Infamous cluster, radio overhead dome problem.

About a week ago I began experiencing intermitent radio/instrument cluster failure on my 99 xj sport.

Began work right away, checked and rechecked all fuses, pulled dash apart, cleaned and slathered dialectric grease on all related connections. No dice.

Decided to start with the radio, I quickly noticed I have no juice from my constant 12v (pink)

I discovered this same pink wire shows up on my overhead dome lamp and RKE (remoteless key entry) with 30 ohms between the pink wire behind my radio and the pink wires in my dome lamp. No voltage.

I also discovered on my cluster pins.. the same pink wire in C1 pin 4. ~30 ohms between the other endings.

My ignition power to my radio works, all the pins to my cluster are operable with substantial ammounts of voltage.

I read up on the CCD and all the related parts, checked those in C2 of my cluster connectors (CCD+ and CCD-) and they are at 1.5v where they should be at 2.5.

I think that will go away once i solve my 12v constant issue.

Heres the question. Can I run a fresh 20g wire to my battery and replace the pink 12v constant? I counted 4 points I need to attach it to.

Bad idea? Anything i should keep in mind?






Edit: My cluster fails the self diagnostic. (Needles dont fluctuate) All lights are operable. I looked at the bulletin regarding the cluster harness.

The needles did fluctuate when I gave it juice from the battery. Ruled out the fact that my cluster may be faulty.

Kabluie, did you ever this issue resolved? I just bought a cherokee with the exact same problem. Needles fail the diag test but lights are still operable. I have not had a chance to pull anything apart as of yet, planning on it very soon though.

Same problem with my 2000.

Ended up being the circuit board in the forward dome light - burnt to a crisp which blew the fuse under the hood.

I removed the burnt circuit board then powered those lights with a simple 2 wire harness from the rear dome light. They now both work with the door switches or the manual on (headlight) switch.

The drawback is that I suspect you lose the automatic off feature should you leave em on.

Once I replaced the fuse, the dash instruments, the radio, etc all work like a champ. I think the power door locks were on the same circuit as well. All work 100% now.

Rick
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