Chrysler Repair: 95 Jeep Wrangler Cluster Gauges dont work, data communication system, digital data communication

Question
Tach, Speedometer, oil, gas etc..gauges do not operate...but all gauge lights work, there are no blown fuses, under dash or under hood...but the radio, lights, wipers,turn signals all work...What do I check next?

Answer
Hi Edgar,
As stated in my "expertise" claim, I don't have specifics on the Jeep line of vehicles. But based on similar Chrysler designs, the gauges you mention that don't work are those that are handled on the digital data communication system (bus) which shares this information around the vehicle to intergrate the functions. The dash is mainly a recipient of information and doesn't generate or send out information but nonetheless it requires digitized data that arrives on a pair of wires at the cluster to operate. It is likely that if nothing else is malfunctioning then either that set of wires is impaired or the voltage supply to the cluster that is needed to deal with the data is impaired. I would therefor suggest that you take a look at the cluster where the incoming wires are grouped in one or two plugs that attach to hard-wired sockets on the cluster board. There are common reports about some Chrysler vehicles of exactly this type of problem where the cause was found to be a cracked electrical connection at the socket-to-board interface (a "cold" solder joint). One common approach is to use a soldering pencil to reheat all the solder joints between each socket pin and the corresponding shiny metal trace to which it is soldered so as repair any such faulty electrical joint. So that would be my best suggestion as to what to check next. I am sorry that I can't give you specific of how to dismantle the dash to get to the cluster board but there may be a Haynes or similar publisher shop manual and certainly a corporated published manual would describe the process. eBay often has these for sale on auction so do a search for "'95 Jeep shop manual" in the autos category.
Best of luck on solving this one. One quick and dirty check would be to rap on the dash over the cluster to see if it jars the connection back into service, but that is not an official recommendation from me.
Roland