Electrical Issues.

I brought my 1968 Cj5 home a couple on months ago and between time and summer heat I'm not near as far along as I was hoping to be by now. My complete lack of time spent with it leaves me with a lot of questions and I feel a bit overwhelmed at times.

It starts, runs and drives but nothing electrical besides turning the key to start, run and stop engine works at all. I have a couple of small projects lined up that I have kind of started before tackling the electrical system issues. I'm kind of looking for a few ideas before I get to start diving in.

Steering column appears to be GM and is junk. I have a new replacement in a box. But I would say its obvious the turn signal switch is trash and the reason why turn signals don't work if it's even getting power at all. No headlights, tail lights, wipers, horn etc. Lots of extra added switches and stuff nothing labeled as to what it should do. Its going to be a a mess I'm sure.

Any suggestions on where to start would be greatly appreciated. My goal is to get what needs to be fixed so I can hopefully get a little bit of enjoyment out of driving this thing before it's cold and crappy weather hits in a few months.

 

You're not asking for much
I just finished helping another forum member rewire a 68 CJ.
If you're not familiar with automotive wiring my best advice is rip it all out, invest in a wiring harness and start from scratch. Follow the instructions.
Trying to rewire a Jeep based on tips from a forum is going to lead to headaches.

 

I agree. sSnce it sounds like it's heavily modified electically, I'd just get a 12ish circuit universal wiring harness and redo it from scratch. There are lots of options out there and most will work with GM column plugs for the turn signals.

• https://www.amazon.com/Team-Performance-STANDARD-CIRCUIT-UNIVERSAL/dp/B06W5NC8PZ
• https://www.painlessperformance.com/wc/10308
• https://www.speedwaymotors.com/12-Circuit-Mini-Fuse-Universal-Hot-Rod-Wiring-Harness-Kit,2352.html
• https://www.hotrodwires.com/product/12-circuit-harness.html

 

I would also recommend ripping the wiring out and use a modern harness from painless wiring. The original wires in my jeep were so brittle that the insulation would crumble and fall off the copper. Another plus is modern fues and the aftermarket harness should already be setup for a gm steering column and trun signal swith

 

while what you described is a rat nest at most
the FSM has wiring diagrams for the year jeep
easy to follow . most systems get there start from starter battery terminal
to post on circuit breaker/light switch and branch off from there
as others have posted maybe a aftermarket harness
might be in order

 

I was just asking what might be a few things to look for as to what would cause a no power issue to pretty much everything. I wasn't sure if the circuit breaker has known issues or any other common known issues just to keep an eye out for as I have not had a chance to really investigate yet. I wasn't asking for advice on how to rewire the whole thing or anything like that.

I do have a new universal type harness with fuse block wires labeled every few inches still sitting in the box that I haven't had time to get to yet. If I can find a simple fix to hold off until things slow down I would at least get to go for a test drive and shake things down. Having a project you can't drive once in a while or ever is a great way for me to lose interest.

 

X5. Start fresh . It's the best & least frustrating way.

 

There may be a circuit breaker attached to the rear of the headlight switch. See if power is passing that point or not.

 

Best advice and approach!
FSM= Factory Service Manual

 

There is no magic bullet place to start troubleshooting an already hacked electrical system. You have a combination of Jeep
and GM wiring so you will need both diagrams and much cramped work under the dash with a meter and test light.

 

I'm not sure I want to jump in head first at this point. I have some other work to do including replacing the steering column at that point I would like to unbolt the dash. As part of the repaint part goes I want to fill holes and body work it a little bit. Then I might as well paint it while it's out. I will have to see what happens this weekend. I have had a couple of people want to buy the jeep from me. It's very tempting at this point.

I thought jeep equals simple easy project. It really means everything the previous owners ever did to it makes everything custom and more complicated than it should be.

 

Mine was a project that I brought home and I won't say how long ago or how many other things in life got in the way.
It cost me plenty but most of those distractions are now gone.

 

.....If your hearts not in it , Sell It.

 

If you don't want to rewire it in the near term, you're going to have to start tracing wires. It's not that hard. I've cleaned up the existing wiring on 2 different Jeeps now.

Things to note:

• The incoming power that feeds the ignition switch and the rest of the Jeep passes through a circuit breaker on the back of the light switch.
• Most accessories have an in-line fuse somewhere in the wire leading from the ignition switch.
• Folding down the windshield, undoing the dash bolts, and pulling the dash back from the cowl makes the job MUCH easier.
• From your symptoms, I'd probably start at the ignition switch to see it's sending power to the accessories.
• There isn't that much electrical stuff in these old Jeeps, so it's not as hard of a task as it seems.

Here's a wiring diagram for a 1971 renegade with colors that will correspond mostly how your '68 was originally. Differences between a '68 are the '71 Renegade has one wiper motor, and has an ammeter and oil pressure gauge the '68 wouldn't have had.


Here's my '71 with the seats out and the dash pulled back to work on the wiring:

 

just a friendly reminder
don't apply any 12 volt power to cluster . IF it isn't grounded
or you'll see the magic smoke . not good

 

I was actually thinking about doing what you have pictured. My ignition switch is a Cat switch. So basically anyone with a CAT key can start my jeep. Who knows how it was wired in but lol it works and nothing else does. My jeep also has an ammeter for some reason. I think getting rid of it would reduce the likelihood of a dash fire.




Not sure what this is as of now I haven't had a chance to look into yet. Oops posted before I was ready. On accident.

 

Thanks for that information I wasn't aware of that. Electronics always work great until the smoke leaves.

So there is a lot going on here and by judging on the paint job that looks older than I am. I would say the wiring has been "modified " before that because it looks like they painted over all the wiring. I assume this thing was someones pride and joy at some point in time even if Bubba and Cletus had a small part in doing the work. There are extra switches and gauges . Other than the wiring being painted over I don't see anything too molested in what I would assume is factory.

It looks like from what I have seen so far everything was probably done pretty decent for the time (probably long before you tube). I'm hoping all the extra add ons were done in a way I would do it ( not hacked into factory harness). I'm hoping I can weed out all of the unnecessary stuff and have functional bare bones system for now like all the lights and signals etc.

I wouldn't call myself a ASE certified Master technician but I have done quite a bit of automotive wiring in the past on old projects. Eventually and sometime soon I would like to redo the wiring and bring it up to more modern standards. I would really just like to get the bare minimum lighting and electrical working so I could just cruise it around the neighborhood legally. If I could just get some seat time I think it would really spark my motivation to get it done .

 

Looks like it might be a relay. Also shows Happy Homeowner DIY crimp connecters which I despise. A loose or corroded crimp could cause difficulties and is hard to trace. I always solder all my terminals, one-and-done.

 

Looks like one wire feeds it from the + battery terminal and then two wires leave the relay or whatever it is and head into the firewall under the dash. What they go to is unknown at this point. The two factory looking pull out switches in the dash are not labeled and there might be 2 or 3 aftermarket type toggle switches in the dash as well. Another who knows what they do or if they are even connected to anything. There is also some kind of auxiliary fuel tank switching equipment on the firewall with one wire connected to it.

The auxiliary fuel tank is pretty cool but it looks pretty nasty inside. I will never use it. Couple of people I know that are jeep peeps say they have never seen one like it before. I plan on tracing wires back from extra added stuff and removing from the source to eliminate any thing not needed that will.cause issues.

I've always disliked crimp on insulated terminals. I generally like to solder and shrink wrap. Splices and use correct terminal ends in pinned connectors.

I removed my heater core last night. The average temperature here and my intended use will not require a heater. I will be making a block off plate to seal the firewall. I figured that empty space will make a easily accessible place to mount my fuse panel for the new harness when I get to it. I also will use a circuit breaker mounted on the firewall close to the battery for battery + connections supplying power to the fuse panel.

Everyone I know that has owned an old jeep says they have experienced electrical fires at some point. That's an experience i feel I could live with out. My tow bar experience bringing it home was about all I could handle.

 

Not me, in five-plus decades of jeeps. Don't know anyone who has.

But I do carry an extinguisher in all my vehicles.