I have an unmodified '99 XJ that I'm fixing up for my son for his first car. I was replacing the distributor, rotor, wires and plugs. Got a little confused about wire placement, but found a distributor diagram and put everything where it should be. Got everything buttoned up, went into the car to start it. As soon as I turned it over, the whole jeep died. No electrical power at all. Checked several fuses in the fuse box for the battery and starter, and everything was ok. Looked at the distributor cap and saw that the wire from the center cap to the coil had popped off at the coil. I could have sworn that I plugged that in, but it was off. Plugged the wire into the coil, but still have no electrical power to the jeep at all. I guess there must be a fuse blown in the battery cabling itself, but I don't see it. Any suggestions on what I should look for next? I've attached the wring diagram that I used for the distributor if that helps.

 

I think I would go back to basics and inspect the voltage at the battery first. This might be a coincidence as distributor replacement should not cause main power failure.

 

After checking the voltage of the battery (its a new one and read 12.8V) as well as checking all of the main fuses, I found out that I had poor connection at the positive battery terminal. Cleaned it up and worked like a charm. Thanks cruiser54!