I'm trying to track down the problem that seems to affect both my speedometer and tachometer now. I could be wrong but I believe its a bad ground for the dash or something. They both work, but the RPM will fluctuate up to 1000 rpm or it will say 0 and the speedometer will either read my correct speed or 0. it goes from 0 to whatever my speed is very quickly so i would suspect an overloaded bad ground? I'm not too familiar with Cherokees is it common for them to have bad dashboard grounds or perhaps the VSS or such? Thanks in advance!

Andrew

Oh and its a 96' Cherokee 4.0 with an automatic.

 

Can't remember if yours has an actual speedometer cable or is electronic. Sounds like a bad or stressed cable.
Clean the grounds on the cluster and replace it. You have nothing to lose but some time.

 

I know its a completely diffrent veichle, but I had the same problem in my Civic, turns out i had 2 accessory dead end harnesses that were on a bracket attached to the engine, under the intake. They shorted out internally and grounded through the engine, it popped my fuse every time, and my speedo and tach went haywire. I detatched the bracket, cut off the harnesses, dead ended the wires individually, and put lots of electrical tape on it.

Not saying that yours is doing the same thing, but check the fuse box and see whats blow, and check your wiring diagram or manual and see what circut connects to that fuse

it also could be a bad sensor, just check out the manual it will give you trouble shooting tips, you should ALWAYS have a multimeter in your tool box, its the best electrical tool, cause codes can be deciving, but the mutimeter never lies.

let me know what it was.

 

are the grounds for the cluster located on the back of the cluster or can i see them when i look up under the dash? I was just driving tonight and my low beam headlights stopped working too. its probably unrelated but kind of annoying. High beams still work and my day time running lights still do too. I'll have to look more into that tomorrow.

 

well on some veichles, unrelated cuircuts share grounds, you need to check your manual