Question about ignition switches/air bag lights on a 1998 XJ 4.0

Hi guys, first time posting here. I own a 1998 XJ 4.0 which I'm pretty sure used to belong to the user halmca. It came with a decal on it, and I stumbled across his posts before thinking to myself, holy crap that's my Jeep! The weirdest part of this discovery was seeing one post that didn't make sense, where he mentioned an airbag light staying on intermittently. About 12 hours after reading his post about the airbag light, I began having the same issue.

Anyway, the problem is pretty simple. It started out that the airbag light would occasionally stay on, at which time, no blinky blinky and no radio/blower. I figured out I could turn the rig off and start it back up and that usually solved it.

After a short time, the airbag light was an everyday occurrence, but I discovered wiggling the key would cause it to go off and my signals would begin working again. Last weekend I took the steering column housing off and realized I could wiggle what I assume is the ignition switch (small black plastic switch on the left-hand side of the column), and it would work the same as wiggling the key (but more quickly). Regardless of what I wiggle, I can hear a very faint clicking/arching sound near the fusebox in the passenger footwell.

I've read lots of different threads about this issue, but haven't seen any that mentioned wiggling the key causing the airbag light to go off, and just wanted to run it by someone more experienced than me before I go buying parts. For what it's worth, horn hasn't worked since I bought her.

Lastly, halmca - if you come across this somehow, thanks for the attention to detail you put into this XJ. It's been my daily since last summer when I picked it up and I absolutely love it.

EDIT: Funny, having re-read his thread about the airbag light, he even suggested it was the ignition switch. I guess I should have read more closely!

I would check all the connections and replace the ignition switch because it's cheap and easy. The clock spring is expensive and a major effort to replace!

RCP Phx said:

I would check all the connections and replace the ignition switch because it's cheap and easy. The clock spring is expensive and a major effort to replace!

Click to expand...

That's kind of what I was thinking too. Didn't know a whole lot about clock springs so I'll definitely start with the ignition switch!

The clockpring is how the horn button signal gets to the horn relay.

The clicking sound is most likely a symptom of the fault, and not the root cause. ETA: The horn relay is in the same vicinity of the clicking.

A faulty ignition switch is a logical assumption.