Won't turn off

[Clay Balke]

Had Distributor replaced, plugs, wires. Started this morning but would not turn off by key. Had to pull a hot wire in order to kill it. Wiring is a spaghetti bowl under hood. Any thoughts of where to start?

[wiley-moeracing]

possibly alternator or wiring to it.

[tgreese]

The exciter wire from the ignition switch to the alternator can back-feed into the ignition switch and cause what you describe. Jeep uses a resistance wire to the alternator to limit the exciter current to a trickle, too little to back-feed. Usual fix is to add a diode in the exciter wire.

So did you do the work or did someone help you, or? Tell us more about what was done.

[Clay Balke]

Won't turn off

Had a shop replace the control module the other year, ran great for a hunting season-5 months. Went bad again, returned it to shop and he changed the stock distributor to an HEI. Now, this is a non street legal '86 GW purely hunting vehicle. The wiring under hood is deplorable, previous owner left it in the woods for dead. I bought it for $250, drove it on a trailer and here I am some 8 years later.
Sorry, got long winded. I did notice the very small black wire under the solenoid was not making good contact. Could this be the problem? It did turn off, after I made better contact there. Needs a good connector.

[FSJunkie]

Call your doctor if it runs for more than four hours.

[rang-a-stang]

Call your doctor if it runs for more than four hours.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

[FSJunkie]

Sounds like the classic case of the headlights stopped working so the owner decided to unbundle and rewire the entire vehicle trying to make the headlights work, so now nothing works and the wiring is a complete mess. Next come the hot wires jammed directly into the positive battery terminal.

Yep. The worst thing that can happen to a vehicle's wiring is people who don't know proper....keyword proper....electrical diagnostics and repair.

I realize I'm being completely unhelpful here, but you need more humor in your life. We all do.

[tgreese]

It's almost impossible to diagnose problems like this over the internet, especially since the wiring is no longer like the original scheme. You need to have the car in front of you. If the installer of the HEI won't correct his mistake in wiring up the HEI, you'll need to trace out where the power is coming from when the key is off and the engine is running. As mentioned, the alternator exciter wire is a good place to start. Try disconnecting the exciter wire and see if the engine still runs on.

[mwood65]

Call your doctor if it runs for more than four hours.

My wife likes it if mine runs on for more than 4 hours!

[Clay Balke]

Doctor

Thanks for the humor and input. Going to get started again today. Muffler job today and look into the wiring again. If run on persists, I will try the exciter wire test.

[Clay Balke]

Blue pill

A diode is needed. Going to look at auto parts store, but doubt it. Guy from NAPA had never heard of this before, no surprise there......

[tgreese]

Radieaux Shaque, or any other local electronics store. Choose by amperage needed. If you give me the amps rating you need, I can point you to what you need online, but shipping will be maybe 10x the price of a handful of diodes.

[Clay Balke]

Mystery

Ordered diodes from radio shack.
Installed new muffler, adapters, started right up .
Much quieter, short test drive and muffler connection from engine came loose. There is an A on one end and a B one the other. Assuming A towards motor and B tailpipe?
Also, engine turned off right away, but realized the alternator clip was not connected. How did engine fire up and run (weak) but ran???

[rang-a-stang]

I assume you used clamps to hold the muffler together? If so, you need to REAAAAaaaalllly clamp them on. You need to clamp them so hard that clamp pinches into both the muffler and the pipe in/over it.

Your rig will run without the alternator hooked up, it just runs on battery power.

[tgreese]

Usually the markings are for cutting the pipes to length. They can make the pipes fit more than one model that way.

Double clamps are a good practice, one turned 90 degrees to the other. Especially for a rig that will see many rocks and logs and such.

If the alternator is unplugged, it's not charging. You will be running off the battery until it's very flat - takes almost nothing from the battery if all you are driving is ignition. Starting takes a lot of juice, but running does not.