An XJ Cherokee question.

[slow305]

I know this is an Buick forum, but I know that a lot of you own and abuse XJ Cherokee's so I thought this would be a good forum for this question. Recently my "airbag" light has come on. It is not usually driven very far except for my wife. She informed me at around this same time the cruise control stopped working. I began to suspect a fuse. During this inspection I discovered the horn to also be inoperative, but the fuse to be good. In fact, all the fuses are good. I pulled the airbag off and dicovered the yellow wire attached to the gas inflater thing was disconnected, so I reconnected it. During reassembly I honked the horn and it worked. The "Airbag" light was still on, but I attributed that to a code that needed to be cleared, so I decided to take it for a drive to see if the cruise worked. On the highway, nothing worked, not the horn, not the cruise and the Airbag light is still on. After re-disassembly, everything under the airbag is still connected. So at this point, everything connected to the steering wheel is inoperative. The stuff on the "neck" still works (I.E. the wipers and signals) My question is:
What am I looking for here? A bad ground? A loose wire? When I take this thing apart, what am I looking for? I'm lost and there is no Jeep dealers within 1300 miles of where I live. It's a right-hand drive, but I don't think that will make much of a difference.

 

[87granny]

Well i haven't worked on a jeep since 95 but i know that they did have some issues with the clock springs and the wiring in the column if it's a tilt column, all the stuff your describing runs through the clock spring if you can get a wiring diagram you can check the out puts through the clock spring hth

 

[slow305]

Thanks for the reply, um, "granny." I've noticed a lot of people have issues with the clock spring (which I have no idea what that is) and everyone says you need to take it to the dealer to have them diagnose it with a "special" tool. Unfortunately I do not have that luxury, so I will attempt to diagnose this using a wiring diagram, if I can find one, as per your suggestion.

 

[garyk1970]

Well i haven't worked on a jeep since 95 but i know that they did have some issues with the clock springs and the wiring in the column if it's a tilt column, all the stuff your describing runs through the clock spring if you can get a wiring diagram you can check the out puts through the clock spring hth[/QUOTE


this is right........the clock spring is a special connector the connects all the steering wheel switches and wiring to the harness in the column. Is has contacts that spin on brass buss bars.
The easiest way to see is the clock spring is bad is to hold the horn button down and turn the wheel and see if it starts to blow.

 

[slow305]

The easiest way to see is the clock spring is bad is to hold the horn button down and turn the wheel and see if it starts to blow.

If only I could do that with the wife...

At any rate, all the symptoms do point here. Yet another reason I hate Chrysler products, although stock for stock, this vehicle does seem to outperform all the Landcruisers around here.

 

[garyk1970]

If only I could do that with the wife...

At any rate, all the symptoms do point here. Yet another reason I hate Chrysler products, although stock for stock, this vehicle does seem to outperform all the Landcruisers around here.[/QUOTE


They are great vehicles...I only usually replace ecms in them.


Edit..Haha...I got that now.....after 15 years, only the ac blows at my house.

 

[slow305]

One more question on this. This Jeep has a dual battery system on it. Over the winter, the vehicle has been a little hard to start on cold mornings and even now that it's warming up, it's still a little hard to start the first time. How can I test to find out which battery is the culprit here?