1997 Dash Gauges Die

WeekenderTJ

New Member
Original poster
Joined
Mar 16, 2025
Messages
1
Location
Cumming Georgia
I have had my 97 Sport for almost 15 years. It has been a great extra vehicle for my family as my wife and I have our separate daily vehicles. Pretty much we just drive it on weekends or take the top and doors off a cruise during the summer. Ran into an issue a couple weeks ago.
Went to get gas and on the way home noticed all my gauges were not moving. With the Tach and Speedometer at zero. The check engine light still illuminates due to a separate IACV issue. Got home and tried to restart it. Same issue occurs everytime.

When I first start it all gauges work perfectly but then after a few seconds battery, gas, oil temp and coolant temp freeze in place and the Tach and Speedometer stay at zero.
After browsing different forums I took off the IPC, cleaned connections and used dielectric grease and cleaned battery terminals in an attempt to solve the issue but the problem remained. All fuses and relays are good.
A few days later I had the bright idea to try and turn the key forward while it's running to see if it was possibly a bad ignition switch. While turning the key forward while running, not as far as engaging the starter but just a smidge, the gauges return to working order but still die or freeze in place after about 5 seconds. When that happened I went to my local auto parts store, bought and replaced the ignition switch. After replacement the same issue occurs. The Jeep starts and runs great it is just the gauges die after a few seconds of starting.
Sorry for the lengthy first post. I like to try and figure vehicle issues by myself but I am hopeful that someone has solved this issue before and can give some insight.

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Might want to check your dash grounds under each speaker cover and the driver's kick panel. I'd also clean the firewall ground between the battery and engine (and you might as well do the engine one since it's close anyways.)

Next I'd disconnect the big block of connectors under the driver's side dash and check for corrosion and check the PCM connectors.

Lastly I'd verify you can connect to the PCM with a scan tool or Bluetooth dongle and Torque Lite or some other free app. Live data should let you approximate gauges like speed, rpm, coolant temp...make sure the PCM is putting out the right stuff.

I believe there is a cluster self test procedure. Can't recall the magic to invoke the test

-Mac