my buddy has a 99 cherokee and the spedo and all his gauges went wacky when he started it and it didn't start right away either and now it starts but no gauges at all. ANYONE GOT AN IDEA????? i told him mabe his guages just went out but that seems a little odd.

Is the guage cluster dead, or just no guage movement? Are there any lights on? The 97+ CHEROKEES use a mechanical/electronic guage cluster. All of the information that it displays is transmitted over 2 wires for the SCI bus in that year. A short anywhere in that bus line will cause the guages to go out, and could also cause it to not shift.

everything is good except the speedo and tach.

If that's the case, i would say the guage cluster needs replaced. Everything in the cluster is read from 2 wires and the EMIC module breaks the signal down and moves the guages. A simple test is to hold the trip reset button in and turn the key on, after about 5 seconds it should go into a self test mode and actauate the guages and all lights. If the speedo and tach don't work, but everything else does, then replace the cluster.

How is it shifting? The output shaft speed sensor will cause the tach/speedo to fail also. You may find it is sluggish to start off and it wont shift due to being in limp in mode. If it is not this then i agree on the others, either the cluster or the plug is bad on the back of it.

Just want to make sure that this is a CHEROKEE, and not a GRAND CHEROKEE. Do the test with the trip button, it works on all of the CHRYSLER products from 97+(up until 01 I know for certain). This will tell you instantly if it is a cluster problem, or if you need to dive in elsewhere.

it's a grand cherokee, i told him to try the self test thing and he'll let me know. He said that it won't start right up sometimes, it will do nothing when he turns it over and he'll just let the key sit there and his dome light will go on then it will fire up.and when he comes to a stop sometimes he said the trans shifts hard ??? kinda weird.

Do the trip button test first, but it's starting to sound like a BCM issue. On the GRAND CHEROKEE the BCM(body control module) is pretty much the KING. And they have been known to fail.

I have a 1998 Cherokee since new, about two years into owning it, gauges did same thing, took it in. Was no shocker to dealer, said there was a TSB on it if I remember correctly. When I got it back, found some splatters of solder , so they must of had to repair or replace the connector.