Chudlet's First TJ

[chudlet]

Catching up a bit. I took some measurement pics before I installed my 4" Rock Jock springs, tummy tuck and 33" tires (from 31s) and now I have spent the summer wheeling and letting the lift flex and settle. Now I have the hard top back on and in the same config as when the first pics were taken and just took the comparison pics if anyone wants to see.

Passenger rear corner 22.75" -> 28.75 = +6"

Sorry should have taken a pic of the stock skid vs the high clearance skid, but the lift and tires added a bit more than 6" clearance to the midpoint of the Jeep

Front passenger bumper. 22.5" -> 29.25" = + 6.75"

Driver front bumper. 23" -> 29.25" = 6.25"

So the lift and tires gave a total lift of about 6" and appears to have leveled out the passenger side lean. Also the rake really hasn't changed from stock.

 

[chudlet]

Last wheeling trip killed the starter, so new starter in and hey if your in there making things better, might as well upgrade all the main wires with a Big 7 upgrade kit. Moved from stock 6 gage to milspec connections and 2 gage wire. Not terribly thrilled with the looped wire there but really couldn't find a better routing.

 

[All 4 Wheelin']

Last wheeling trip killed the starter, so new starter in and hey if your in there making things better, might as well upgrade all the main wires with a Big 7 upgrade kit. Moved from stock 6 gage to milspec connections and 2 gage wire. Not terribly thrilled with the looped wire there but really couldn't find a better routing.

View attachment 473460

View attachment 473464

Mine is looped as well.

 

[voodooridr]

Catching up a bit. I took some measurement pics before I installed my 4" Rock Jock springs, tummy tuck and 33" tires (from 31s) and now I have spent the summer wheeling and letting the lift flex and settle. Now I have the hard top back on and in the same config as when the first pics were taken and just took the comparison pics if anyone wants to see.

Passenger rear corner 22.75" -> 28.75 = +6"
View attachment 473434

View attachment 473433

Sorry should have taken a pic of the stock skid vs the high clearance skid, but the lift and tires added a bit more than 6" clearance to the midpoint of the Jeep


View attachment 473435

View attachment 473436

Front passenger bumper. 22.5" -> 29.25" = + 6.75"
View attachment 473438

View attachment 473439

Driver front bumper. 23" -> 29.25" = 6.25"
View attachment 473441

View attachment 473442

So the lift and tires gave a total lift of about 6" and appears to have leveled out the passenger side lean. Also the rake really hasn't changed from stock.
View attachment 473452

Plenty of room for 37's

 

[chudlet]

Got over a small procrastination hill last night and finished wiring up the Auxbeam 8 gang switch along with the winch isolation circuit.

Took @Zorba 's method but changed the mounting locations as I don't like drilling new holes in the body. Welded up a small bracket to mount the 500 amp solenoid on the fender near the battery.

Then used @MikekiM 's install for the Auxbeam. Right now all I have is the which power isolation, but near future is adding taps to activate the onboard air and lockers from the drivers seat. Once I get a few more wires run, I'll loom all the small stuff up to protect it and make it pretty.

Switch box fits nicely right above the vents. I cut up some scrap steel as a backing plate under the vent so as not to break the plastic bezel.

I ended up pushing the wires through the little gromet to the right of the accelerator pedal.

Now that the winch is working again, the next step is to get the new fairlead and rope installed

and get it back on the road as the Jeep is taking over daily driver duties for a bit as my Prius commuter car has seen the end of it's days on the public roads.

 

[All 4 Wheelin']

Got over a small procrastination hill last night and finished wiring up the Auxbeam 8 gang switch along with the winch isolation circuit.

Took @Zorba 's method but changed the mounting locations as I don't like drilling new holes in the body. Welded up a small bracket to mount the 500 amp solenoid on the fender near the battery.
View attachment 480853

View attachment 480854

View attachment 480855

Then used @MikekiM 's install for the Auxbeam. Right now all I have is the which power isolation, but near future is adding taps to activate the onboard air and lockers from the drivers seat. Once I get a few more wires run, I'll loom all the small stuff up to protect it and make it pretty.
View attachment 480856

View attachment 480869


Switch box fits nicely right above the vents. I cut up some scrap steel as a backing plate under the vent so as not to break the plastic bezel.

View attachment 480860

View attachment 480861

I ended up pushing the wires through the little gromet to the right of the accelerator pedal.

Now that the winch is working again, the next step is to get the new fairlead and rope installed

View attachment 480867

and get it back on the road as the Jeep is taking over daily driver duties for a bit as my Prius commuter car has seen the end of it's days on the public roads.


View attachment 480868

Bummer about the Prius. My Dakota took a hit day after Thanksgiving.

Good thing we have our TJs.

 

[voodooridr]

Got over a small procrastination hill last night and finished wiring up the Auxbeam 8 gang switch along with the winch isolation circuit.

Took @Zorba 's method but changed the mounting locations as I don't like drilling new holes in the body. Welded up a small bracket to mount the 500 amp solenoid on the fender near the battery.
View attachment 480853

View attachment 480854

View attachment 480855

Then used @MikekiM 's install for the Auxbeam. Right now all I have is the which power isolation, but near future is adding taps to activate the onboard air and lockers from the drivers seat. Once I get a few more wires run, I'll loom all the small stuff up to protect it and make it pretty.
View attachment 480856

View attachment 480869


Switch box fits nicely right above the vents. I cut up some scrap steel as a backing plate under the vent so as not to break the plastic bezel.

View attachment 480860

View attachment 480861

I ended up pushing the wires through the little gromet to the right of the accelerator pedal.

Now that the winch is working again, the next step is to get the new fairlead and rope installed

View attachment 480867

and get it back on the road as the Jeep is taking over daily driver duties for a bit as my Prius commuter car has seen the end of it's days on the public

roads.


View attachment 480868

What did you ram the prius into?

 

[chudlet]

What did you ram the prius into?

Little Chevy Malibu. Freeway was coming to a stop because there was a weed growing in the median, was slowing down, checked over my shoulder and when I looked back she was slowing down a LOT faster than she was a second ago. She got stopped before I did. Enough to total the Prius, from the looks, hardly anything to her car.

 

[MikekiM]

Got over a small procrastination hill last night and finished wiring up the Auxbeam 8 gang switch along with the winch isolation circuit.

Took @Zorba 's method but changed the mounting locations as I don't like drilling new holes in the body. Welded up a small bracket to mount the 500 amp solenoid on the fender near the battery.
View attachment 480853

View attachment 480854

View attachment 480855

Then used @MikekiM 's install for the Auxbeam. Right now all I have is the which power isolation, but near future is adding taps to activate the onboard air and lockers from the drivers seat. Once I get a few more wires run, I'll loom all the small stuff up to protect it and make it pretty.
View attachment 480856

View attachment 480869


Switch box fits nicely right above the vents. I cut up some scrap steel as a backing plate under the vent so as not to break the plastic bezel.

View attachment 480860

View attachment 480861

I ended up pushing the wires through the little gromet to the right of the accelerator pedal.

Now that the winch is working again, the next step is to get the new fairlead and rope installed

View attachment 480867

and get it back on the road as the Jeep is taking over daily driver duties for a bit as my Prius commuter car has seen the end of it's days on the public roads.


View attachment 480868

Nice.

The clear plastic cover over the circuit breaker... When I first got the Auxbeam kit installed it tested fine with the cover off the relays and the circuit breaker. Once I buttoned it nothing worked. One back over it a few times finding the same thing. When it was all open it worked. Buttoned up.. no bueno. Turned out I was attaching the clear cover on the circuit breaker upside down and it was pressing the reset button tripping the circuit breaker just enough to break the circuit but not actually trip the breaker. It was a real Darwin moment.

 

[chudlet]

Nice.

The clear plastic cover over the circuit breaker... When I first got the Auxbeam kit installed it tested fine with the cover off the relays and the circuit breaker. Once I buttoned it nothing worked. One back over it a few times finding the same thing. When it was all open it worked. Buttoned up.. no bueno. Turned out I was attaching the clear cover on the circuit breaker upside down and it was pressing the reset button tripping the circuit breaker just enough to break the circuit but not actually trip the breaker. It was a real Darwin moment.

LOL I tried that and then fixed it when I saw that you mentioned that in another post. Saved me many hours of troubleshooting. Still going to have to Tshoot it a bit, I am hoping you have a quick answer to something stupid I did. When I installed my BMB fairlead and rope today, I kept hearing a "click" and then no power to the winch. Checking the switch panel showed the button as OFF. Press the button for ON and power to the winch. run that for a few minutes and click again, no power, button re-set to OFF. No fuses blown, circuit breaker is not tripped, (Looks like the clear cover is on ok). Time between clicks shortened as I kept working, so kinda felt like something was getting warm and tripping faster, but what? I have the winch solenoid connected to the first 5-amp fuse/button. Using 18 ga wire to trigger the solienoid. Maybe I should use a 10 amp with 16 ga?

 

[chudlet]

BMB fairlead and rope installed.

New cover to keep the road grime and other stuff out.

 

[MikekiM]

LOL I tried that and then fixed it when I saw that you mentioned that in another post. Saved me many hours of troubleshooting. Still going to have to Tshoot it a bit, I am hoping you have a quick answer to something stupid I did. When I installed my BMB fairlead and rope today, I kept hearing a "click" and then no power to the winch. Checking the switch panel showed the button as OFF. Press the button for ON and power to the winch. run that for a few minutes and click again, no power, button re-set to OFF. No fuses blown, circuit breaker is not tripped, (Looks like the clear cover is on ok). Time between clicks shortened as I kept working, so kinda felt like something was getting warm and tripping faster, but what? I have the winch solenoid connected to the first 5-amp fuse/button. Using 18 ga wire to trigger the solienoid. Maybe I should use a 10 amp with 16 ga?

And no fuses blown? From your pic above the cover is on right so it isn't that.
Not sure I have an answer for you.

Maybe @jscherb can step in with a suggestion. He is the resident Auxbeam guru.

 

[jscherb]

LOL I tried that and then fixed it when I saw that you mentioned that in another post. Saved me many hours of troubleshooting. Still going to have to Tshoot it a bit, I am hoping you have a quick answer to something stupid I did. When I installed my BMB fairlead and rope today, I kept hearing a "click" and then no power to the winch. Checking the switch panel showed the button as OFF. Press the button for ON and power to the winch. run that for a few minutes and click again, no power, button re-set to OFF. No fuses blown, circuit breaker is not tripped, (Looks like the clear cover is on ok). Time between clicks shortened as I kept working, so kinda felt like something was getting warm and tripping faster, but what? I have the winch solenoid connected to the first 5-amp fuse/button. Using 18 ga wire to trigger the solienoid. Maybe I should use a 10 amp with 16 ga?

Maybe @jscherb can step in with a suggestion. He is the resident Auxbeam guru.

Unless you know the specs of your solenoid and can tell us otherwise, most solenoids, even those with a 500 amp rating have coil resistances under 20 ohms, which means the coil will draw from .75 amps to maybe 1.5 amps at 12.5 volts depending on the actual coil resistance, so a 5 amp fuse/circuit should be fine - since the fuse isn't blowing it's unlikely that the solenoid is drawing more than 5 amps. I would normally use 16 gauge wire for this application but 18 gauge copper wire should be fine for the fairly small current the solenoid requires.

Most times erratic behavior from something like the Auxbeam (such as a switch resetting to off) is caused by bad grounds or sometimes bad power connections to the Auxbeam so make sure your grounds and power connections are good.

a. The high current ground for the Auxbeam should be connected directly to the battery negative terminal.

b. If the solenoid isn't grounded through the negative terminal of that circuit of the Auxbeam but instead to somewhere on the winch or chassis, make sure that connection is good. Make sure the winch is grounded well, preferably directly to the battery.

c. Verify that you have full battery voltage at the high current positive connection at the Auxbeam and that the connection is directly to the battery positive terminal and the connection is secure.

d. How are you providing the low current operating power to the Auxbeam - is it a switched connection in the fuse panel behind the glove box, a direct connection to the battery or some other place? Make sure that connection is good.

If all of the above are good connections I can suggest steps to test the solenoid and the individual circuits of the Auxbeam but it's far more likely that one of the connections above is bad, so verify all of the above first.

 

[chudlet]

Unless you know the specs of your solenoid and can tell us otherwise, most solenoids, even those with a 500 amp rating have coil resistances under 20 ohms, which means the coil will draw from .75 amps to maybe 1.5 amps at 12.5 volts depending on the actual coil resistance, so a 5 amp fuse/circuit should be fine - since the fuse isn't blowing it's unlikely that the solenoid is drawing more than 5 amps. I would normally use 16 gauge wire for this application but 18 gauge copper wire should be fine for the fairly small current the solenoid requires.

Most times erratic behavior from something like the Auxbeam (such as a switch resetting to off) is caused by bad grounds or sometimes bad power connections to the Auxbeam so make sure your grounds and power connections are good.

a. The high current ground for the Auxbeam should be connected directly to the battery negative terminal.

b. If the solenoid isn't grounded through the negative terminal of that circuit of the Auxbeam but instead to somewhere on the winch or chassis, make sure that connection is good. Make sure the winch is grounded well, preferably directly to the battery.

c. Verify that you have full battery voltage at the high current positive connection at the Auxbeam and that the connection is directly to the battery positive terminal and the connection is secure.

d. How are you providing the low current operating power to the Auxbeam - is it a switched connection in the fuse panel behind the glove box, a direct connection to the battery or some other place? Make sure that connection is good.

If all of the above are good connections I can suggest steps to test the solenoid and the individual circuits of the Auxbeam but it's far more likely that one of the connections above is bad, so verify all of the above first.

Thanks for responding so quickly. Apologies my photography skills are not the best. I think I have this done correctly but I am always open to guidance.

Summary:
1. AB switched power is to the aux fused switched circuit behind the glove box
2. AB high current pos is direct to battery pos
3. AB high current neg is direct to battery neg
4. Winch solenoid upstream pos direct to battery, downstream pos direct to winch pos
5. Solenoid low current pos and neg are direct to AB fused switch port #8.

AB is connected to the pre-labled switched aux fuse off the interior fuse box. There is a sticker on the wire that says 3 amp max but is backed by a 20 amp fuse. Maybe I should install the fuse tap that AB sent along with the thicker wire and 5 amp fuse?

Relay recomended by on forum: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WDPZEW/?tag=wranglerorg-20

Battery connections to Auxbeam and winch.

Solenoid connections.

 

[jscherb]

I'm guessing you'll find that this power connection is the problem. It's not factory, it's something random that some prior owner put it. It probably powers something else, perhaps something that takes almost 3 amps and leaves nothing for the Auxbeam. It's not clear where it's drawing its power from nor is it clear what else is powered by it.

<EDIT to fix fuse position number> Connect the Auxbeam power directly to a switched outlet in the fuse panel - position 14 in the fuse panel is switched; 18 in the fuse panel is unswitched and seems to be empty so you could temporarily plug into that for testing and then use 14 permanently after everything tests successfully. I'll bet that fixes it.

 

[All 4 Wheelin']

I'm guessing you'll find that this power connection is the problem. It's not factory, it's something random that some prior owner put it. It probably powers something else, perhaps something that takes almost 3 amps and leaves nothing for the Auxbeam. It's not clear where it's drawing its power from nor is it clear what else is powered by it.

Connect the Auxbeam power directly to a switched outlet in the fuse panel - position 18 in the fuse panel is switched and seems to be empty. I'll bet that fixes it.

18 is unswitched

 

[jscherb]

18 is unswitched

Sorry, typing too fast, I should have written 14 but to do a quick test to verify operation since 18 is open that could be used. Once operation is verified, 14 could be used permanently

 

[jscherb]

@chudlet, any updates on this? I've been keeping Auxbeam informed in case it turns out their unit is bad and they need to issue a replacement. Did you change the power connection from something other than that prior owner added 3-amp mystery?

 

[chudlet]

Sorry for the late reply. I installed the tap in position 19 last night as that is the aux power / cig lighter and is switched and is not running anything for the most part unless I plug my phone into the USB charger in the cig lighter (really rare for me). 18 is definitely unswitched (hot with the key off). I did not have the opportunity to unwind the winch last night and test to see if that fixed the issue of the panel button turning off. My hope is to try that tonight when I get home from work. Will update when I get that accomplished.

As far as the 2 wires from behind the panel go, the blue one is switched and the red is unswitched, I think those are OEM connection points. The only reason I found them is because they have been called out in other threads as something Jeep put there. Other than the radio, this Jeep was pretty stock when I got it. Used, but stock.

 

[chudlet]

@jscherb your suggestion was indeed the fix. Thicker wire on the tap and in a known fuse port, and I was able to unspool and spool the entire rope without any hiccups. Thank you for your help!