recently acquired a 1996 4.0 cherokee sport, manual, 96,000 mi

it doesn't seem to like to start every time, randomly
ill turn the key and 'click' simultaneously with the parking brake light coming on


tried every combination of in gear-clutched, neutral in/out, neutral diff, 4wd, 2wd. brake up, brake down. nothing seems to make a difference

starter looks quite new, seems to get oil dripped onto it here and there, cleaned it, nothing different. made a note to fix

new battery - nothing different (it was due regardless)

distributer cap seems used up - will replace

new park plugs - no difference in starting — improved running (duh)

sometimes even it will fire up, run rough along with the gas pedal goes unresponsive, then stalls

haven't checked TPS or NSS

i park on a hill and compression start when i get fed up from trying to start it. again sometimes it fires right up, no real difference if its warmed up or cold


any insight would be helpful, have been checking most posts related to my problem but it seems as though my problem is peculiarish

 

Does it crank when you turn the key?

 

nope, the starter refuses to engage sometimes

 

Clean and tight battery connections, clean and tight starter connections, clean and tight ground connection?

When it's not starting you can try jumping the starter terminals to try narrowing down a bad starter or system issue.

 

Does the 'click' come from the area of the starter? Will it click every time you turn the key? If so, the starter solenoid is engaging but the starter motor is not turning. That might be a ground issue or maybe the positive lead from the battery.

If that click does not happen at the starter, then it could be a few other things... Since you say the parking brake light comes on, that might be something to do with the neutral starter switch, but I don't know about that as much as some of the other folks around here...

 

from what i can gather it definitely comes form the area of the starter

i will for sure bone up on 'grounds' and clean/tighten things up, we'll see what happens

 

Having the same problem with mine. Doing the battery terminal cleanings tomorrow. At the end of the day, if I have any more no starts, I'll replace the starter.

 

One of the grounds for some of that up-front wiring is on the left inner fender well.

There is an engine starter relay in the power distribution center, on the right side, aft of the battery. Maybe that relay is intermittent etc...

 

So it turned out that all the grounds were nice and pretty, lopped off the old pos terminal, slapped on a new one.
Scrubbed the hell out of the positive connection before attaching a new starter motor ( solenoid worked fine , motor failed )
New dist cap and rotor - DUI replacemt cap and rotor
spark plugs and wires - champ copper plus & DUI livewires
Starts right up and runs beautifully
Thanks for all the help

@gravenorthwest