Every winter the airbag light on my 98 cherokee sport turns on and when it is on none of my gauges work, but when the light goes off everything works again.

A few weeks ago when I turned my car on everything was fine, turned on the wipers and all of the sudden the airbag light turned on and it shut of the wipers, so now the wipers won't turn on, maybe a short in the switch?


But anyways when the car is turned on you can see the wiper points or motor flick up for a split second, so I'm guessing it is something in the switch.

What is causing all of this? And what should I do? I'm no mechanic but If there is anyway that I can fix my problem without spending too much, or some info online that anyone else has that would be great.

 

When was the last time you had the battery or alternator replaced?

 

Sound like that you have 2 problems. The first with the gauges not working is a very common problem with our XJ's. Next time the air bag light comes on and the gauges stop working give it a slap just above the instrument cluster. If the come back on you may have a loose connection or dirty connection in back of the cluster. You would have to clean all the connections and tighten all the ground.
As far as the wiper you may have a bad switch. But I am not sure. I haven't had any problems with mine and never work on them.
Let us know what you find.