tac and speedo turn off

My 98 xj's guages turn off randomely, and I have to punch the dash and they come back on. The airbag light comes on too. I don't want to tear apart the dash for nothing, any ideas?

get a boxing glove to pad the impact? :gee:

it's a fuse

The 97+ XJ's have a problem with the two self docking connectors behind the gauge panel. Pull the gauge panel and clean both the plugs and the sockets. When I did my 98 I 'tweaked' the pins just a hair, the tweak was so little that you could not really tell they were tweaked, this let them make sturdier contact with the self docking plugs. I also used dielectric grease. Disconnect your battery when you do this then reconnect it.