Today I went out and started the Jeep letting it warm up some. I opened the hatch and while I was in the back it died. With the hatch still open I went and started it. The gas gauge was pegged past E and it would barely run. I closed the hatch and tried again. Now the gauge goes up and it runs fine. I went and ran some errands to see if it would act up anymore and it didnt. I was playing with it when I got home and then when I opened the hatch the gauge actually went up. I was playing with it trying to get it to do it again. While I had the hatch open I had someone put their foot on the brake and most of the time the gauge would just go down some but one time the gauge went all the way down and it started sputtering. Closing the hatch and lifting off the brake made it go back up and start idling normal. Now my third brake light hasnt been working. I noticed it stopped one day after I was in the back. I had some issues with the hatch not wanting to latch and I think I might have broken the bulb or knocked something loose inside. Could that shorting somewhere and be affecting apparently the pump and the gauge?

 

Interesting, lets see so, what it comes down to is your hatch open has something to do with it running rough and the gas gauge, I mean anythings possible, but this is weird, all those wires go to the ECM, and thats the only place they should meet its by the drivers kick,

http://www.the12volt.com/installbay/...eard/Jeep.html

You can find your wiring there, however this doesnt seem like the type of thing that would come from nowhere. Have you installed anything latley?

 

Think I figured it out today. I was going back and checking all the wiring in the third brake light and where I installed some auxillary reverse and I found that I either left or it came loose the ground where I attached the ground for my reverse lights. With it running I removed the screw and wire and the tail lights went out and the truck started sputtering and I couldnt hear the pump running. I guess that ground is for the tails, the pump and the gauge. I guess since it was loose maybe when I pressed on the brake the brake lights were robbing the ground source from the pump and since the strut pushes on the trim it was probably moving the wire when I raised the hatch. So make sure you check everything after you wrap up a project and always go back and re-check it after a week or so.