Folks,

Any insights into the following problem would be much appreciated. Quick background. I’ve had my 1990 “stock” Jeep Wrangler in and out of my local Jeep dealer’s shop for about 8 weeks on and off now. It originally went in to have a new hydraulic clutch “slave” cylinder replaced. That done, I had them check out a sound coming off of the passenger side axle area. They replaced the front u-joints hub and bearings. Then we started experiencing a sound coming from the engine bay. It was determined that I now had a leak in my exhaust manifold. They admitted they had to remove the manifold to get to the “slave cylinder”. They replaced the down pipe but the problem persisted. Now they determined that I had a crack in the actual manifold. They installed a new manifold and had the intake “planed” due to a warp issue. I picked in up again and now my temp gauge is not working. It either registers no temp or the needle rapidly jumps back and forth erratically. Additionally over the course of the weekend when I drove it, it just cut off when I came to a stop at a couple of intersections and once on the highway when I had to sit in traffic due to an accident. It started to hesitate and unless I pressed the accelerator pedal it just shut off. Back to the dealer we go. This time I note that there is what appears to be a sensor protruding from the right hand side of the manifold that has two wires going into it, one of the wires has been severed. They just called to say they replaced the “sensor” but the gauge is still doing the same thing. I’ve never had any “temp gauge” problems until they replaced the manifold. I’ve never had the vehicle just “cut” off before. Is there any correlation between the manifold and the temp gauge and or the “cut off problem. In other words could their work have created the problem? Secondly if the sensor is not the problem, (they just installed a new one) where else should I be looking. It goes without saying that this has gone from mildly annoying to mind numbingly frustrating and expensive. I don’t want to just pick it up again when I suspect the problem is going to continue and they are to some degree responsible. Any ideas or suggestions.

Thanks
Christopher T. Brown
ct1brown@yahoo.com

just my inexpert opinion, but could it be air in the cooling system?

i would be tempted to take it to another shop.  have the current shop document all the work that they have done.

you could ask for an estimate ... just to get to the bottom of the problem, then go back to the first shop with the information.

just my 2 cents.

Pete

Pete,

Thanks for the input. That might be worth a try if all else fails. As you probably know most of the shops are not particularly interested in vehicles of this age. They would much rather work in the newer models. As the dealer keeps saying "well its got some miles and everytime we work on one thing something else goes wrong" Hey Mr. Dealer that is exactly why I brought into a "Jeep" dealer, I would have thought you hand the inhouse experince to figure out "Jeep" specific issues. Anyway don't let me get started. Nonetheless I did find the following thread on another site, that might be worth a try. Hopefully it will work and this tread will be of value to  other jeep owners who experience the same problem. I'll try it and report back.

-ctb-
--------------------
Gauge Problems
I finally ripped apart my gauge cluster on my 89' Wrangler today to find out what was wrong with all the gauges that had been going bad.

It all started when my temp gauge got a little flaky, but I
couldn't bear it when my oil pressure gauge pegged itself a week ago, and hadn't moved since.  I knew that I wasn't getting too much oil pressure, because with the car on but with the engine not running it would still peg itself in the Ignition accessory position. The temp gauge would work when it wanted to, and sometimes you could "tap" the gauge to get it to work (This also made it clear that it wasn't the sending unit!). I took the gauges apart, and on the back of the gauge cluster there is a piece of plastic that has brass paths on it to give power to the gauges (Kind of like a flexible Circuit board).

Since all the connectors to the gauges were brass, they had
corroded being out in the elements all these years.  I took some fine sandpaper and sanded all the connectors on the gauges down, and also the connector to the gauge cluster itself.  All the gauges have rocker arms to hold them in place and to also clamp the plastic into the contacts of the gauge. If you do perform this surgery, be sure to remove all the "rockers" and gauges, and file everything that is exposed brass.  DO NOT file too much though, you could easily file through the plastic. I put it all back together and it all works fine...

Ryan Bradford Neily

---------

I had the same problem with my 89 Wrangler.  I got a replacement
wire filament (or whatever you would call it, the plastic sheet
with all the wire paths) from the dealer for about 10 bucks.
Took less than fifteen minutes to install.  If you're having
probs with your gauges, take a look at the plastic wire sheet, it
may be worn or melted.

Brad Baker