I just bought a 1996 Cherokee for my son and I to play in the woods and noticed something I want to fix. I noticed the electric fan has been bypassed, so when you switch the ignition switch on the fan come on. The guage on the cluster does not function either and I want to fix those things before I have a larger problem. Of course I didn't notice this until after I bought it. New Jeep owner, new to the forum and enjoy tinkering. Looking for advice where to start and why the previous owner may not have wanted to fix it right.
John

 

The temp sensor must haVe failed, so instead of getting a new sensor PO by pased the fan. Also some people do the bypass to HELP cooling, maybe the mod caused the problem.

 

May have not fixed it/set the fan to run all the time because it runs hot. First I would fix the guage so you know what the temp is and then track down any cooling issues.

If you can, see how it was bypassed and wire it back to the temp sensor so it will come on when needed. HTH. And welcome to the forums!

 

Thanks. It makes me nervous not knowing the temperature, so this is my priority either fixing the guage or starting over with an independent one. Is the sensor on the back of the head the one for the guage? I only see one wire coming out of it, so I suppose the power for the meter must be from the cluster. I haven't looked yet; is the fan switch in the bottom of the radiator?

 

Thats the sensor on the ds at the back on the top of head . They cost about $15 at Autozone. Its a coolant temp sending unit. It operates the gauge only, nothing else. As for the fan , I would wire it to a switch so you can turn it on when you want. XJs are kinda good for heating up. I hooked mine to a switch . I also have a 96 cherokee. It gives you better cooling . Those fans are made to only come on when the air is being run.

 

If you are going to hook it to a switch, then you need to also wire it so that the AC will turn it on when the compressor runs, if you have AC. These XJ are notorious for running hot. Having that fan run all the time doesn't hurt anything and in the long run will help it stay cool.

 

The fan is connected to the ignition switch, so when it switched on the fan comes on too. I'll look at the sending unit from the block to see if I can get the temp guage working in the cluster.

 

Bought a new sending unit and the guage still doesn't work. I thought I had found the problem. I disconnected the sending unit and grounded the terminal and then switched on the ignition switch and the needle on the temperature went over to maximum, so it only needed some variable resistance ( new sending unit) but I replace it and it doesn't work. The new sending units resitance didn't change once it was heated, so maybe the new one is no good; anybody got a clue?
john

 

That is a possibility. The only way to know for sure is to check the resistance with an ohm meter.

 

I went and exchanged it for a new one and then put the new one in hot water, but the resistance didn't change. I haven't put in the Jeep yet... I don't understand and the ohm meter works fine.

 

Check it cold and after being in boiling water. Red lead to terminal and black to threads

 

mine cost 8, depending on what motor you have