WELL, It is fixed. To all those die hard, have-to-buy-the-very-complicated-schematic contained in the $7 online service manual, I say this : I apologize. Because that is just what I ended up doing.

And man, that boogar is complicated. But when you are faced with no other choice, and swapping in both headlight switch and multifunction switch fails (Dont laugh too hard, total cost was $5, but it did take wasted time and effort..) it's time to get dirty and make 100 trips from the computer to the car with the volt meter, and ring the dang thing out.

And ring it out I did, pin this, connection # that, until I ended up with a flaky voltage on the input to the headlight switch, which did not correspond with the good voltage on the other end of the wire where it comes out of the junction/fuse block in the cabin.
Moreover, when I turned the headlights on, the voltage would completely drop out at the switch and stay good at the junction block, same blue #14 wire with the red stripe. Replacing the wire did it. Obviously it had burned it's way open circuit somewhere between there and there. No it was not at the connectors either, somewhere in the loom.
Now to make it permanent with some THHN routed over to the switch, and a couple wire nuts.
Thank goodness my day job is an electrician (21 years) , ...it only took me about 6 hours. Just in time for nightfall.
I deserve a beer. I have now gone hard core on my Jeep troubleshooting.

(Thanks for the offer of a switch Dave, but she was sicker than that. )

 

The reason I have the switch is because I had a problem with my LEFT turn signal. The right and hazards were fine, but the left refused to work. I could get it to work by turning on the hazards first, then turning on the left signal, then turning off the hazards. The left signal would continue to flash until I turned it off, then the next left turn, it was the same deal all over again. That's when I bought MY manual! Turns out it was the flasher! In the WJ, the flasher has 3 logic circuits, one for left, one for right, and one for hazards! It has 9 pins on it and costs about $50! Changing it was a PITA because it's behind an aluminum steering column brace that can't be removed. I could have dropped the junction block, but I shivered to think what might happen when separating those 2 36-pin connectors!

As luck would have it, the description of the system told me what it was, I didn't have to start probing!

 

Update to the update, turns out the open in the wire to the switch was in the first 12" or so of the switch, so I just wirenutted in a short section of 12 stranded thhn. Beats running new unfused (well, ok 30A fused (can you do that on a#14? maybe in automotives you can)) all the way through the cabin. It tucked in nicely behind the switch.

Snap, Dave, that's one helluva flasher. $50? Hope mine ain't like that.

 

I had a similar thing with my xj, I replaced the multifunction switch only to find that the problem still persisted. The blinkers would only work sometimes. Turned out it was the blinker relay under the dash, of course located behind the metal, like dave said. But I dont have any spare parts as I took my original switch apart thinking it might have dirty contacts and, you guessed it, couldnt get it back together again with all the springs and such. Ooops. LOL.

 

No the BEST one for your 97 is only $30 and that's because it has lamp outage indication circuits. It's only got 5 pins. The one for an XJ the same year is $1.15!

BTW, a rear door latch for my WJ is $150.

Sorry, I've got to disappear for a while. I've got to go out and crawl under my WJ. I think I broke my rear upper control arm ball joint last night. It was tail wagging on the way home.

 

Nope, lower control arm bushings are toast! One the rubber is 1/2 gone and the other the outer bushing sleeve is rusted away! The frame ends look okay, but I'll replace them anyway. Time for another thread.

 

I too considered open part surgery on the multifunction switch then decided the patient would likely die on the table. $15 at pick n pull, had one within 5 minutes already out, paid for it and the guy said I could throw it in in the parking lot then return it if it wasnt the problem, which it was not, and I did return it and bought just the headlight switch, which also was not the problem but for $5 I felt like I owed him the sale. (vs. $120 at that part store.)

 

5 bucks for a headlight switch is really cheap. my local JY wanted 35 for theirs and I had to talk them down to 25.

 

Yeah, but that's California LOL!