Justins Jeep

From Fusselman.org

My brother acquired a 1996 Jeep Cherokee while living in Arizona this year. Someone, along the line, had lifted it, put a crazy front bumper on it, and generally beat the crap out of it, in a variety of ways. The truck is salvage titled, and I suspect that it's been both wrecked and flooded, given the body damage to the right hand side, and some softening of paint under the carpet. The carpet also seems very new for a '96. Additionally, there's corrosion in places I wouldn't expect, inside the door panels. All in all, though, it was essentially a straight trade for the truck he had at the time, and the Jeep has working AC (which he tells me is important in Tucson).

First Task: Repair Power Windows and Locks

Justin had been having problems with the power locks, windows, and a variety of fuses. Only some of the switches worked, and when he rolled the windows up, the doors would unlock. This behavior was erratic, and appeared shortly after he bought the car. Additionally, the fuse for the radio, locks, windows, and interior lights would spontaneously blow on occasion. After dismantling both front doors, and the entire lower dash section, we found a destroyed harness, inside the drivers door.

We also discovered a number of deviations from the Chilton's book he had. Namely, about half the wire colors were wrong, and the book had no clue whatsoever as to where fuses were located. Eventually, I'll digitize all the connector diagrams and makeshift harness maps we made, and put them here.

In the end, we repaired the trashed harness, and repacked everything inside the doors. Additionally, we redid a hackjob the previous owner created when he stashed the Rockford crossovers inside the doors themselves. The doors are now fully removable, with just 2 (3 on the drivers side) connectors. It's not as easy as a Wrangler, but might prove useful someday.