The reverse lights on my 98 XJ come on intermittently and there doesnt seem to be any pattern of when they come on or dont. Any suggestions???

 

auto or manual, auto neutral saftey switch at trans dirty or damaged. If manual, just a faulty reverse lamp switch (check visible wiring as well)

 

its an auto. and i know that the NSS is messed up because i have to put it into Neutral to start it. so then would the lights not coming on be linked to the NSS?

 

Yep, Matt. There is a contact inside the NSS that sends signal to your reverse lights. It's fairly simple to remove and rehab if you're even a little mechanical and they're a little pricy to replace so if you feel like an adventure, get your tools and follow this link... http://go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoNSSrebuild.htm

 

Wanna do mine for me? I'm too lazy haha I forgot what it's like to have reverse lights.

 

The funniest part of this whole story is that after pulling my NSS and completely overhauling it, I still didn't have reverse lights... because they were unplugged under the dash. Cruiser and/or Flintstone helped me trace that one down, thankfully.

As for Matt's issue, given that it won't start in anything but neutral, I think his NSS is in need of some lovin'.

 

Yep, NSS needs clean. Good write up with pics out here.
The only issue with doing this, is prying the NSS of its shaft. You either good or bad with this, I unfortunately broke of parts of the threads, despite really really carefully prying and pulling. Really carefully.
So, give it a go, have patience and you safe yourself some bucks, have back up lights and start in P and N again

 

HAA HAAA! Me too. That's why am am so glad that I put some additional lights in the rear with a switch when I first got my Jeep.

 

jeeps have reverse lights?...........lol

 

i went to clean mine a few weeks back. i let it soak in pb blaster for a week and it still broke when coming off. i bought a new one on ebay for $45 and its worked perfect. i tried the nut prying trick and everything, but had no luck in pulling it off without breaking. if you don't live in a bad area or wheel alot it should be easier to come off. goodluck

 

and now my reverse lights work perfect btw. never had any since i bought the jeep, its kinda nice no having to hit the brakes all the time to see when your backing up at night

 

Quote of the day! Hahaha

On a more serious note, the link posted by F1 is the best out there: http://go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoNSSrebuild.htm

 

yeah, thats a good how to. another thing i forgot to mentioned. atleast on mine, there are only a few threads on that nut. so dont get too crazy with prying on it. you'll rip those threads real fast.

 

Thanks for all the info guys. It really helps. Looks like I know what Im going to be doing this weekend.