I have a 2000 Jeep XJ with a 90s Chrysler CD/Tape player radio that can be found in many other Jeeps of this era. These radios apparently have a common issue where the display stops working completely or works intermittently. However, the radio still plays.
This is what the radio looks like:



My radio had this very issue. The radio worked fine, there was just no display.I dug in to investigate.

I popped the cover off my dash board, pulled out my radio but left it plugged in. With the vehicle on I firmly slapped the top of the radio bringing my display back to life temporarily! Thus, I knew there had to be a loose connection somewhere within the radio. I began to take apart the radio so I could wiggle things around while it still had power, in order to find the loose connection.

First pull off the volume **** and tuning sliders. Then remove the face of the radio and then the left side of the radio, (the side with all of the heat fins). Behind those heat fins you will find an interesting connector: a bunch of little metal strips running vertically from a circuit board on the bottom of the radio to a circuit board half way up the side of the radio like in this picture I took:

When I placed some pressure upon this weird connector, I was delighted to find that my display turned back on until I removed pressure.

To permanently fix the problem I just bent all of these strips outwards a tiny bit and my clock has been illuminated ever since and has not given me any trouble.

You could also probably use contact cleaner or dielectric grease if you want to be fancy.



This is a very irritating issue, so I hope this solution does the trick for you.

 

The pics or written parts of your post describing what you did and how you did it aren't showing on my screen.
Are they showing up on yours ?

 

I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened there.
Can you read my comment now?

 

Yes !

That's a good find a good fix.