds - check and no voltage change when disconnected
So I have known many people that tell you to check your ground but believe me, I have 2/0 wiring for my ground and I have no resistance between any point of metal in this. Ok, I have 1-2 ohms but that is almost nothing and is not the issue. Painless Wiring has been difficult to contact for troubleshooting and due to the time available I might as well try Microsoft's tech support in India as it would be faster. Their forum didn't get a response until after a month later when I sarcastically told them thanks for the help on the subject. SO, this brings me to the point of the post.
1. Do I need to wire in the automatic shutdown relay if the fuel pump is fed separately? Besides this relay did nothing during the fire as the Jeep stayed running for about 5 minutes and then the starter just stayed stuck on until the main positive cable finally broke during me hitting it to put out the fire.
2. Has anyone else gone this route after a fire? The fire portion seems to be a common issue with the early 90 years of the Wrangler and thin power wiring.
3. Can anyone think of anything I am missing here? The Painfull manual is helpful with looking at pictures and captions that follow on the next page but there is no schematic and no diagram of any type. I am flying blind on this which complicates things. I have excellent Wrangler diagrams to follow but without any engine compartment harness it really doesn't matter much.
Thank you in advance. This is long-winded so feel free to use this instead of a newspaper for your reading material in the thinking room...
