I need some help. My gauges in my 98 XJ randomly stop working sometimes. I can bang on the dash and they will start working again, but i want to fix the problem and not bang my dash in. Any of yall know?

 

Mine did this one day. And never again.. Could be a loose wire in an accessible area, but as I had checked everything accessible.... When I had the opportunity, I started pulling the dash apart. Really easy. Start with shroud that goes around radio and heat controls, then pop the top, horizontal piece running the length of jeep off. Now you have access to all screws and clips to pull instrument cluster out to inspect any connection issues or frayed wires. The screws you need are: 3 screws at base of kick panel, then one on the left of the steering wheel and then I think 3 collectively to the right of wheel. There are going to be a lot of wires, so maybe a camera or pad and pen to make notes of colors? Just a thought. Also, some of the wires go thru clips and are screwed behind a protective panel, so undoing these as needed may help. All in all disassembly is about a 10-15 min.
Now, the actual instrument cluster has three clips that need to be popped In order to pull it away, but at this point your totally disassembled and ready to start crawling over the wires... Good luck!

 

There are a couple connectors on the back of the cluster. May wanna check them. Its not too tough to get at.

 

Cleaning the connector at the back of the cluster and adding some dia-electric grease will usually fix it. However if you continue to have problems I believe your local Jeep dealership parts dept will have an upgraded connector to remedy the problem. I have this problem on my 93 as well and about once a year I have to remove the gauges and redo everything. Sometimes all the gauges quit, sometimes only the 2 big ones, sometimes only the 4 small ones. Sometimes only off for a few minutes, sometimes a few months.

 

check under your hood at your firewall to, the bundle of wires going in right behind your gauges, i had a bracket rub on that bundle sometimes it would pop fuses sometimes just turn thing off, id hit a bump and it would come back