weird...

Yet another problem with this thing. Another electrical one at that...350 bucks is all I have to say. Anyway, both my '91 XJ and my buddy's '90 are experiencing similar electrical issues. The tail lights have quit working, and the guages have begun acting unusual, ie working then not working back and forth. Brake lights still work. The dash lights have also quit working. Likely a short right? My parking light fuse is blown, and it blew a new one as soon as it was replaced. It can't be an unusual problem if it was experienced in two XJ's of almost the same year nearly simultaneously, right? Anyway, just lookin for advice or comments. Thanks a lot.

With the gauges doing the working/ no working thing, it sounds like a ground is loose. My Comanche had the same problem with the gauges and it was screwed-up ground wires. After I found them and fixed them, a bunch of other minor electrical stuff was cleared up also.

Turned out the guy who had the truck before me, had goobered up the grounds.

Good rule of thumb is to go from bumper to bumper and remove all the grounds, one at a time, clean them up and reattach them, add a few even between the engine and body, won't hurt anything and may stop a live ckt from finding ground thru your radio or other component...

Is it the gauges that are not working, or the gauge lights???

freewithfire said:

It can't be an unusual problem if it was experienced in two XJ's of almost the same year nearly simultaneously, right? Anyway, just lookin for advice or comments. Thanks a lot.

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The problem with your hypothesis is that they are totally different vehicles. The '90 was the last year of the "AMC" Cherokee. Yes, Chrysler had already bought Jeep from AMC, but the '90 models were still built to the AMC design. The '91 model year was when Chrysler changed the computer, the fuel injection, and all the wiring. Even the gauges operate in reverse from the way they did the year before. The fact that your XJ and your friend's have similar problems is anecdotal at best, it doesn't indicate a systemic problem.

I'm aware of the transition between '90 and '91 model XJ's but I thought it odd that the two should have the exact same problem at approximately the same time. My guage lights are the feature that doesn't work, not the guages. The only odd thing is, is that the guages will spontaneously quit working for a few seconds or so, and then start up again, notably the speedometer. Typically they'll take their sweet time after the vehicle starts before they kick in. But that problem only began when the tail lights and guage lights quit working.

The '91 was the first year with the electric speedo. The entire cluster is different from the 90 and earlier.

Numerous people have posted about intermittent gauges, and IIRC the solution is usually a bad ground between the cluster and the chassis, or between the chassis and the engine.

One of my main problems with the idiot light gauge panel on my 98 was that big block thats down near your left foot where the wiring harness comes into the cab. On the 98 it is a big grey box with a bolt in the middle, my bolt was backed all the way out and the block was hanging together by it's pins. I pulled it apart, cleaned all those connectors out with electronics cleaner and put it back together then screwed the bolt in. That fixed one third of my problem, pins on the back of the cluster were another story and I still have a flakey gas gauge but I'm not replacing the fuel pump and it's sender till the pump dies...
The older ones may have the same setup, the other thing is brake fliud leaking from the master cylinder to the harness underneath, eats the plastic and really screws things up.