Melted electrical connection...what to do?

[bradleyheathhays]

So I put a headlight wiring kit from LMC Truck on my '96 Cherokee that circumvents the normal wiring and runs the headlights directly off the battery by way of a relay. The kit runs the lights at 55/100 (low, hi) watts instead of the original 55/60. One reason I did this was because the light output was terrible, and the other was because for some unknown reason the headlights would shut off after being on hi for a bit. Never did this on low. I've had the new wiring kit on for a few years now and it seems to have solved the issue.

The problem I'm having now though is that this new harness is melting at one of the connections...



You can see only one of the wires is overheating while the other seems to be ok. I'm guessing the hot one is used by the high beams.

What could be causing this? Could it be related to why the high beams used to shut off before I replaced the wiring harness? A while back I asked about the shutting off issue on a number of Jeep boards but nobody had heard of this particular problem before.

 

[JPNinPA]

First TJs and others have the multi function switch go bad. The switch downfall is the plastic rubbing parts and full current through the switch.

Do you have one relay for both lights? If so that is 200w/12v yielding 16.6 or 17 A if the length of wire is over 7 ft you need 12gauge wire. For 10 to 13 ft 10 gauge. Every break or crimp is s place to add resistance and corrosives to get in. After a few years the wire corrodes and acts like a heater element. Bad crimps or places where the strands are internally broken will be the first to burn .
Battery cables fail the same way.

By the looks of your wiring it is time to change it out and use the correct gauge and weather proof it. Nothing lasts forever.

Make sure your ground cables are thicker gauge as well.



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[Jeepergeo]

I suspect you have too many amps going through a wire that is too small. At the connector, when the wire was stripped, a few strands may have been lost, thus yielding a short section of effectively very thin wire that heats up with the flow of current.

My approach would be to replace the wire one guage heavier, of course with a fuse as close to the battery as possible.

 

[JPNinPA]

Good point you should have a fuse within a foot of the battery in the event the wire gets shorted. 20A-25A should work.


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