electrical gremlins

Travis,

I'm sure some of the other guys can tell you where they normally are, but I will just add this ahead of time. Make sure you have a engine to body ground, as well as a body to frame ground. I had a problem of some electrical things acting funny on a truck I restified. The radio being one of them. The weird thing is that the radio would quit as soon as I put the truck in park. It ended up being a bad ground (actually the lack of), but when I put the truck in gear the engine and transmission would ground to the body through the shifter cable. The only way we found it is we were adjusting the cable and when I put the truck in gear, my friend noticed that the cable actually sparked underneath the truck.

Chris

I don't what model/year you are talking about but my CJ has one from a threaded stud on the center of the firewall to the headbolt closest to the firewall on the carb side of the head. Mine was ready to crumble so I just bought a battery cable and ran it to one of the bolts on head behind the alternator. Figured it would do the same thing there and it's easier to get to.

The motor itself can be a problem. The fill up with dirt and gunk over the years, and need to be cleaned out. Try running the wipers while the engine is off, and listen for any telltale signs of what is going on inside the motor.

Having said that, I recently removed my taillamps and sunk them into the body as a flush mount project. While working on them, I connected the stop and running lights, but not the ground. Not only did the lights not work right, but the radio came on when I shifted into Reverse. So, grounding can cause very strange symptoms.

You should have a mesh ground strap from the rear of the head to the firewall for the most stable system. You also might have a wire from the battery to the firewall instead.

If one of those is dirty, you will get intermittent issues.

The wipers acting like they are likely means the windshield hinges don't want to be a stable ground for the wiper motor anymore.

My CJ7 pulled this off in the middle of a swamp 1000 miles from home and

3600 miles left to get home.... When I figured it out, I just added a ground wire to the case of the motor and it has been fine. The CJ dash usually has a main ground for dash lights and things under the steering column just inside the rail. That works if the dash is properly grounded.

Do you have a multimeter? If so I can tell you how to test for grounds via voltage drop.

Here is a good page on figuring out the gauges:

Mike

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

travis wrote:

Ground paths on CJs: There should be a cable running from the negative terminal on the battery to a bolt on the driver-right side of the I-6 engine block. There should be a short cable that jumps aroud the driver left engine mount, from a bolt on the mounting plate to the center bolt on the bottom of the rubber mount (engine to frame ground). There should be a woven web ground strap from a bolt on the block (sometimes the top center bellhousing to engine bolt, where you can't see or reach) to a stud on the firewall, immediately behind the valve cover on the I-6 engine (the stud is actually the left-most mounting point for the heater box). This would be the all-important engine to body ground. If this one is AWOL get a new one from your favorite autoparts discount retailer and attach it to the firewall and to the engine. On the I-6 I'd pick the bolt that connects the bell housing to the block, just driver-right of the row of spark plugs. It is fairly easy to get to and nothing will fall off when you loosen it. Don't try to fab a jumper out of primary wire: It has to be big enough to carry all the current when you have everything (lights, fan, radio) running.

On or about Mon, 20 Oct 2003, travis of snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote:

Thanks, Lee and everyone else who responded. Looks like I have some more wiring to do.

On Tue, 21 Oct 2003 10:46:01 -0400, Lee Ayrton shared the following:

-- Travis

meek shall inherit the earth. After I'm finished with it.:wq!