My neighbor is having an issue with his '98 Cherokee. Someone cut the two wires going to the ignition coil connector, to prevent the vehicle from running. My neighbor was able to twist the wires back together and get the engine to start.

Shortly after that, the engine died and he lost all power (no lights or gauges). I spliced the two cut wires back together for him, and we were able to get the dash lights to come on. He thought the battery was bad, and replaced it with a new one, and the engine started again.

About four hours later, he tried to start the truck, and the new battery was dead; the starter clicked and then he lost all power. Even after jump-starting the new battery, we can't get it running again.

I'm at a loss for figuring out what could be wrong with this Jeep. I don't know if the wires could have touched and damaged the PCM (I have a wiring diagram that shows one of them going directly into the PCM). The RUN/START fuse, in the under hood fuse box, was blown and we replaced it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Some additional information:

We recharged the battery, and when my neighbor turned the key to run, all of the dash lights and gauges come on, but when he turned it to start, all of the lights die. After that, none of the lights or instruments would come on in run or accessory.

He then disconnected the battery terminals and reconnected them, without recharging the battery, and the dash lights and gauges came back on. But the same thing happened when he tried to start the engine; everything shut off and wouldn't come back on.

After my neighbor tried disconnecting and reconnecting the terminals for a third time, the battery went dead. I was monitoring it with a DVOM, and the battery showed 12.59 volts with the terminals disconnected. After they were reconnected, the battery shows 0.01 volts; I double checked this reading several times, and even tested a known good battery to make sure the DVOM was working.

 

If that is true, then the battery is junk. To be sure, charge it overnight and then have it load tested at the parts store.

 

We've switched the battery out again, and put into another vehicle and that car is running fine (started up immediately).

We replaced the positive battery cable and that seems to have fixed the issue for now. Whatever the problem is, it seems to be intermittent.