Hey guys, I’m a newbie here but anyways I got a 99 Cherokee sport 4.0 that recently died on me. Been trying to diagnose the problem for a month now and figured I’d just ask rather than sift through thousands of pages of battery and starting issues.

So so since I bought the car it had always had this issue on start up, the process would be very drawn out and laggy, sometimes would be turning the engine over for 10 seconds before it fired up. Finally one day it just didn’t do anything. I don’t drive it much so thinking the batt was dead I pulled and charged that, but it was fine.

As as it sits, the car HAS power to everything, interior lights, radio, exterior lights, etc. however there is ZERO response when I turn the key, no clicking at all. I’ve read that the NSS can go bad in these and to try to start in neutral and when I do that I get the same results, jiggle shifter and all that.

Its worth me mentioning that it looks like the previous owner tried to remove the batt terminals with a hatchet... guys I’m not even kidding I don’t think I could do this much damage intentionally. But is the problem is as simple as replacing those?

Any input can help, I’ve already replaced my ENTIRE cooking system only to find out the culprit was a bad head gasket.. and that’s the last I’ll be going to that mechanic. Trust you guys more than that bozo