i have a 98 cherokee xj noticed one of my tail lights was out about a week or two ago so i replaced the bulb. this did not work so i checked all of my fuses they were all fine. a friend of mine suggested to hardwire my working running light over to the bad one. this resulted in a burnt fuse so i put a slightly larger fuse in which made all of my running lights go out along with my gauge lights. from other threads on here i found that it was probably a bad headlight switch. so i replaced that. flipped it on still didnt work. found a burnt fuse in the panel near the battery so i replaced that. i am completely stumped now and i absolutely hate electrical problems. any suggestions/help would be great. thanks

 

I am in a similar boat my friend. I noticed a dim courtesy light and when I was replacing them I stuck a knife in there to scrape out some dried bulb grease like an idiot and made contact, sparks flew but nothing appeared to be damaged. I replaced both lights and noticed that my instrument panel lights weren't working. I figured it was just a fuse a struggled to drive home in the dark not knowing exactly how fast I was going. Anyway, fast forward a couple days of work and not driving much I decided to look in the owner's manual and replace the fuse. I believe in was no.6 5amp in the panel. Well, still no gauge lights and after searching the forum I checked and sure enough no tail lights or license plate light. My headlights and brake lights are fine, all signals and flashers work. I replaced the headlight or as some have said dimmer switch (plunger light deal, on left side) and yeah...still no better on the light situation. Looking for any help here!!!