98 xj started up this morning fine. Had no gauges and the airbag light was on. I restarted it and the same thing happened. I let it idle for several minutes with no change. Once I shifted to reverse everything came back and the airbag light went off.

Any ideas?

 

Your problem is a very common problem. Next time the gauges don't work ive the dash a firm slap above the gauges. If they come back on you either have a loose or dirty connection in the back of the gauges or a bad ground. You will have to pull the cluster and clean all the connections and make sure that all the connections are tight, including the ground.