having problems with jeep!

[Canadian Moose]

its not starting, the battery and ALT. were replaced on Feb.14th. i took the ALT., starter and battery to autozone to have them checked out. they checked out fine. so i replaced the ignition switch and the headlight switch today and still nothing. its a 93 xj W/ 4.0 Auto. any thoughts would be helpful! thanks

I had this same problem. To summarize... Everything powered on but I was get no noise from the starter. I "hot wired" it to confirm that the starter was fine. Then I proceed to clean the Neutral Safety Switch which fixed the problem.

Details here http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f11/...-power-but-wont-turn-over-947105/#post8693647

Good Luck :elkgrin:

 

[flnngabriel]

We just checked the igniton coil and it tested fine we also tested the starter soleniod as well........im not sure where to go from here.

 

[OverlandZJ]

overland, how do we do that?

Pull your starter. Hook jumper cables to your battery, ground to the bolt ear.. then touch positive to the stud where batt cable runs to on solenoid.

If it runs it's your batt cables or connection to batt.. pos or ground somewhere.

 

[bat]

If you get a clicking sound from the starter take a hammer and lightly tap on it while turning it over. You can get a flat spot on the starter and light tapping usually gets it move.

 

[Black Dog]

I too had the same problem once, but it was pretty random and sporadic. It wouldn't start some times (no clicks or anything) but others it would fire up perfectly. My dad helped me trouble shoot it and what he did was put the key in the "on" position so that he could put the tranny in drive or reverse, then roll it a tad and then kick it back up into park. Your starter is just an electric motor, and inside where the brushes contact the commutator my dad suspected that the little point or whatever it is called where the brush sends power to the coil in the comm was bad. So by rolling the vehicle and jamming it into park it turned the commutator in the starter a little bit and the brushes were touching it in a different place. The couple of times it has done it to me since then I've done what he told me and it started up right away after that. So the fix for this problem would be to replace the starter.

 

[ColoCherokees]

FWIW, I've had starters, alternators and batteries that all "tested good" at a parts place, and turned out to be not so good - take the Autozone "test" results with a large grain of salt.

My '96 XJ had a no-start condition similar to yours a couple years ago - the "tests" indicated batt, alt and starter were all fine. The batt was a few years old, so I gambled on a new one - no dice. Problem was the starter - wish I'd known about the above mentioned starter/jumper cable test back then!

 

[flnngabriel]

thank you to all!

thank you to all for your help. we got it fixed:wings:. turned out to be the starter. but then there was a conection that had come loose underneath the steering colum. but everthing is good now. we replaced the igintion switch, and the headlight switch as well.

 

[BIGdaddy]

yay!! good on ya!

glad it was something fairly common/simple. (tough/frustrating as it might have been to diagnose..haha!)

 

[HenryKrinkle]

There is also a major ground near the oil filter. This may not cause a no-start situation, but it has been known to cause other sensor problems. Just make sure it's clean and tight.
With electric motors like starters, wiper motors, etc you can tap them with a hammer (not super hard). This help dislodge the spinning part that binds up. Ideally you'd just replace the motor, but it can work if you're in a pinch...

 

[Mr. Leary]

Glad you got it figured out. Jeeps can be a little weird sometimes. I worked on a YJ one time that would not start because the O2 sensor was unplugged.

 

[Root Moose]

Ha! That IS weird!