87 XJ6 Instrument Problem

[Michael J.]

Went over a bump and the Tach, battery guage and Oil Pressure Guage stopped working. I can't find a loose or disconnected connector. Is this a ground problem? Speedometer, fuel guage and water temp guage still work fine.

I'm baffled

 

[Exotexs]

you may have a loose ground behind the dash or somewhere else. remove the speedo and tach, (they are easily removed by pushing them in and turning them counter-clockwise), get your hand through both openings behind the dash and try to find two ground looms, one on the right side of the right opening, one on the left above the oil gauge. make sure they are tight.
Check all fuses are tight.

 

[Michael J.]

Found the problem.

The three guages all use a single wire harness connector with about 10 pin locations in it. The female pin was deformed so that the male pin slid beside and not into the tube portion of the female pin. The female pin came loose, no power to the guages.

I used an awl to reshape the pin and reinsert the pin into the connector. works fine now.

 

[Exotexs]

obviously someone messed it up. For my car, I decided to try and get a european headlights switch from the UK before doing the Relay mod, which will be the last resort if I can't get a decent switch for little money. I just don't want to add more wiring and relays if I can avoid it. We'll see.