On July 2nd I was driving my Jeep after having the oil changed and valve cover gasket replaced to refill all of the lost oil and prevent any more from leaking out. On the ride home my 85 CJ-7 decided to backfire and stop running. At first I thought I was out of gas (tank is dented and only holds about 8 gallons...even less uphill).

I filled up the tank and then tried to restart-nothing...
Got a tow home and realized that I wasn't getting spark so checked/replaced the 35 amp resistor for the ignition system.
In its final pyrotechnic display I blew as soon as I turned the key to ignition (before starter).

I then proceeded to try to find the cause of the problem...
1) Checked all of the wires looking for bare wire touching metal (especially by the valve cover) only to find nothing obvious.
2) Replaced ignition coil with new one (old one was hot enough to fry an egg on it)
3) Replaced the ignition switch
4) Disconnected Igniion Control System
5) Checked other fuses
6) Disconnected all electrical appliances under hood and fuse still blew as soon as ignition system turned on.

Finally, I pulled out the volt meter with a continuity tester and it was beeping for most of the wires going to/from the coil - although it was working perfectly when I installed it on my other jeep.

What could be causing this problem?

Thanks in advance...

Shawn

start chasing wires ya fuwkin newbie...


weve all done it! its no fun.. but its life..


welcome aboard..

:flipoff2:

Happy Happy Joy Joy :)

Something that took me a while to figure out- don't waste your time on a multimeter, just use a test light. Damn meters will drive you batty reading resistance off every light bulb in a circuit.

There is a wire pinched under the valve cover.

I just got it to stop leaking!@#! :)

I remember that was a common problem with those valve covers so I hope that was it.
Let me know.

oil races that is...time to find out what it is...

I hope I can have 2 miracles - stop the oil leak :)

I'll let you know :)

I completely checked the valve cover for any wires...nothing is going to it, under it, or wire fragments around it. I did find severa disconnected vacum hoses (go figure).

Back to the drawing board...this time my mission was to isolate the ground as best as possible. I dissassembled the fuse box. First removing the engine side harness, then unscrewing it from inside. I then noticed that there was a large gauge red wire (typically the hot ones from the battery/alternator and also split off to some relay) that was grounding. I started with the harness and worked my way through ever inch of the wire and its splits through the alternator and starter solenoid.

I re-taped the splices, re-attached the relay, and then the wire didn't ground - Horay!...don't get too excited...the problem still exists...

After thouroughly checking all of the rest of the wires in the engine comparment (ignition related) to the best of my abilities I can't find anything that looks cooked, cracked, cut, or a candidate for a ground.

So turning to the inside of the Jeep I began the search through the mess under the dash. Maybee its my luck, but the wires under the dash are more out of sorts and disorganized then the voting booths in Florida. One of the wires in the ignition switch harness (after disconneting them) is grounded. Its a large red wire with a white stripe approximately in the middle of the larger harness. I began tracing it back to the fuse box to find nothing, and then my girlfriend came over.

I had her look and listen for smoke and crackling as I used a bent nail to jump the fuse. As the fuse lit up like a burner on a stove smoke began to billow out of the back of the fuse harness inside. Nothing else was seen anywhere except the inside of the jeep behind the fuse.

OK so I think I'm getting close...what on earth could this be? Can the fuse box ground out this wire without a fuse jumping it? Besides cobwebs and cocoons between the firewall harness and fuse box I can't see any damage...

What systems inside the jeep could cause this to ground? I'm all eyes and ears! :rasta:

I feel like I just unplugged a lamp from the wall and it is still on...

This CJ's wiring is :rainbow: