It is up by the ebrake, but sometimes it can be hard to see up there. Even on mine and I know where it goes. I extended mine down to the pin the door strap goes to.

 

if its a bad ground then gauge wont work either they share the ground it runs in with the rear tail light harness and i believe its a ground wire bolted under the driver front speaker.

 

Thanks for the quick replies, I spent some time under there earlier but couldn't find anything. I'll give it another shot. Thank you.

 

Any ideas why the fuel gauge would be acting like it does?

 

They do share a ground. It IS up near your parking brake pedal assembly. Through the power of the interwebz I'll run outside and look at what color is it on mine ('91), but YOU will notice absolutely NO time delay. Watch this;

I'm back! Good thing I went outside too, I forgot to lock my DD truck! Anyway, it's black with a yellow tracer on it. It exits the main loom from the dash. The exact point where it bolts to I don't know, I bolted it to a spare hole when I installed it, but if you follow the wiring harness from the tail lights (runs along the left hand side of the body, 1/2" plastic loom) you'll find it exiting with about 5" of wire exposed, then a ring terminal.

Sorry, it was too dark for my phone to take a picture, but hopefully you can find it there. Perhaps give it a good cleaning and reinstall.

 

The ground will ONLY be at the E brake IF the Jeep was a late model OR the POers took it in for the factory recall.

Stock the ground is in the harness behind the engine/battery side at the connector/harness that heads down to the transmission. This transmission harness has the wiring for the transmission and fuel pump/gauge. From the connector (engine side) it joins the main harness and comes out at the two ring terminals that are bolted to the oil dipstick tube.

One of the ring terminals has one wire and the other has two wires into one terminal. These 3 ground wires are what grounds the entire dash and engine harnesses. A very poor way of wiring things up.

The factory recall had the fuel pump ground wire join the rear wiring harness and then terminate at the body flange by the e brake.

 

You guys are awesome!! Thanks for the help and going out of your way. It's too late to check now but will in the morning.

And thanks for the info about the ground in the engine bay. I bet that's where it is. Though I might be blind enough to not see it by the ebrake, I'm pretty sure I see no ground in that area.

Might be able to make it for a jeep run after all.

 

In regards to the recall, my Jeep is a 91 and it is grounded there. And my Jeep has not yet had the ebrake recall done, I checked the VIN through chrysler.

 

You are the exception. Perhaps a PO did it at some point ?

 

The ground will ONLY be at the E brake IF the Jeep was a late model OR the POers took it in for the factory recall.

Stock the ground is in the harness behind the engine/battery side at the connector/harness that heads down to the transmission. This transmission harness has the wiring for the transmission and fuel pump/gauge. From the connector (engine side) it joins the main harness and comes out at the two ring terminals that are bolted to the oil dipstick tube.

One of the ring terminals has one wire and the other has two wires into one terminal. These 3 ground wires are what grounds the entire dash and engine harnesses. A very poor way of wiring things up.

The factory recall had the fuel pump ground wire join the rear wiring harness and then terminate at the body flange by the e brake.

This is right were I found my ground. Thank you for the great info. The ring terminals were very corroded/dirty. I cleaned them up good and not only does my fuel pump work again but so does my fuel gauge. Now if only I had done this before I dropped the gas tank down...

 

:thumbsup:

You cleaned the terminals but how about the wire(s) connecting TO the terminals ? Betcha they are funky greenish gray. The terminals Jeep used were open crimp. Meaning that the wire itself is exposed to corrosion. Best way would be to cut the old terms. off and strip back the wire till you get fresh copper. Re-terminate with a new sealed terminals.

One thing to consider. Why not add a ground wire from the fuel pump and connect it to a NEW ground source from the battery. Or at the very least add an aux. ground from the terminals directly to the battery ? Rather then relying totally on the sheet metal body for your conductivity.

Here is a picture of how my YJ is set up.

There are additional grounds not shown but suffice to say that I do not rely on much sheet metal for grounding purposes. The dash, headlights, fuel, engine and rear lighting all have there own dedicated grounds.

One example is the E brake ground that many speak of. Rather then relying on the sheet metal to complete the circuit. A length of 8 gauge marine cable was run from the e. brake up to the braided battery straps.

One BIG pet peeve I have with the factory wiring is the headlight harness. The wires themselves are small 16 gauge wire. Which IMHO is way to small for the amperage passing through it. Add a set of aftermarket bulbs and the situation becomes even worse. When the YJ was re wired I upgraded from the switch with 12 gauge. Added a relay into the circuit. So now the HL switch only triggers a relay rather than full current.

Another issue of heartburn is the dumb sheet metal screws Jeep used to ground the lights into the core support. Again 8 gauge back to the braided strap as shown in the picture above.

............Sound of soap box sliding across the floor.............

Jeep made a CHEAP harness and now with the passage of time and exposure that cheap harness is causing many folks lots of problems.

Glad to hear that things worked out for you :tea:

 

I have long "understood" the YJ fuel pump ground to be at one of the parking brake mount bolts until I had to look for it on my 93. It wasn't there. What had led to this was the same issue experienced by the OP. I traced the ground wire from the top of the fuel tank where the wiring comes in to the tank in the driver rear wheel well, all the way to the front of the Jeep. It crossed in the loom over the top of the transmission (manual) and then terminated with another ground into the stud on the rear passenger side of the engine block (4.0). Here I found mine to have separated from the ring terminal, even though it was still "connected" it fell away in my hand when I poked it. So here's the photos. The stud is immediately behind where the oil dipstick enters the block. It is also where the negative wire from the battery grounds to the block. I have already pulled the battery ground off the stud in this picture.

I cut back the 2 grounds (one from the fuel pump, and I didn't trace out the source of the other) to bare clean copper, soldered into them a 12 gauge short piece of ground wire, shrink tubing, put a ring terminal on the end and bolted the grounds back up clean and with some dielectric grease. Problem solved, fuel pump kicked on again.

 

This thread was a lifesaver, thanks everyone! Just did a bedliner and I jacked up this ground location. Couldn't for the life of me figure out why it wouldn't start. Such a simple thing in such a horrible location, all it takes to totally immobilize your Jeep.

 

Brain Wracker

Yes I must also thank you all for this information. My 92 Jeep Cherokee died out on the way to work Tuesday morning after running through a puddle and hitting a slight bump. I had enough momentum to get me closer to the job but she wouldn't start up again. The shop teacher came over to help out, did a spark check, checked the pressure in the gas line at the injectors and couldn't figure it out. After leaving it to dry out last couple of days, I tried again, but no go. Also didn't hear the pump (just bought last May) and then noticed the gauge said I was empty when I just put in half a tank that morning.

This information will be really helpful if I can avoid purchasing a new coil, new pump, etc. Love my baby to death, but she always has an issue on rent check week.

 

Good info about the fuel pump ground at the ebrake. I assumed the hardtop models had the harness on the inside(as mine does).
I started to remove the ebrake assembly since it wont work with front roll cage. Went to fire up the jeep other day, no fuel. I had no idea the ground was there and sure enough it was just hanging way up in there.

 

Interesting read thanks!

 

on the rear of the jeep on the inside by the driver side tail light one wire comn out screwed straight I to the body it's the same color wire as is on the fuel pump that is used for a groundlp

 

Welcome to the forum.
(Fyi this thread is like 12 years old)

Go join us in the What Did You Do To Your YJ Today? thread and post some info and pictures. If you post a picture you won’t have to pay the $1000.99 signup fee