Turn signal wiring finished

Today I finished wiring up the turn signals. NOT as easy as it sounds of course!

By “Finished wiring”, I mean getting the trailer turn signals working too. This was a little more involved than I was hoping. When I tested the trailer turn signals, I found that the right side wasn’t flashing. After doing a little investigating, I found that the trailer was wired correctly all the way to the IV cable.

Next, I pulled the left rear tire and the wiring shield to check the trailer receptacle wiring. That’s where I found the problem. Although it has the newer style rubber connectors, it DID NOT have the wire to the “J” pin (turn signal power wire). So that’s where the saga begins.

Of course all of the rubber connectors were “welded” together and trying to get them apart resulted in the rubber breaking apart. The wires (vehicle side and receptacle side) were also very brittle and fell apart when you flexed them. After I separated all of the connectors I decided I needed to replace a lot of the brittle wire and connectors. I found a few short pieces of wire from my M35 harness with male ends attached, so I cut the old brittle ones off of the vehicle side and spliced  (with butt connectors and shrink tubing) new ends on. While I was working on the vehicle side, I cut the new 22-460 wire going to the right side light and spliced in a piece of wire with a new end going to the trailer receptacle. Then I wrapped the new wire up with the old harness with wiring harness tape. I also re wrapped the harness end with the new wires.

Next, I removed the trailer receptacle from the Jeep. Once on the bench, I removed the nut and pried the rubber plug away from the back of the receptacle so that I could install the new “J” wire. I soldered a new wire into the pin and reassembled everything. Once re installed onto the Jeep, I began hooking the wires back up. Since most of the wire tags were unreadable, this was a hit and miss deal. I used the multimeter to find which wire was hot when the lights were flashing or on, then I hooked that wire up to one of the receptacle wires – checked to see what light was on or flashing, then tried again after I marked what the previous wire went to. I labeled the wires with masking tape and a wire number. When I was disconnecting one of the wires, I pulled the female end off the receptacle side and had to splice in another one. Once I figured out where all of the wires went, I slid the connectors together and reinstalled the wiring cover.

Next, I started to install my orange turn signal lenses. After I pulled the B.O. light doors, I found out that the lenses weren’t made for the military B.O. lights – too small! Well that’s one more thing I have to buy!

The last thing I did was to slide all of the connector boots together (a PITA!) and tuck and zip tie the harness up under the dash.

So overall this wasn’t a TERRIBLE job to do. It would’ve been much easier with a wiring harness that wasn’t falling apart and a light switch that was working correctly though. But at least it’s done now and I can move on to other things that need to be done on the Jeep. I can also SAFELY drive it on the road now! This will help out when I align the front end for sure. I also need to get some road miles on it because we are supposed to be going on a road and trail ride at the rally.

Now I just have to break down and order the parts I need.