Brassaxe

Just in case you need to get inside the fuse box to repair the contacts i'm here to say it can be done.

The fuse box (Power Distribution box/center or whatever it gets called) is not something to take apart if you're not comfortable with wiring and
or not a calm careful mechanic. I won't go into photo details about how to pull the fuse box because if you can't get it out you probably shouldn't be taking it apart. That's not meant to be condescending to anyone I just don't want to get people into a situation where they are out $400+ fuse box.

Anyway. the fuse box comes loose with the 4 vertical pillar clips. Then you can take off the wiring bundles underneath. 3 of them have locks and push in clips and the rest have release and clamping levers. Then the power cable comes off with a 13mm wrench.. I think it's 13mm anyway.

To get into the fuse box contacts you need to take out alllllllllll the fuses.. Thats the most time consuming part. My suggestion is making a layout, labeling all the fuses, their positions and amperage. Or take a photo before for reference. The fuses with the Yellow cover and the ove with the pale cover do still come out you just gotta pry the clips on the side out. Then when you put them back in make sure you reference the layout on the lid just to double check. The top of the fuse box comes off with 7 clips. You can't go around and work them one at a time. They need to all be done at once to get the top off. So take a screwdriver under each clip, lift it up and put a large zip tie in there to keep the clip open. Once you get all 7 held open the lid/top comes off. That's it. There are no springs or anything that's gonna go flying out so don't worry. There are 6 female to female terminal clips that may come off but they should stay on.

Here it is..

resharp001

Interesting to see that taken apart. What caused you having to fix something on the underside?

Brassaxe

Was probing to see what fuse locations were still powered when the Jeep was off for more than a few minutes or so. Wasn’t seeing anything out of M7, which is the switchable fuse for the rear 12v outlet. You can have it so it’s always on or only on with the ignition. I checked it and thought…. why am I seeing no power out of this? One of these locations should have 12+ volts.. Thinking I was just not hitting the contacts, I pushed the probe in the fuse location a bit more than was necessary. It bent one of the contacts. The fuse would no longer go in tightly. It was one of those things where I knew I didn’t need that outlet so it wasn’t a big deal, but if I didn’t just fix it, it would probably never get fixed.

I don’t know why that fuse shows no voltage even though it is a powered location with the car off. Might be a safety feature where it is always “Availible” but only powers up if it detects a current draw or resistance at the outlet. Dunno..

I’m just glad the JK can be taken apart like this.

ronjenx

Here are some more views of the inner workings: OEM TIPM Study

resharp001

Thanks for the link! I hadn't looked at that before, and would have never guessed it had so many layers. Ima just cross my fingers right now that I'll never have to dig in to that thing for any more than changing or tapping a fuse!

Brassaxe

It looks like they changed the type of replaceable Relays from G8W to G8V on later models; which is not a huge difference other than size and coil resistance maybe. Did you see if they conformal coated the boards? I didn’t bother going as deep as you did.

ronjenx

Yes. The boards were coated.