Rewiring hell!!!

[chinard]

1043066

Okay, yesterday i decided to have a look at the mess of wiring in the dash of my CJ-7. Its a friggin disaster area in there!

I consulted my trusty haynes repair manual for information on the electrical system, but that wasnt much help.

Does anybody have any GOOD wiring reference material for behind the dashboard of these things? I'm going to go through and clean it all up, but it would help to know what wire is supposed to do what...



Oh BTW... I noticed in the haynes manual that there is something that LOOKS like backlighting for the gauges... Is this actualy the case?[addsig]

 

[jsharifi]

1043067

I can't help you with the wiring... but yeah, the gauges are backlit.

good luck,

jim

85 CJ[addsig]

 

[PerformanceTruck&Auto]

1043071

The manual didn't have the wiring diagrams? That's odd. If you want to post exactly what wires you're having problems with, I can help you through it. After rewiring so many of these things, I litterally know by heart the wire colors and where they go. Just let me know.[addsig]

 

[chinard]

1043074

Sorry...

allow me to clarify...

The manual does have wiring diagrams, but they are not very good and are covered from the perspective of a general wiring schmatic and not an actual diagram of "this is the inside of your dashboard" and "this is where all the wiring points on the gauge cluster are"

I'm kinda also after ideas on how its supposed to "look" from a cable management perspectives. The current setup has been rewired by so many ameteurs that its impossible to tell how its supposed to look.[addsig]

 

[PerformanceTruck&Auto]

1043076

As for the diagram, just look around the page until you find the labeled termination points suck as "Voltmeter", "Wiper Motor Switch", etc and I think you'll find the diagram a saving grace once you get used to reading it. The wiring diagrams used to save my butt a lot back when I first got into restoring old CJs.



As for neatness, just lay out all the wires, hook them up so there are not too many tangles and cross-overs and then wire tie them.



Another thought...... CJ wiring was pretty chinze from the factory (the wire guage they used was too small for the load they had to carry) and for only $350 you can get an entirely new painless pre-terminated complete harness which is a *major* improvement and a snap to install.



HTH[addsig]

 

[chinard]

1043081

I thought about the painless wiring kit, and i don't think that the whole harness needs to be replaced. 90% of the wiring under the hood and along the frame is actualy in pretty good condition. Its just the mess under the dash i need to clean up thanks to a previous owner who decided to install the CD player himslef and turned the dash area into "wiresplice hell"



...And to think... There actualy ARE lights in the guages... I can hardly wait to see them

[addsig]