XJ wiring harness interchange

[volaredon]

this is on my 97 XJ. I posted in here a couple months ago looking for wiring help; I wound up going to a yard and replacing the engine harness and computer; no good; I think my problem is in the rest of the underhood harness; I know it will be a major PITA to change. problem is, I was told that the engine harness was "97-only" and NLA from the dealer.
Ia the main engine compartment harness also "97-only"? I know they went to the distributorless--coil pack in 99 or Y2K but i'm thinking that 98 should work, wouldnt it? I know 96 was different; they made changes in the XJ from 96 to 97. Though I saw production figs somewhere that said taht they made more 97s than any other year XJ i cannot find a 97 in a yard any where around me to save my life.

I am still fighting the same issue I was in my "HELPPP" therad. the Cherokee has not left my garage. I hate elec issues.

 

[volaredon]

(yawn) nobody knows huh? I have spent 2 days on wild goose chases going to yards taht say they have what I need and then dont when I get there.

 

[volaredon]

nother yawn; but I have been on too damn many wild goose chases from yards to say "Yeah we have it" but don't (that one was a 4 hour road trip for nothing) or returns to yards that did have a couple weeks ago to find out the vehicles I'd pulled parts off of was crushed since the last visit there...
or yards advertised as "U pulls" taht really are not; or others taht say "come pay the admission fee to see if we do; we do not inventory our lot, we cannot even tell if we have "XX year YY brand or ZZ model in our lot let alone if the parts you need might be there"
that one "u Pull" that wasnt is, I guess BUT only on Saturdays (I was there on a Tuesday) I aint going 50-some miles back come Saturday to see "if".... they claimed they had a 98 that would work (dealer buddy said 97-only; I'd passed a few 98s for that reason before in yards) and wanted $150 for THEM to pull it;
found a yard with a few 98s in it, again 2+ hours from home yesterday, so i pulled a harness from one of those; It looks the same so far, it was a ***** PITA to pull it all; $35 and I took EVERYTHING wiring related from beneath the hood.
I wish I had known that the U pull i was at a few weeks ago charged the way they did or I would have gotten that entire harness that day not just the "engine" portion; it would have been the same price and I would not have had to do so much wasted driving... or paay so many admission fees to walk yards that didnt have any XJs newer than 1994.
I am not 100% sure this will solve it; but I am at a loss as to what else to possibly do with this thing; I wound up getting the harness off a 98; if this were a ZJ I could have had this wiring harness 100 times over.
but I like XJs better for other reasons!

hopefully a 98 XJ harness will interchange with my 97 AND it will solve my problem once and for all with this thing! I'm tired of looking at this, what has become a garage ornament.

 

[volaredon]

well on the advice of a yard that said that a 98 would work and too many tanks of gas and hours of wild goose chasing to recount, (and having bypassed several 98s in thinking I "HAD to have" a 97 specifically, I found out the freaking hard way that this IS in fact the case.
I found a yard with 2, 98s that were fresh into the yard (meaning they had yet to be cannibilized and plugs cut) so I proceeded to pull the harness from the one that wasnt in a front end wreck (the one that was, pinched part of the harness by the computer)

So after spending a couple hours in said yard pulling the harness out I finally had the chance to put it onto my 97; I am still using the 97 computer (have 2 of those) 1) the AC pressure cutout switch plugs are different "big deal" not part of my issue, I can cut n splice those) 2) 97 has a 5 wire plug for the trans (not neutral switch, but the other plug for the solenoids etc) the 98 has 7 wires and a larger plug itself.
3) the trans control module looks the same but is NOT. I got the one with the 98 harness from the yard but physically the "box" itself is different and the plug in WILL NOT work with the other one.
4) CEL on but will not flash codes nor communicate with the scanner. that was never an issue previously.
5) When I plug the scanner plug in some or all dash gauges "drop out"

So I guesss that I HAVE TO HAVE a harness from a 97 I am so tired of screwing with this thing. I CANNOT find a '97 XJ in the yards within 2 hours of me to save my life. I am about to push this thing out and set it on fire.
also tired of hearing my wife whine about the TJ and having to shift the gears herself. (I much prefer a stick BTW)

 

[volaredon]

well I got my holy grail '97 harness in hand.

Anyone need a 98 harness? this one is intact and as far as I can tell is in good shape; the plug differences vs a 97 don't make it a "bad" harness just unusable to me! there are 3 "sub" harnesses" that piggyback into this one; the engine one the part with the battery cables and alternator connections and the one for the front end wiring. Those do interchange with the 97....
From what I can tell, It'll work on a 97 IF you put a '98+ transmission in; the transmission control module plug is "just enough" different that it won't plug in, (this is inside the dash, the oval plug to the driver side of the valve cover there's a brake line and 2 black plastic vac kines partly blocking this plug) and the 98 transmission plug is larger and has 7 wires vs the 97's 5 wire plug. Ilugged the 98 harness in and my Jeep started and ran but with the trans not connected (Neutral switch plug is the same, its the other gray plug back there) it threw a CEL right away.