Hello Fellow Cherokee fans,

Im having an issue with my 99 Cherokee classic I6 Auto. I put on a set of aux lights (KC's) with the switch on the center console. Well the switch has been left on a couple times and drained the battery twice, the first time i jumped the jeep and it started up no issues. Today my wife had the jeep and accidentally turned the lights on as well. Her and co worker tried jumping the jeep again, this time with no result. The guy who put the jumper cables on the jeep did not notice that he put the + cable on the - terminal of his car but hooked them up correctly on my jeep. I was not around for any of this so i'm going by what i was told. They told me when they tried to start the jeep some wires and the power distribution block smoked alittle. So I left work and got over to jeep.
When i got there i hooked up my jumper cables and got the jeep started....but the battery would not charge. So i pulled the battery and got it tested, and charged at autozone. The battery is good so i put it back in the jeep and tried to start it again....no result
When i turn the key to on the electrical cooling fan automatically kicks on and none of the gauges move, and I do not hear the fuel pump kick on. The jeep will crank all day but will not turn over.
My question is could hooking up the jumper cables backward hurt the electrical system of the jeep. I feel like a relay is stuck open or something. Thank you for any help you guys can give and sorry for the lengthy post

 

Unfortunately yes it is a bad thing to hook up the cables backwards, everyone is lucky the battery didn't explode. Something has fried, hopefully it's just a fusible link (not sure if they have them on our jeeps) but it could be really bad, I hope not. Good luck! Coach