Is This It?

I bought a tech manual off of Amazon republished but origonalaly put out by Jeep for my 74 cj5. I guess I didn’t read the fine print beacause after I thumbed through it, I discovered the other Jeep models where included like Cherokees and Wagoneers. It has a lot of good info on my cj but too much on the others. One thing it didn’t have was a good schematic on the gauge cluster and respective stand alone gauges or maybe I need to put a magnifying glass on the wiring diagram because that thing was minuscule. What’d I miss? Is that it on my year from the factory?

 

Service Manuals

 

Jeep® 1974 TSM online

 

The factory TSM for 1974 is posted in its entirety here - Jeep® 1974 TSM online If this is the same as what you got, then yes, that's the factory manual.

The wiring diagram that's there is all there is. A '74 CJ has point to point wiring with inline fuses, and the diagram is fairly simple compared to most cars. If it's hard for you to follow, I suggest you use your local photocopy machine and copy sections enlarged, and paste it together. Then buy some colored pencils and color the wires with their proper colors. The colors for each wire are listed on the preceding pages.

The factory manuals were supplied to the dealerships for use by the line mechanics. If it's something that a pro would already know, it's not in there. What would you like to see in addition?

 

Thanks fellas, I knew I should have researched a little more thoroughly before asking questions I suspected had already been answered/ posted. I think the manual on T Collins page is what I have but I don’t have mine available to me just now. Thanks for the reply tmgr, I really haven’t spent a lot of time with the new manual yet but I’m sure most of the questions I will have in the future if not covered in the TSM have been expounded upon somewhere on this site. I’ll try to be more diligent in finding the posts next time. Question, my gauge clusters fuel gauge seams different from the others I’ve run across in pictures while researching. The E and F seam to be swapped on the gauge face, E being on the far right high side of the face while F is on the left low side. Also the oil présure gauge was mechanical on mine but looks like the schematic shows an electrical with sender which I believe the previous Owner deleted. Still have the light in the cluster. Not exactly sure what the light alerts us to? Thanks again for y’all’s masterful knowledge and sharing it with a green horn.

 

The light would let you know if you had low oil pressure, but it's useless if the sender was removed when your rig was swapped to the mechanical oil pressure gauge. I recently discovered that with mine. And it sounds like your fuel gauge was replaced, I hear the aftermarket ones are switched like you described.

 

The standard configuration on these Jeeps included both an oil and amp light. There was also an optional gauge package, which in 1974 included an electric oil pressure gauge and an ammeter. If you have an ammeter, be careful with any alternator upgrades. With an ammeter, all the charging current goes from the alternator, through the firewall to the ammeter on the dash, and back through the firewall to the battery. The Stewart-Warner ammeters that Jeep provided with the CJs are pretty good quality, but they are old and subject to corrosion, aging of plastic parts, etc. Jeep switched to a voltmeter in 1975, which keeps all the charging current under the hood and is both safer and more reliable.

If your Jeep has the standard 35 amp alternator and the optional ammeter, that ammeter could catch on fire if you substitute a more powerful alternator. The generic parts store Delcos that are popular replacements make something like 60-80 amps at full charge. Your best choice in that case is to wire the alternator directly to the battery through a fusible link, and replace the ammeter with a voltmeter. Note that the '75 or '76 wiring diagrams are a good reference for making these connections, should you choose to go with a Delco.

Not sure, but you probably have no amp light if you have the ammeter. There's nothing to prevent you from having both the amp light and the ammeter - the amp light is particularly easy to wire up if you convert to a Delco alternator. Ask if you want more info about that.

There's not much to prevent you from having both an oil light and an OP gauge. A mechanical OP gauge is definitely aftermarket, since Jeep supplied an electric gauge with the optional gauge package. To have both, you need to plumb both senders (or a sender and the oil tube) to the engine block with an 1/8" NPT pipe nipple and tee or something similar.

 

Thanks dane71 I feel more confident with a mechanical OPG. I’ve had my head up under the dash but wasn’t really lookin at wiring so the fuel gauge was probably swapped at some point. I’m thinkin a whole new cluster at some point. paint peeling off needle and not sure if fuel gauge is working properly. There are a few signs of water intrusion/ rust at the windshield. Still trying to get a reading after replacing the sender. Saw a couple of posts on it so I’ll run the diags. The old one was destroyed and also grounded to the body.
That’s good stuff tmgr. Yes I plan to add lights and a winch so more amprg is in the cards. The ampres gauge has a light. Thanks again.