One of the things that bothers me about a lot of brake controller installations is that it typically ends up going under the dash and right where you can bang your shins on it. This location also makes it difficult to see and to adjust when trying to adjust braking bias while driving.
Placement
When you look at the dash of a late model Jeep Cherokee XJ there is a spot on the left of the dash cluster that is empty. Depending on the size of the brake controller this location makes a perfect home for the controller.
I didn’t want to have a bundle of wires coming over the front of the dash so I took the dash apart to route the wires from beneath the dash.
This post isn’t intended as a how-to. I did this install something like ten years ago so forget a lot of the fine details. It’s not a big job but maybe I’ll update this article when I install a controller in one of my other Cherokees or Comanche.
Here are some images to present the method used to perform the installation of the controller.
It is important to make sure your bracket and the brake unit itself will fit on the dash. I did a test fit with the actual controller and parts before taking anything apart.
Disassembly
Taking the dash apart on an XJ is pretty easy. It was just a matter of find and remove the screws. I didn’t force anything to prevent breaking parts and tabs. Nowadays, I expect that the plastic parts are especially brittle, so in the future I’ll be extra careful if anything has to come apart again.
Routing the wires
Once the dash was apart, I took the top part of the dash and installed the brake controller bracket. The round hole at the top of the dash was drilled for routing the wiring for the controller. The slot is the view window for the VIN number riveted to the dash.
I ran the wires through the rubber grommet for the one of the body chassis wiring harnesses. In these images the wires are the blue, black, and white wires.
I used a scriber/poker to make a hole while being careful to not nick any existing wires. With the poker sticking through I taped the wires to the poker and pulled them through the grommet.
I smeared some black RTV on the wires where they go through the grommet once happy with the wiring locations. I also wrapped the wires in some factory style sheathing to make it look like factory.
Testing
Once it was done I took it for a test drive to make sure it worked. The home made trailer in this image was set up with electric trailer brakes. Having the controller to adjust sensitivity was great to have especially when unloaded. It was a very light trailer.
