Short in the fuse box

[Callie]

95 Wrangler 4L. After reading countless posts on this forum (which is awesome btw) finally figured out why my baby died and won't restart. Got a loose wire on the back of the fuse panel (inside, against the firewall) right at the ignition fuse. Pulled the two bolts that hold it to the firewall but can't get it pulled out enough to have a look see on the backside. Seems to have another panel attached to the back. I'm afraid to yank on it too hard for fear of tearing something else up. Anyone have a clue for me? Also - what size fuse is supposed to be in there? I guess once upon a time it had a cover with a map, but that's long gone and it isn't labelled.
Thanks for the help!

 

[SteelHeadz]

Welcome to Jeepz. I think on the engine compartment side, there's a 10mm bolt in the middle of the junction block that has to be remover prior to removing the fuse block. Can you take a pic. of it?

 

[tow_hook]

awwaa blowing a fuse,, been there... lots of helpfull stuff here... im sure you will find your fix

 

[Callie]

I actually got it. =) No power to the fuse for the ignition system. All the rest of them are hot. (I just have one of those lite on-lite off cheapy circuit testers). Got to be a bad wire along the chain between the relay box and the fuse box. Ugh - I dread running this down.

Something is definitely loose as with the right "fonzerelli" bump I get power and engine fires right up and purrs along. But if I sit down on the seat...just that tiny motion breaks the circuit and the whole thing shuts down.

Was driving along Tuesday when everything shut down. Out of the blue. Dead.

Starter turns fine...just no fire. Key's got power too. All the accessories work (light,wipers, blinkers, etc) just can't get juice to the plugs and/or fuel pump. Can't get a volunteer to help check the plugs either. ;-)

Anyone found a similar short? I figure its got to be along somewhere maybe where the wires rub..firewall pass through?

Taking all suggestions.

Thanks!

 

[Callie]

oops - shoot. Forgot to mention neither the fuse under the dash nor under the hood is blown...although I have replaced both of them just in case. =)

 

[glenn beck]

did that model have a crash sensor in the wiring. i have had efi cars that when dropped of a floor jack refuse to run and the fuel pump refuses to work. this was a safety feature to stop the pump/engine in the event of a crash. on older models i have seen these switchs fail to where there not making a good connection so you get glitchs. a good manual should show you the fuse box picture so you can id the fuse and then trace it back in the electrical diagram. if there is nothing inbetween the fuse pos and the battery then you know its in that lenth of wire

 

[Callie]

Nope. Sure didn't. It was the simplest thing that brought my jeep to it's knees. Along the column is a wire that connects the key to the fuse box. Over the years it had apparently worn against the metal bar that runs mid-line behind the dash. There wasn't a single filament of that wire left intact and about a 1cm gap in the spaghetti on the wire. hee hee. A 10 cent splicer coupling fixed the whole thing.... Of course I taped the holy hell out of it and added one of those flexible channels for wiring so this would never happen again!

Thanks for all the input - directly and via the forums. =)