Taillight and Dash Lamp Out..

[Carolina_Cherokee93]

Hey yall

My tail light/ dash lamp just went out. I know that the pull switch can be at fault sometimes, but does anyone have any advice or know the best way to get in and replace that switch (lower left of the steering wheel)? Or why the taillights and the dash would go out at the same time? Any help...

Thanks

 

[SteelHeadz]

I'm assuming that it's a 93 Cherokee from Carolina?, the instrument panel lamps and the parklamps shares the same circuit. Have you checked the fuses?.

 

[Carolina_Cherokee93]

replaced 15-19, I had a 30 amp where a 15 shoulda been.. oops. It fixed the prob though. Thanks Steel

 

[MudderChuck]

A couple of things to check out. The path for the dash lights (dimmer) is through the tailights fuse, then through the instru fuse. If the taillight fuse goes, so will the instru lights.
The dimmer in the headlight switch has a tendency to screw up and heat up the wiring, how does your dimmer work?
The last time I changed out a headlight switch I found some toasty wires in the connector. If your problem appears to be in the dimmer part of the circuit, I'd fix it quick and avoid larger fuses.

The actual path for the circuit is (I believe) from the headlight switch down to taillight fuse, up up to the dimmer in the headlight switch, then down to the instr illum fuse then back up to the dash (instrument cluster) and other dimmed lights. One of those scratch your head and wonder why the heck they wired it that way, type of circuits.

 

[FloridaCherokee1988]

I know these things can be a bit of a headache if you're not used to Jeeps. (I was strictly a Ford man before I caught the Jeep bug when I saw my XJ lol)
I just replaced the pull out headlight switch on my 88' XJ, I had no idea that you had to push a small button on the switch to release the pull out nob so you could unplug the switch from underneath the dash. Just some of those things you gotta get used too I guess.