Rewire after fire

[George122]

Hi all,
I acquired a 89 XL Pioneer w/ 4.0L A/T that had an electrical fire. I haven't turned a wrench on Jeep since my CJ 30yrs ago so this may be an adventure (or a headache)

Cables from the battery to the starter and also the one to the engine block had all the insulation burned off, the battery clamps melted in half. The ground strap at the firewall had melted into the hard plastic emission tubing before it disappeared. All the wires attached to the started relay were damaged out about 6". The wires attached to the ICM were also damaged.

I'm getting ready to make repairs but one group of wires have me stumped. In a loom there are 3 wires: Orange/Brn stripe, Black/Wh stripe and Green. The Orange may have been cut from somewhere because it doesn't show signs of damage, but the other 2 have insulation melted plus female spade terminals attached with pieces of the male terminal inside. The 4 terminals on the starter relay are still intact.

There is also a small pink hard plastic tube near the passenger side firewall that was melted in half. What is it and can it be repaired, plugged or needed to be replaced?

Thanks

 

[joe_peters]

Hi all,
I acquired a 89 XL Pioneer w/ 4.0L A/T that had an electrical fire. I haven't turned a wrench on Jeep since my CJ 30yrs ago so this may be an adventure (or a headache)

Cables from the battery to the starter and also the one to the engine block had all the insulation burned off, the battery clamps melted in half. The ground strap at the firewall had melted into the hard plastic emission tubing before it disappeared. All the wires attached to the started relay were damaged out about 6". The wires attached to the ICM were also damaged.

I'm getting ready to make repairs but one group of wires have me stumped. In a loom there are 3 wires: Orange/Brn stripe, Black/Wh stripe and Green. The Orange may have been cut from somewhere because it doesn't show signs of damage, but the other 2 have insulation melted plus female spade terminals attached with pieces of the male terminal inside. The 4 terminals on the starter relay are still intact.

There is also a small pink hard plastic tube near the passenger side firewall that was melted in half. What is it and can it be repaired, plugged or needed to be replaced?

Thanks

The hard plastic tube is the vacuum line from the HVAC temp control to the coolant control valve.

I have done a number of post-fire rewires over the years. With pre-electronic vehicles simply building a harness was easy enough to do. Following the electronics age getting a factory replacement or locating a donor is the best way. There isn't enough Bi-polar medication on this earth to keep me sane trying to patch together a modern harness.

If you try and do this without getting a different harness I wish you the best of luck. Two suggestions--no alcohol and have a good friend store your guns and ammunition where you can't get to them.

 

[lawsoncl]

I don't recall if the coolant valve vac line was brown or pink (an 88 FSM says violet). The coolant valve vac lin can be plugged. The coolant valve needs vacum to close, so you'll still have heat. The orange-brn and a lt-green might match up with the a/c pressure and clutch wiring? There's an orange-black, and a green something on the evap solenoid canister too.

Do you have a wiring schematic?

 

[George122]

Yahoo it runs, and not once did I think about sending a round through the block. Began by replacing the starter cable than ran new grounds. Battery to block, battery to radiator frame rail, and another replaced strap from the firewall to block.

Here's where I had one of those uh-oh moments. I figured I'd do the starter first to make sure it was Ok, but when I hooked up the cables to the battery I hear something like a relay clicking in and out. After a few "what the heck is that noise" it turned out to be the emergency flashers. Hit the switch on the column noise stops and one problem solved. Traced out the solenoid wire and got the starter to work, although later on in the day I had problems with it.

I did have enough color showing on all the wires that ran to the ICM to simply cut and splice, then managed to sort wires from the fused glob of rubber and plastic to splice the rest. It turned out the orange wire is my start from the ignition switch, green went to grd on starter relay. Figured the black/wh is for the NSS but didn't know where to land it so I just left it alone. It must be bypassed because I got in turned the key and the beast came to life.

The small plastic line is violet and not pink (sorry about that) and it does go to the CCV, no big deal for right now.

I'm going to get it to my mechanic for a physical but I think it'll be OK. So far I know the A/C is not cooling, need to replace the starter soleniod, have a vacuum leak which is causing a flat spot when I hit the throttle. 4Low works but 4High doesn't lockup as smooth as I'd like it to and the dash indicator isn't working either. At some point I will need to fix the NSS. Oh, the ignition switch is broke because I don't need the key.

It took me most of the afternoon including 3 trips to the autoparts store for the misc. parts I thought I had but hey it's running. Let the fun begin.

 

[lawsoncl]

Glad to hear its working. There is a Black-White wire that goes to the diagnostic D2 connector. If that's it, you can ignore it unless you actually have a scanner that'll work with the Renix.