My '01 XJ - A Work in Progress

[jeepgeek2002]

Looks good!

 

[bzauche]

Looks good!

Thank you!

 

[bzauche]

I completed another little restoration project today; my factory roof rails! I figured since I just refurbished my entire roof rack and added new lights, I wanted my factory rails to look nice too

So a couple of hours ago, they look like this:

Did a little bit of sanding:

Primed:

As the 4th coat of paint dries!

Much better!

I'll probably go out and put them back on in a few hours. I don't want to take any chances with condensation/rain/moisture getting into the holes in the roof overnight! My Del City order should get here tomorrow, so I'll hopefully be able to start all my wiring for the lights!

 

[Ben824]

Not trying to piss anyone off Matt. I'm just trying to decipher why I'm getting ridiculed for having a pro work on my Jeep. I have a separate bank account for Jeep up-keep, and I can spend it how I choose. I'm new at all this, so I'm not quite as comfortable with bigger repairs as I am with changing my oil or spark plugs. I'm sure these guys would be pleased to hear that I refurbished my roof rack, made my own light tabs, and will be wiring up 4 new lights (relays, switches, fuses, and all) without spending a dime on labor. I realize they are trying to help, but saying stuff like "Well since he'd rather spend money on having a "mechanic" do his stuff.. you can rule out the "locals"gets us nowhere. Yes, I have since talked to Stump about having him help me out with some projects, and yes, I will hopefully be headed to his shop when I get the parts ordered and he's available.

Ok Brandon I am going to give you a little friendly advice since you are new and I would hate to see you deal with some unnecessary confrontation. I dealt with some confrontation when I was new just from me simply using texting short hand (not using hardly any punctuation, bad grammer, using things like "idk", etc.) and one guy started flaming me for it and it went off in the wrong direction and I never got my question answered. One thing you gotta remember is you are on this forum to learn about these wonderful vehicles and seek the advice and knowledge of others that know more than you (keep in mind the "know more than you" part). Since you are not paying these guys for their advice they have no reason to answer your questions or even be nice for that matter. So if they do answer you question and are nice you should feel a little humble that they are willing to help you out. Now yes, some members on here are going to be an ass no matter what you do (I personally cannot stand a particular member bobnoxious) and a good bit of the time you will get some sort of snob comment if you ask a newbie question, put up an idea that is just waaaayyyy out there, or ask a question and then argue with someone giving you an answer (a big pet peeve of mine). Point is you are new and basically know nothing except what you have read. Many of the guys here have written what you have read and know what they are talking about. Stuff like brakes or wiring up lights for instance are such a simple thing for many of us but for a new guy like you could seem like such a big project since you probably have never done it and know nothing about it. For us we see brakes as such a simple project that we would see paying a mechanic as a waste of money and some would even see it as foolish. So try not to get too offended when someone makes a comment as you may have said something pretty dumb not knowing it. You will learn and someday you will see a question from a new guy and roll your eyes and think "did he really just say that?" You have alot to learn and most of us are very nice and very willing to help. Good Luck!


Oh and great job with the lights and rack! They look good!

 

[High2by]

You wanna redo my rack????

Looks good!!

One thing to remember, when you run all 4 lights you will pull some serious juice from the electrical system. Those look like pencil beams, which are good for seeing waaaaaaaaaaaaay out there, but running all of them plus the headlights and the radio and the blower motor, might tax the alternator. I'd check and see what the output is on yours and maybe look for an upgrade in that arena. Also, check all the main battery cables and make sure they are in good shape. The grounds have always been "questionable" on Cherokees so play close attention to them. Just a couple things to think about as you add more electrical draws on the system.

Keep the build going and keep the pics coming. Nice work so far.

 

[bzauche]

Ok Brandon I am going to give you a little friendly advice since you are new and I would hate to see you deal with some unnecessary confrontation. I dealt with some confrontation when I was new just from me simply using texting short hand (not using hardly any punctuation, bad grammer, using things like "idk", etc.) and one guy started flaming me for it and it went off in the wrong direction and I never got my question answered. One thing you gotta remember is you are on this forum to learn about these wonderful vehicles and seek the advice and knowledge of others that know more than you (keep in mind the "know more than you" part). Since you are not paying these guys for their advice they have no reason to answer your questions or even be nice for that matter. So if they do answer you question and are nice you should feel a little humble that they are willing to help you out. Now yes, some members on here are going to be an ass no matter what you do (I personally cannot stand a particular member bobnoxious) and a good bit of the time you will get some sort of snob comment if you ask a newbie question, put up an idea that is just waaaayyyy out there, or ask a question and then argue with someone giving you an answer (a big pet peeve of mine). Point is you are new and basically know nothing except what you have read. Many of the guys here have written what you have read and know what they are talking about. Stuff like brakes or wiring up lights for instance are such a simple thing for many of us but for a new guy like you could seem like such a big project since you probably have never done it and know nothing about it. For us we see brakes as such a simple project that we would see paying a mechanic as a waste of money and some would even see it as foolish. So try not to get too offended when someone makes a comment as you may have said something pretty dumb not knowing it. You will learn and someday you will see a question from a new guy and roll your eyes and think "did he really just say that?" You have alot to learn and most of us are very nice and very willing to help. Good Luck!


Oh and great job with the lights and rack! They look good!

Good advice! I'm definitely trying to stay away from paying for labor as much as I can, the more and more I read and wrench on the XJ. This roof rack project has been super fun, and it is very rewarding to see the fruits of your own labor!

You wanna redo my rack????

Looks good!!

One thing to remember, when you run all 4 lights you will pull some serious juice from the electrical system. Those look like pencil beams, which are good for seeing waaaaaaaaaaaaay out there, but running all of them plus the headlights and the radio and the blower motor, might tax the alternator. I'd check and see what the output is on yours and maybe look for an upgrade in that arena. Also, check all the main battery cables and make sure they are in good shape. The grounds have always been "questionable" on Cherokees so play close attention to them. Just a couple things to think about as you add more electrical draws on the system.

Keep the build going and keep the pics coming. Nice work so far.

If you wanna ship it down to me, sure!

Yeah I'll definitely check out my alternator, and all associated wiring. Thanks for the tips and compliments!

 

[bzauche]

Well, today marked the beginning of the wiring project! I woke up and found these at the doorstep:

Goodies:

I got right to work!

Had to make sure to mark my grounds at the end, otherwise they'd get lost in the loom!

And so began the final leg:

As you can see, my perfectionism took over! After that I started getting the Jeep ready for its new veins; that will be finished up tomorrow! I'll have pictures of all of the Jeep wiring tomorrow night, as well as the whole thing together at last!

 

[jeepgeek2002]

Holy Ziptie batman!

 

[High2by]

Looks good but I would have run all the wires in 1 loom. As you place "stuff" in the basket, over time, some of those ties might break. I know how I place things in my basket and for me, they would break quickly. I mean I can only be sooooo gentle with a 37" tire.

What's the plan for getting the wires inside?

 

[prettynasty]

im jealous of your lights

 

[bzauche]

Holy Ziptie batman!

I might have gone a little overboard, but there's no droop!

Looks good but I would have run all the wires in 1 loom. As you place "stuff" in the basket, over time, some of those ties might break. I know how I place things in my basket and for me, they would break quickly. I mean I can only be sooooo gentle with a 37" tire.

What's the plan for getting the wires inside?

Yeah I thought about that, but I liked the cleaner look of running 4 separate looms. I don't know how often I'll have stuff in the rack but I have extra ties in my toolbox if one ever breaks. I'm planning on running the wires underneath the weather sealing in the hatch. I'll get a picture when it's done; I re-did my grounds closer to the lights so there's not as many wires in the final loom now.

im jealous of your lights

Thanks I guess? haha

 

[High2by]

One thing to look at is a plug of some sort right at the rear of the basket. That's so if you ever decide to take the basket off, all you have to do is unplug it instead of having to cut the wires. I've seen the 4-way flat trailer plugs used for that.

 

[bzauche]

One thing to look at is a plug of some sort right at the rear of the basket. That's so if you ever decide to take the basket off, all you have to do is unplug it instead of having to cut the wires. I've seen the 4-way flat trailer plugs used for that.

Beat you to it! The components for quick-disconnects were part of my big order. I'm still thinking about where to have that connection though...should it be on top of the Jeep, where I can hide it, or inside under a trim panel?

 

[bzauche]

After much struggle, I just plain couldn't get the lights to run. Turns out, I completely skipped the 12V run wire going into the switch. Silly me. So once I figured out that that was what I was missing, I took my center console panel off, and spliced a wire into one of my cigarette lighter wires. Hooked that up to the switch, and boom. Lights worked! I'll post pictures of everything tomorrow and get some of the rack on the Jeep with the lights!

 

[jeepgeek2002]

just make sure you have a fuse set up in the wiring that if it gets over heated it ll just pop the fuse and not melt the wire and cause a fire..
they make those wires with a fuse inside them.. i forgot the name but Autozone had em.

 

[Lowrange2]

I'm not so sure I'd be comfortable running 4 larger lights like that off of the cirgarette lighter circuit. If you look under the dash you can run it directly to the fusebox with a blade connector. It'll plug in just like a fuse. The circuit you spliced into is rather small.

Unless you are running relays, in which case you'll be fine.

Edit: Damn - Geek beat me to it.

He's refering to a fusible link.

 

[jeepgeek2002]

Yeah .. that is true.. though if you run it to a Relay + switch it may handle it. I run my aux fan through a relay.

 

[bzauche]

Both of my mini "circuits" have relays, if that's what you're referring to. I wouldn't run 4 100W lights without them!

Edit: here's how it's laid out....

I have two dual 87 pin, normally open relays.

Pin 30 of the relay comes from the + terminal of the battery.
4 lights, with one power wire each. Lights are grounded on the rack.
2 lights for each relay, one wire going into each 87 pin.
Pin 86 of the relay goes to ground.
Pin 85 of the relay goes to the switch. Also into the switch is the wire that I got from the cigarette lighter.

Is that cigarette lighter wire not enough for its purpose? I was under the impression that all it did was provide the power to trigger the relays to get power from their pin 30's.

 

[bzauche]

Well, the lights are on and working just fine! I took a few pictures of the wiring, but nothing really exciting. Hopefully in the next few days I'll be able to take some good pictures of the whole Jeep with the new lights and refurb'd rack. Now that I'm back at school, I probably won't be updating as often since I don't have any money and I don't have much time to work on it

 

[jeepgeek2002]

Sleep is over-rated