Weird electrical problems, engine shutdown

For the past few months, my gauge lights and headlights have been dimming/flickering slightly- It's the type of flicker that you would get when there's an load on the electrical system.

Then, when I was starting up to go to my brother's house for Thanksgiving, the engine shut down a few seconds after starting. All the gauge lights and headlights stayed on. I tried it again, and let it run for a minute or two to see if it would happen again. This time it didn't shut down until I started reversing. It started up fine and I pulled back into the parking spot. I was thankful that I didn't assume it was fine after the 2nd start, and go out on the road

Anyone have an idea what could be behind this? I checked the battery terminals but I don't know what else to look for. I don't think it's the alternator, because the engine should be able to run on the battery alone for a while.

Edit: BTW, no check engine light

Ok YEAR and Engine please...details what it is. Sounds like a ground issue to me, I would check your grounds and while your at it replace any of the exposed braided ground strap with something a bit more resistant to the elements

Oops.. It's a 1999 with the 4.0

AW4 transmission

I'll check the ground strap, thanks.

My OP had the smiley link pasted from Jeepforum... I thought that just the smiley code got pasted and translated by . But I can't edit my post-- there's no Edit button. What's up with that?

Tightened one of the grounding straps... We'll see if the problem appears again. Anyone have any other ideas in case it still happens?

Hmm from your first post that it might be two related issues but lets just see if the connections being cleaned and tightend fixes it. The second possiblilty I would say may be the alternator. You can remove your alternator and take it into your auto parts store to have the alternator tested. BTW how are the volt readings w/ a volt meter? In addition you can test your ground cables by switching your mulit meter to ohms and go Batt neg to a clean spot on the chassis as a test, this should be a relatively low reading IVO 1 ohm or less.

could be computer. my 98 woul keep shuttind down after 30 sec - 1 min every time. computer was fried. picked up a used computer for $35, fixed it.

I think I found the source of the problem. The cable that goes from the battery harness to the fuse box wasn't bolted on tightly. That was where I put the lead for my offroad lights, and I just didn't tighten it enough. I haven't seen the flickering since I tightened it, and no engine shutdown.

Stihl are you talking about a volt reading between the + and - on the battery? I was thinking I needed to test that last night, because I noticed the guage said 13v when I was at a stop light, and it went up to the usual 14 when I drove off. Is that normal?

Yeah that is normal the guage cluster is not really all that accurate, or if it is now at some time in the future it will not be. As for generating more power yes your alternator is designed to create more power around 2500rpm or so unless you have some custom made one.