So I installed a new/used winch today. Swapped out the old one and installed the new one. During install, I noticed my radio came on. It only turns on when the key is in and turned. Well, the key wasn't in there. So I reached in and turn it off manually and returned to my winch.

I only disconnected a couple of accessories from the battery including my winch cables and re-hooked everything. I did hear some clicking noise in the fuse box tho. Now my radio stays on when the ignition is off even after I open the door. Also the radio had apparently lost constant power at some point cause it lost it's memory and I had to do an initial reset. It's a Kenwood GPS DVD touch screen unit.

WTH happened. I'm manually turning off the radio now as before I leave it on and when I open the door it'll go out.

Any ideas?

 

It is pretty well established that the JK electrics/electronics are quirky as hell.

Anytime I must disconnect/reconnect anything from the JK battery, I first double up with a second battery and jumber cables to Jeep side (not the battery side) of the battery connections. This gets a bit complicated because Jeep runs more than one cable to the battery, but whatever. I can then play around with the battery connections knowing the Jeep electrics have a clean and continuous supply of power. So far, so good.

This should be totally unnecessary, but that is wishful thinking apparently.

 

DTJK: Which harness do you have the Kenwood connected to? Some of the harnesses have a reset procedure. You migt have to reinitialize the harness to the JK. Also, does the dome light come on when the door opens?

Freewill: I am not sure I understand your post. When working on your JK, you disconnect the engine battery and connect another battery to the Jeep??? So the Jeep is energized by another vehicle?

 

Vernnz, it's connected to the stock harness, this has been working fine for over a year. I had added accessories before in the same manner and nothing bad ever happened. The dome lights work as they should, power is shut off to windows and all but the radio when ignition is off and the door is opened.

 

There isn't a PAC or SCOSCHE or METRA harness between the Jeep connector and the Kenwood? I don't believe the Kenwood can be wired direct to the Jeep. You either have to wire the Hot, Ignition, Ground and Dimmer yourself or there is a harness between Kenwood and Jeep. There harness has a module in it that might have to be reset.

 

Yes, exactly. The other battery's + is connected to the + cables coming to the Jeep's battery before I disconnect from the Jeep's battery. The positive cables get jumped to the extra battery; the negative side is handled by grounding the extra battery to a convenient point. (In electrical terms, its a make-before-break connection.)

When I disconnect the Jeep battery, all the Jeep's electrics stay powered up. I just use light jumper wires because I'm not going to use the starter or actually run anything.

Started doing this years ago so that clocks, radio station presets, engine computers, etc. would not reset when changing batteries or maintaining the battery posts. With the JK, it also saves my personal settings in the computers - like HSA, ESC, Headlights not on with remote entry, all that stuff you don't want to set over again.

It could be some of that stuff would stay set, but this way I know it does. No surprises.

 

I'm not sure what kind of harness it is, basically when I bought the deck they sold me the harness together. Connected the harness to the deck and just plugged it into the stock radio harness. It's been working fine since now. I had disconnected the same nuts on the battery just a month ago when I installed my rigid light bar and all was good. When I have some time I may just disconnect the battery and reset the computer and see what happens.

What's the correct procedure for this? Just disconnect terminals, give it 10 sec and reconnect?

 

I would suggest disconnecting ALL power from the JEEP before making any electrical changes.

 

Not sure. The harness I used didn't require it. I have seen mention here that some people have to do something to their harness when they first install it but I am not sure which brand they used.

 

I meant reseting the Jeep's computer.