Took My 96 XJ out four wheelin on saturday for the Johnson Valley Poker Run in Ca, handled great no issues what so ever, nothing broke. Came home sunday washed it and right after that it wouldnt start, fiddled with the starguard security chip, but that wasnt it, battery was good, only a couple of months old. After that I put it into neutral and started right up, and wouldnt start in any other position. But this mourning it wouldnt start in any gear I shifted in. I firgured that the neutral safety switch may have gone bad, and was shocked to find autozone had it for $183.99. I looked on the forum search how to adjust it but no one really gave a useful how to. Today I took the neutral safety switch apart, cleaned it and put it back on and played with it and now it only starts in between neutral and drive. My question is, Is the switch bad or do I not have it adjusted completely right?

 

It does sound like your neutral safety switch, but know that adjustment of that switch is very important.

Here is a link to an article that gets into that...Good luck!

http://go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoNSSrebuild.htm

 

Was going to try adjusting it but now it starts up every time, so far, in park, like it is suppost to, hopefully it works from now on.

 

Your NSS adjustment is probably just marginal enough to be intermittent. Keep that link handy about cleaning/adjusting as this problem will almost assuredly return in the future.

 

my 1992 did the same thing. at the rear of the head you can find the plug for the harness, in the haynes book you can see which terminals need to be connected to always "see" it safe to start. i put a piece of wire in my and closed the plug and it jumped out the circuit. now it thinks all is safe.

 

You can bypass the neutral safety switch, but then you lose the reverse lights, the safety benefits that the switch is designed to provide, along with the possibility of seeing certain transmission symptoms, especially dealing with overdrive.

I have bypassed the NSS to troubleshoot the problem, but if confirmed, I either rebuild the NSS or replace it if rebuilding it isn't successful.

 

It could just be coincidence, but my NSS went out about a yr. ago, so I bypassed it, and then my transmission problems really started. First the tranny computer deal behind the dash on the pass side went out, so I unplugged it and shifted it manually for about 3-4 months, then my transmission went out completely.
So... if you have the $, I'd HIGHLY recommend replacing the NSS if it goes out again.