Battery cable upgrade
 

Last night my wife called and said she could not start her 1999 4.0 Cherokee. I go over to where she is stranded and she says that the Cherokee tried to start then did nothing. Key is not buzzing in the ignition. I test the battery and 12.6 volts was there. Next is the typical wiggle the wires because that is the standard fix for anything when your wife is watching, even a flat tire. Of course it worked and she drove it home. Got it home and shut it off and it would not start again. I checked the terminals and they looked ok. Did the wire wiggle and threw a shimmy in for my wife’s enjoyment and she started right up. The Cherokee not my wife😀 So I am thinking of an upgrade for the battery cables and other attendant wires.
My question is who is a good supplier for these cables. I would like them to be already made with the terminals attached and model specific. I clicked on the only link I found here and was directed to a defunct site. Thanks for your suggestions!

This is strange, that big fat battery cable could not supply enough juice to even allow the ignition buzzer to operate. Yet by a fantastic miracle , a little jiggle and suddenly that cable can supply enough juice to run the starter. You have some healing hands! Are you a doctor? hahahaha!

I dont think you need an upgrade, as stock wires should work. A bit more diagnosis maybe in order rather than toss the stock wires and upgrade with upgraded wires. Once you find the problem, a stock sized replacement should be fine.

Did you only wiggle the battery cable? which one? some jeeps have a relay panel next to battery with many wires, did those get wiggled too?

Perhaps you have dirty or loose battery post clamps? clean them up. How about the ground cable which goes to engine block, did that get wiggeled? maybe the ground point on the block is loose? That ground is critical for starter operation. additionally there is a braided cable from rear of head to the fire wall, up high near cowl. that cable is critical as it supplies ground to about everything else that uses the body as a ground source.

Before spending bucks on pricey upgrades, how about using a meter and test for voltage drops when high starter is cranking, or when the high beams are turned on? You may simply have a loose connection, or maybe one of the smaller wires is the issue?


Many a autoparts store sell cables with clamps and ring terminals in a variety of lengths,, you need not try to source stock. beware however of the cheapest red chinese stuff, make sure it is good stuff.

But for me , Id do a bit more diagnostics to pinpoint the bad part rather than shot gun it and upgrade a bunch of wires, stock capacity wires should be good enough, with one glaring exception, that braided ground strap from head to body is a bit marginal, that is a good wire to upgrade in general, or at least to make sure it is clean and tight.
See Cruiser54 website on cherokees, Cruiser 54 explains the body ground strap upgrade in great detail. I am not saying that is your issue here with the starter, but it is a known weak link in the system.

good luck, jiggle away!

Haven't used them myself, but the 4-gauge kit at https://jeepcables.com/xj-big-7-comp...herokee-87-01/ looks decent and is reasonably priced at $105.

If i remember back a while when i was looking....there are no "stock" plug and play replacements .....meaning you cant go to auto zone or advance and buy a set that will just bolt in.

I will get in there tomorrow and check all my ground wires and make sure they are tight and clean.
To check for voltage drop on the starter I would place my meter probes on the positive and negative terminals while it was cranked and see what the meter reads?

to test the voltage drop, place positive voltmeter probe on positive battery post. place negative probe on the positive terminal on starter, then crank, take volt reading while cranking. This will tell you how many volts are lost along the path between the positive battery post and postive starter terminal. Then repeat using the negative probe on the negative post, and positive probe on the negative starter terminal. This value will be the volts lost thru the negative wire from battery to starter. In a perfect world, the wire will be a perfect conductor, with zero volts lost.

while cranking, wiggle the wires again, see if you can recreate the problem.

anyway that is a voltage drop test, it is very specific, it tests the length of the wire, and its connection to the terminal very well.

you can also test the drop between the post and the battery clamp by putting the volt probes on it, one probe on the post, the other on the clamp, then crank away and read volts. You got to have the load running to make this test. likewise you can test the drop to the headlights, or other things. you can check either the positive or negative side.
note that with a digital meter, you dont have to be concerned with reversing the probes, as the digital display will compensate with a minus sign if reversed, however if you have a standard analog meter, get it right, else the meter can be pegged backwards if reversed, causing meter damage

I would guess it is quite possible for the battery cables to be original and therefore I would recommend replacing them. I bought some off the shelf At Oreilly's back when for about $50 and they worked fine. The only one I remember was BAT + to STARTER + was 51". I cut the ends off the other wire at the top and bottom of the harness it was in and just taped it to the rest of the wires in the harness. There used to be several people on the different jeep sites who sold made up sets for over $100

Remove, clean, and reinstall.

It has been my experience that when you get to the "twist the terminal and it works stage", it's because the wire is severely corroded inside the insulation where you can't see it and twisting the terminal breaks up the corrosion just enough to allow it to work, until one day when it doesn't...

I had a weird starting issue mysrlf. The terminals were worn out. I ended up upgrading to the jeepcables 4g kit. Replaced all the wires/grounds. I went and scuffed up all of the ground locations too just to be sure.

Here is an update of what I did for the issue. I tried to check for voltage drop but really did not get much.Maybe a couple of tenth’s of a volt. I may have not been doing it correctly. I cleaned all the grounds of the Jeep going to the firewall and block. The battery terminals looked nice and clean, but I noticed the negative cable wire looked a little bit “dusty”. I took the clamp apart where the wire is attached to the clamp and that area had some corrosion. I wire brushed that area and the wires too. Got the wire nice and bright instead of the dull dusty look. The wire may have slight corrosion along the interior. They seem to be the original ones. I did the same with the positive side. The contacts on the relay, fuse box wire were wire brushed too. It was starting up fine yesterday no hesitation in starting and had power as soon as the key was inserted in the ignition.
Thanks for all y’all’s help.

Good old fashioned maintenance. Nicely done.