I here's what happened, I was driving back home (in my '88 4.0l) at night, listening to my radio, when a song with a little more umph comes on and all of a sudden the next thing I know, all my dash lights and the shifter lights and my stereo goes out. I'm not gunna worry about it too much tonight, but it may have just blown a fuse? (Maybe that's just me hopin'.)
A little back story maybe might help, so my lights have been flickering for awhile and the dimmer switch hasn't worked since I got it. Just recently I changed the alternator because I figured that was the problem because the headlights would flicker pretty bad and almost went out a time or two. And that fixed the headlight flicker for the most part, but it would still happen a little occasionally. But since changing the alternator my dash lights had begun to flicker a lot more. Now for the stereo.... What was in there when I got it was an aftermarket CD player with some shoddy wiring hooked up to the original. So I (when I say I, I mean a friend. I am opposed to working on anything electronic seeing as electricity hates me.) cut back the wires to what was in there in the first place and hooked up a stereo that I could plug my music into. As I said earlier the po's wiring was shoddy, but the stock isn't much better. Recently I've been wondering if there was something wrong with it that was causing the lights to flicker, especially since I had already put a new battery and a new alternator in. And I was was wondering if the stereo was the culprit because occasionally the lights would flicker to the beat of the music. Haha. Anyways, so here's what's in my head, possibly the dimmer switch just cut out completely? Maybe just a fuse? I'll check that in the morn. Am I just SOL with the wiring and need to redo the whole thing?
Sorry for the rambling, and if anything is incomprehensible, it's late and I'm tired. I just wanted to get this on here before I hit the hay to get some opinions.
Thanks all!

 

Pull the headlight switch.. they like to melt... you'll know when u see the plug on the back... it'll be all jacked up...

 

First place I'd look.

You can get a replacement plug for your new switch. It's an Airtex 1P-1190.

 

If you want your stock lights to be brighter and have less problems with the system, upgrade (either buy or make) your headlight harness and put them on relays. The wiring in our XJ's headlight system sucks. All the power goes through the headlight switch and if you upgrade your headlights, the more power that goes through. I've blown a couple of switches and several of the connectors before I realized this.

 

True stuff^^this.

 

Thanks for the input guys! I haven't had a whole lot of time lately with work and the holidays going on. But hopefully I can get to it tomorrow and order a new switch until I can upgrade.

 

Any one know anything yet? Ive had the same issue, I got the switch but Im waiting for the weekend when I can visit my parents with a garage. It was a $17 part.

 

See post 5.

 

So I got the new switch in the mail today, put it in and nothing changed. The plug didn't look melted. Their was a little rust on one or two of the plugs but overall not awful. And I'm assuming that it had been there for awhile. Either way I'll go ahead and redo the plug when I've got some time, just in case. But if that's not it, any other suggestions?

 

You'll no if the plugs bad... wish I had taken pics of mine today from when my switch went bad a few years ago... lol

 

Yeah. I'll admit I was pretty pissed at it though. Haha. And I was freezing so I didn't spend a whole lot of time looking. There was rust in the back of the plug though.

 

I'm really at a loss, guys. So my blinker lights work on my dash, as does the high beam indicator. And my stereo and the stock clock work when I have the switch turned off but not when I have the headlights on. So I'm really confused as to what's going. And like I said previously, I suck with electrical. So any pointers would be great. What would cause this to happen?

 

A rat ate your wires and now their all touching... lol

 

I have pretty much the same issue. Aftermarket head unit. No dash lights. I keep popping the light cluster fuse. Even after putting a 25 in the 5 (yes I know it's a terrible idea). I'm just going to rewire the dash in spring. For now I'm using a light set up that plugs into my cigarette lighter.

 

I got weird problems and decided to gut everything... found 12ish factory grounds duct taped together... glad I did it!