Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ radiator

Some crazy wiring from Bubba, let's decipher WTAF

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The PO seems to have left the harness almost completely intact, other than a redneck job on the aftermarket stereo (no crimps, no solder, just twist & tape. He also wired in a switch for the LED halos, and he did such a hack job on that all we had to do was pull the wire out of the fuse socket he jammed it into. But this one thing under the hood has me baffled.

For the record, this is an 02 4.0L auto, in case you want to follow along at home with the wiring.

At the gray PCM connector C3, the WT/DB wire is cut. Further back in the harness, behind the valve cover, this wire was also broken. That's probably why he cut it here; he didn't know where it was broken at. Coming out of the PCM connector that WT/DB is spliced to what looks to be a GR/OR wire. Bad lighting plus dirt & faded over time is hard to tell the exact color. It could be DG/PK. Hard to tell. That WT/DB wire comes out of the PCM and splices into the GR/OR and then goes to the alternator. This kind of makes sense, since that WT/DB shows to be the Generator Source (alternator?) on that connector in the FSM.

The other end of that broken WT/DB wire is the confusing part. We traced it. It goes to the temp sensor. On the FSM, the temp sensor has 2 wires: TN/BK for the signal and BK/LB for the sensor ground. One of my wires on the temp sensor is absolutely a WT/DB. IDK why I didn't continuity test to prove it is the same wire, but let's face it: It's the same wire. Aside from it being cut, it looks to be 100% factory that the Generator Source pin on the PCM goes to the temp sensor. Makes no sense. And regardless, the wire itself was broken on it's way back to the PCM. Makes you wonder how the temp gauge was actually showing anything! Also why he was getting "engine not up to temp" codes.

IMG_4557.jpeg


Now the GR/OR wire that is spliced in and goes to the alternator.....that sort of wire is OEM just by looking at it, and it's probably 14ga. But it might be regular green, or maybe dark green? And the trace...it could be orange, or maybe pink? A 14ga GD/PK would be the ASD relay from that same C3 PCM connector. I haven't yet explored that C3 bundle to see if there is a similar 14ga green & whatever color wire hiding in there, cut or spliced to who knows what. Counterpoint: When we turn the key we feel the ASD relay click, and then click back ~2 seconds later. So it certainly appears to be working a-ok.

We're a good way into the harness and it's evident bubba never got into the meat of the wiring, except to possibly re-crimp the end on the brown starter wire. There is no evidence that he ever touched it, much less f'd up anything other than what I've mentioned. But more importantly, I'm at a loss how the ASD & temp gauges worked, and I guess how the alternator can somehow proxy for the ASD circuit.
 
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At least you haven't found any Scotch Locks.

My 97 radio install was the same way. Twisted together wires and tape. One of the first things I fixed.

Did your PO leave enough wire off the PCM pin to splice?

While I don't love harness overlays it's a method to fix things.

I'd make the argument the temp sensor is close to the alternator...but the alternator wiring is one leg and the temp sensor is in the leg that circles around the valve cover and hits the injectors.

Look at the headlight wiring...it runs on the firewall to the abs tray, down the driver's side...then into the grill and across to the other side...why didn't they home run the passenger side headlight and turn signals to the PDC?

I think all the answers come down to engineering and manufacturing decisions.

And the wide variety of harnesses...not only year to year but option to option makes it really tricky for a vendor to supply prebuilt harnesses.

-Mac
 
I'll admit, my wiring is not the best. The amount of 'red' wires in my jeep will really piss someone off someday.

At least you're not following aviation standards...all white...

I like how painless wiring does it and they print what the wire is for down the length. Love to see that practice codified in the right to repair bill.

-Mac
 
As I mentioned, this jeep also had a no-crank situation so we decided maybe we just needed to tear into the harness. And we discovered that some of what I reported above wasn't quite right. Turns out that a really dirty white/dark blue wire can look like a tan/black wire if the lighting is bad enough. That's what I get for trusting XJ Buddy and not strobing out those wires. So things weren't nearly as whack as I initially thought them to be.

Anyway here's what we actually found:
  • WT/DB wire from PCM C25 (Generator Source) had been cut and re-wired to go directly to the alternator.
    • technically correct, since this PCM pin does go to the alternator.....
  • Prior to C103 there is a splice that does 2 things:
    • one side goes to the alternator
    • the other side goes to C103, where it changes color to OR/DG on it's way to the leak detection pump
The WT/DB wire was broken inside the harness, but I'm guessing Bubba didn't know that, which is why he cut the WT/DB wire behind the PCM connector. He recognized that his alternator wasn't working (unsure what the "Generator Source" does) and wired directly from PCM to alternator. He didn't know/care about the leak detection circuit, but that's probably why we were getting evap codes.

FYI, if you want to get confused, start digging into the harness in this area, and you'll discover that the factory ALSO used the same WT/DB wire (with the same super skinny trace)...not the same actual wire but the same color wire... to control injector #1. And injector #1 is close to the temp sensor with a few "bundle joins" right there. It wasn't total negligence on my part that I thought there was mayhem at the temp sensor.

Now to solve for the TCC code & continual blown #11 fuse.
 
Novak Conversions Jeep Wrangler TJ radiator