1997 XJ. 4.0/AW4

Bought it to fix up to drive as a winter beater. Currently undoing some previous owner hackery.

Anyways, i have no headlights. Marker lights work, blinkers work, tail lights, work but no headlights. I swapped out the headlight switch from an XJ i parted out (no i don't know if that one was good) and still no headlights.

I checked all the under hood fuses, and kick panel fuses. All were good.

I pulled one of the bulbs out thinking maybe they were both just burnt out, no power going to either.

Is there any other places i should i be looking? Thanks!

New headlight switch is where I would start. Use an autozone site and compare part numbers for your 97 and whatever year your part out was?

I was just looking through a Haynes book and noticed that there appears to be different diagrams for head lights for 97 and later versus prior to that. If your part out was a pre 97 that looks like a possibility.

It was from a 97 i parted out. I also grabbed one from a 99 i parted out, maybe i'll toss that one in and see what happens.

I think my next approach should be to pull the headlight switch back out and find a wiring diagram and see which is what and then see if i have power going into the switch/coming out.

One other thing, my 95 has a plug to the headlight harness that is on the side of the air filter box. It is a poor design but I don't know if the 97 has that same setup however mine was a total mess and I eventually deleted it but if your has it you might be able to check there for power.

Might have something to do with the multifunction switch. When it's removed the headlights won't work.

By the way, I see your stuff for sale on Craigslist all the time. Wasn't sure if you were on here too.

In case anyone else ever has this problem the culprit was broken wires between the firewall and the plug that connects to the headlight harness.

Found the problem after whipping out my scope on a rope and poking around for a little bit.

It looked like someone else was in there before me. I have absolutely no idea why these wires would break here, or if those splices were factory, but after fixing them it fixed my headlights.

Hahahahahahaha. Are you the guy i bought ZJ backing plates off of like 3 years ago?

I've bought so many of these toilets that people seem to think I'm some sort of guru on them and always buy stuff off of me/have me fix theirs.

It's my side gig. I have fun buying/selling stuff and parting stuff out and there's actually pretty good money in it too.

If you ever need any help working on something, or some parts, or anything let me know. I'm like 40 minutes away.

Doing some actual testing is where people should start, not with part swapping.


For example, using a test light or multi-meter to see if there was any power getting TO the headlight switch, and then coming OUT of the headlight switch, would have saved all the wasted time and trouble of swapping out the headlight switch.

Test, people. Test first, THEN swap.



By the way, those splices were done incorrectly. That's why they failed.

Might be the Beam Select Switch on the steering column. See if the headlamps work in high beam. Both low and high beam go through this switch.


Or the Headlamp Delay Module, under the dash on the left side, near the Combination Flasher.

Those splices look like after the fact work, like someone deleted the factory plug that would be there.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/96-...ir-box-160147/, Here is a link to what I referred to