Tail lights and dashboard lights not working

You have a bulb out on the back somewhere. At least in the old days that was your sign a taillight was out.

Approximately 9/23/03 03:51, Guy uttered for posterity:

Does your ZJ have the factory tow package with that little junction box and connector just to the left of the hitch receiver?

Did you modify your wiring on the ZJ in *any* way whatever, or did you just plug in the trailer?

With the standard tow connector Fuse 1 should deal with wiring oopsies, and if gone should take out the rear wiper and antenna relay. Fuse 22 takes care of the instrument cluster

Dunno what you mean by running light unless a canada model which uses the headlight but needs fuse 24 to do so.

This all translates to inability to find a common path or fuse that would blow all of these in the FSM wiring diags for a 95 ZJ.

Guages work? Heater AC controls light up? Graphic Info Center do anything? Lamp fault light anywhere?

What happens when you unhook it?

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Guy wrote:

Coincidentally, it was about 9 years ago that I had UHaul put a hitch and trailer wiring harness into a Suzuki Sidekick I had at the time. Shortly thereafter, I was blowing fuses left and right. Couldn't feed the thing enough fuses. Made a 100 mile trip home in the dark one night with nothing more than 4-way flashers going. Come to find out that UHaul had gotten ahold of a bad batch of wiring harnesses. There was a short inside of the plug. Maybe check that out?

P.S. UHaul also scratched the shit out of the paint on my tailgate while fixing it. Despite the manager of the place damn near admitting that it happened there, I got no satisfaction out of them in terms of a repair. Even fought with their insurance company. I've done absolutely NO business with them since then.

Good luck!

Mark '98 TJ '98 XJ

(Remove @home from email address)

Approximately 9/23/03 18:30, Guy uttered for posterity:

Maybe if you could post an inventory of what still works and what doesn't, a better guess could be possible. As in the key on light test lights these lights but not these lights, or the information display [door, 2wd/4wd etc] or auto temp control display, upper console, any interior lights, etc. work but something else doesnt. I don't see any fusible links in the FSM, but you may have fried a connector or something... just cannot narrow it down from the info given.

I will assume that you've already checked the fuses in the fuse block, plus that none of the bulbs on the rear lights are blown out to an open...although the light bulb status detector module should be flashing something and can't find any one fuse in common.

Hmmm.....

I would first double check the fuses. They can melt out and not 'look' blown. If you have a multimeter, you put it to 20 volts and touch the two metal tabs on top of the plastic fuse. A good fuse shows 0 volts, a blown fuse shows 12 volts.

The only thing I can think of in common between the dash lights and the running lights is the light switch itself.

The stock light switches are not very robust. They will melt down even from a set of high powered headlights in place of the stock lights if you don't use a relay for the extra draw.

Could be the trailer lights loaded the circuit up enough to melt something. I would be pulling the plug off the light switch and be inspecting it for heat damage.

Good luck!

Mike

Guy wrote:

I'm telling ya, he's got a taillight blown.

I could see maybe two tail lights blown, but what of the front running lights?

Or the dash lights?

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

In the old days...

If you had a taillight out, your dash lights were too. It served to notify you of a taillight problem.

I miised the part about thefront running lights, but the same may apply.

It was worth a shot. Sorry.

Approximately 9/24/03 08:08, Jeepers uttered for posterity:

This is a 1995 ZJ...

The 1995 ZJ has a bulb fault module.

I definitely would check the rear bulbs, but the various pieces noted as being dark share so little in common it is wierd.

Light switch is common, no? Or were the brake lights not working?

Burnt switch is my guess...

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Guy wrote:

Approximately 9/24/03 14:01, Guy uttered for posterity:

Have you got a FSM? It would help, since you could then run a few voltmeter checks to make sure as to where you still have, and don't have power.

Have you checked all the fuses with an ohm or voltmeter? Or even check the fuses already given as suspects?

Do you even *have* a voltmeter?

Does your ZJ have the lamp fault module?

Is there anything *else* that isn't working that could narrow it down.

I have the FSM wiring diags, but unfortunately the only scanner I have is for slides...and without knowing what you have and have not checked from previous questions, have no idea what to look at for you.

You aren't really coughing up enough information to even suggest what to do next...