Electrical help needed for dad's jeep

[JEEPURZ]

My brother and I are trying to finish up dad's (JEEPURZ) jeep. He was teaching us about basic mechanic stuff (spark plugs, changing oil) and welding. Due to medical things he won't be able to work on it, we are hopeful he can drive next summer. He was in the middle of a wire harness (EZ wire) install. we have studied the diagrams and took lots of pictures but are kind of confused about wiring. No luck with emails or calls to EZ wire. Progress has been pretty slow due to school events/sports. Jeep is a 1980 CJ5 with AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l 6cyl, 4 speed. Did run/drive when he pulled it into the garage. He visits the site often and enjoys the pictures. He will freak if we can drive the jeep out of the garage. Thanks for any advice you can give us.

 

[BusaDave9]

I am not familiar with EZWire harness. I would hope the wire colors are similar to OEM. I bought a wire diagram from PROSPERO'S GARAGE Presents:  11" x 17", Laminated, Full Original Color Wiring Diagrams for Motorcycles & Vintage Sports Cars!
It worked out great.
Of course there will still be issues so let us know of any specific problems.

 

[BajaEdition]

:lpopcorn::lpopcorn::lpopcorn:

 

[JEEPURZ]

Thank you "jeep people" for reples. We have a 1979 wire diagram that looks like our wires, the 1980 diagram didn't match as good. Didn't know that there are ford and chevrolet things mixed together (ignition module and aternater). first thing is we have a new pink wire that says "coil pos" 12 ga. and ez wire shows hooking this to red wire that goes to (+) on coil. Dad left all the old wires hooked up and ran the new stuff along side to compare. I see original wires go to coil and one (red/green) is marked "resistor do nut cut or splice". This red/green goes to a splice in a big red/white wire, 10 ga, who's one side (13A) goes to module and other side (13F) goes into jeep and ign. sw. Not sure how our new pink wire fits in with this, don't want to cut that resister wire do I? The 1979 diagram has all the wires numbered like (13A) but is in black and white. I can send a picture of the splice if it would help and of the ez wire instructions too. Sorry if this is too long, don't know how to explain it very well. We are taking pictures in case anyone else ever tries this and wants to see what we did.

 

[JEEPURZ]

did some work on towbar in case we have to take jeep to get electrical fixed. will have to save some $$$ for that. we did put amsoil engine fogging oil in the spark plug holes cuz the jeep may be parked awhile.

 

[BusaDave9]

first thing is we have a new pink wire that says "coil pos" 12 ga. and ez wire shows hooking this to red wire that goes to (+) on coil. Dad left all the old wires hooked up and ran the new stuff along side to compare. I see original wires go to coil and one (red/green) is marked "resistor do nut cut or splice". This red/green goes to a splice in a big red/white wire, 10 ga, who's one side (13A) goes to module and other side (13F) goes into jeep and ign. sw. Not sure how our new pink wire fits in with this, don't want to cut that resister wire do I?

Yes that new pink wire should go to the ballast resistor at the coil.

This picture shows a simple toggle switch but in actuality its the ignition key switch.
To make sure you are on the right track you should turn on the key and this pink wire should get 12 volts only when the key is on.
Sorry but my diagram is not exactly like your jeep. The minus side of your coil should go to the ignition module on the fender and not to breaker points.

 

[81laredo]

I am installing an EZ WIRING Harness in another car so I might be able to help. Do you have the Manual from EZ WIRING? This helps to hook up the ignition switch, light switch, dimmer, etc.
The wires are labeled on the wire itself at intervals so that should be of help. The harness is separated into 3 sections 1-under the hood or front of car, 2-dash and interior lights, and 3 rear of car for taillights and fuel tank sender.
The problem that I expect would come when trying to connect the ignition and carburetor control modules. I won't be of any help with these since they were eliminated when I did the Howell Fuel Injection and the CRT HEI Distributor.

I am sure that someone could help but a Nutter Bypass and not so sure about the ignition module.

 

[JEEPURZ]

Thanks BusaDave9 and 81Laredo. We do have the ez wire book and the wires are marked like you said. BD9, great diagram but I don't think we have a resistor at the coil. I'll try and attach a pic of our coil and the ez wire book. We have not plugged in any of the new wires into the steering collem, so we can't do the test for 12v like you said. We thougt we should try to find where all the wires go to the engine before moveing to anything else. Is this dumb? Just don't want to mess it up. Thanks for helping us learn.

 

[JEEPURZ]

BD9, i just ran down and looked at the jeep and i see where my coil green wire (-) goes to module on fender like you said, cool! the pics loaded fine and you can see the red wire that goes to the resister wire and also to starter solnoid. there is TWIRP (the woman is required to pay) dance tonite so got to quit jeep stuff for now.

 

[jasonmark1993]

IAMTP (I always make them pay)

Good work on the jeep!

 

[JEEPURZ]

Thanks, most of our work has been taking pics and trying to figure out hooking up wires without screwing things up. I am going down tonite and make a list of wires we have to hook up at the engine, 2 or 3 left i think.

 

[JEEPURZ]

just checked and there are 2 wires left on engine. one is the pink "coil pos" and a purple "ignition switch start". 1) in the ez wire book this purple wire goes to the "S" post on the starter solenoid. Does this take the place of the existing lite blue wire thats on our jeep wiring diagram goes to the neutral safety sw.? 2) if we splice the pink "coil +" wire to our resistor wire that goes to the coil, do we keep the existing red/white 10 ga. wire that goes to the module? our jeep diagram shows this red/white wire goes to the ignition sw. 3) Thanks!

 

[jasonmark1993]

Im not familiar with your ignition system--is it duraspark or aftermarket?

You should have the starter solenoid on the fender. The positive cable should go to one side and then down to the starter from the other side. Usually you'll have to two smaller terminals on the solenoid. One of them energizes the solenoid closing it and sending power down to the starter. If we're talking about the same wire it should have batt voltage when you turn the key to the crank position. You just have to figure out which side energizes the solenoid. Send twelve volts to each of them and see which one makes the engine turn over.

 

[81laredo]

I can check in a couple of days but yes the starter wire should energize the solenoid through the neutral safety switch so I would suggest that you use that wore to go through the neutral safety switch. Leave the battery cables that go to the solenoid from the battery and to the starter from the solenoid untouched, they should be fine. Also you should leave the wire that comes from the +terminal on the alternator to the solenoid alone, it should be on the same side as the battery cable (or at least it was on my '81.

 

[jasonmark1993]

I might have missed it but does this jeep have an auto? Or do the manual jeeps have a neutral safety? Only had my jeep for a couple months so I haven't gotten that far...whole drivetrain is coming out this weekend though!!

 

[JEEPURZ]

Thanks ^^ for solenoid info. The jeep is a 4 speed. it has the original ford ignition module. last nite we spliced the "coil +" wire into these 2 wires. the red/white that goes to the module and the resistor wire that goes to the coil. i think this is what BD9 was showing in his diagram. also hooked up wiper switch under dash. actually found the right wire by looking at the jeep wiring diagram! the seats are out so we just lay on some pads to work under the dash, pretty slow but we are feeling better about our progress with everyones help. .

 

[JEEPURZ]

Wanted to update on our progress. Since swim season is over and b4 track starts we did sorta complete the wiring. We finally found out where all the wires went but it did take us a long time. We did start the jeep yesterday, first time it ran in a year. No wires burned or smoked. the low hose on the radiator is off so we only let it run for a few seconds. The good: headlites work on hi-lo beem, both front blinkers work (got 2 new ones for Dad's Christmas gift, thanks Morris 4x4), volt gauge works. Issues: no park lites front or back, no blinkers in the back, only drivers side brake lite works, no dash lites. Back lites are new too and we did run a separate ground wire to the back of jeep body. both back lites have a new ground wire to the new ground. So we still have things to fix but are happy that jeep did start and no injury or fires. It was scary when we first hooked up the battery, stood on rubber mat and wore rubber gloves. Brother had extingusher and 911 on speed dial. Nothing blew, we're just freaked by electricty. We did pull all the fuses in the new panel first and then plugged them in one by one and checked things as we went. Hope that helps someone as we had alot of help (and prayers) on our way. we do have some pics to post if anyone is interested in wire stuff. Printed lots of stuff from "jeephammer" on another forum, this was helpful on our ground wires. Thanks to all who have helped.

 

[jeepboy45]

JeepHammer always has good advice.
He's helped me more than once.

I must have missed your original posting, and just read through your thread tonight. Sounds like a fun project. Treat the electrical with respect, but I laughed at the "standing on rubber mat, with rubber gloves" comments..

I bet your pulse went up when you first fired her over.!!! congrats..

brian

 

[JEEPURZ]

^Thanks. Yeah, we were pretty pumped when it fired. We heard from an electrian to hook up the postive first and then check the negative for any current. He said to just touch the neg. cable to the battery, not to hook it up. Thats where the rubber mat and gloves came in. We are total noobies, just don't want to mess up Dad's jeep. So far so good. We learned something else today, got the brake lites and back blinkers working. We looked at the one lite that did work and compared it to the no good one. When we took the bulb out of the bad one we could see those 2 little buttons (ends of red and green wires) were 90 degress off so when you put the bulb in they would not make contact, so no lite. We turned the socket carefuly 90 degrees with needle nose plyers, put bulb in and now they work! These lites were brand new, this one must have got messed up when they built it. I'm glad we had one that worked so we could compare them. 3 things fixed, 4 to go. oh, and don't tell anyone but I also had rubber boots on when we hooked up the battery.

 

[jasonmark1993]

good job; I didnt have to do quite as much as you but had plenty of stuff to work through.

Heads up on the dash lights; make sure the dimmer portion of the headlight switch is to the left. On every other vehicle that turns the lights off but on my 73 it turns them on. You dim them by turning the knob to the right.

I had to replace my headlight switch with a lot of the same issues you had so I'd take a look at that.