Electrical gremlin

B

bobcreag

New Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2022
Messages
2
Location
CA
I am the new owner of a 1992 YJ with the 4.0 straight 6 engine and a 5-speed tranny.

When I turn on the parking lights or the head lights, the 2 gauges of the right-hand side of the instrument cluster (oil pressure and voltmeter) go dead and the light for those 2 gauges goes out.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Bob
 
My standard answer for electrical gremlins is grounds, grounds, grounds.
Clean, inspect and tighten every ground on the vehicle. Might fix the problem, might not but it will only cost a little time, and worst-case scenario it eliminates a variable.
 
Pull the 5-gauge cluster. Probably have corrosion creating a short on the circuit board ribbon on the backside of the cluster.

Those two share a bulb and one gauge works off ground and one works off 12V. The problem is almost assuredly related to the ribbon, but you gotta pull it and look to get any more clues.
 
Like Macho mentions pull the cluster and you can see how each gauge and the bulb retainers comes out and contacts the copper ribbon. I also ran a second ground off the factory one which lands who knows where and it fixed my dim lights, made the oil pressure gauge and volt gauge read higher than pre cleaning. IMO the gauges are pretty marginal so Im running mechanical after markets which do read different than the factory ones. I'll also add when I bought mine most every dash bulb was burnt out and I attribute it to the PO putting the crappy transparent colored sleeves over the bulbs to make them blue. I think the covers make them so hot they fried. Also as a general statement all the under hood grounds should be checked or cleaned. Cant say Jeeps are known for stellar electrical systems :cool:
 
Gilaguy23 said:
Like Macho mentions pull the cluster and you can see how each gauge and the bulb retainers comes out and contacts the copper ribbon. I also ran a second ground off the factory one which lands who knows where and it fixed my dim lights, made the oil pressure gauge and volt gauge read higher than pre cleaning. IMO the gauges are pretty marginal so Im running mechanical after markets which do read different than the factory ones. I'll also add when I bought mine most every dash bulb was burnt out and I attribute it to the PO putting the crappy transparent colored sleeves over the bulbs to make them blue. I think the covers make them so hot they fried. Also as a general statement all the under hood grounds should be checked or cleaned. Cant say Jeeps are known for stellar electrical systems :cool:
Click to expand...
The blue covers are stock to keep the bulbs slightly dimmer and I guess a less yellow color tone. I personally have had 0 bulb failures. Still on 100% oem bulbs.

The poor wiring you had may have choked the bulbs to the point where they died early though.
 
No kidding on the blue covers, never knew that one. Cleaned with new bulbs its not to bright to bug me although I rarely drive it at night. Recon in time the dust will dim them back to OEM ;)
 
Yeah, thought it was weird when I found mine at first but they definitely are stock/normal so I've left them on. I pulled them off to see the difference and they don't change the color tone all that much but they do lower the brightness a bit. Not really a big deal to have them or not though.

It's also different for me vs you, since you have a 1991 your gauges are front lit and illuminated far less, since it's all in front. So yours are probably honestly better without the covers.
 
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