Hello all, I am brand new to the Jeep life after a friend sold me her 1999 XJ because she was moving out of the country. It needed a starter when I bought it. I replaced the starter and battery and everything was perfect for about 3 days. When I went to start it up recently, It would beep when I inserted the key, and would intermittently get power to the radio (aftermarket kenwood) and the horn would work, but if I turned the key to the run or start position, all power would be cut. Occasionally it would click the starter solenoid and then cut all power. If I try to turn on the headlights to the DRL position with the key out of the cylinder, it will beep until it is fully into that position. (about half way to drl). I started by cleaning the battery terminals which visually looked fine, and cleaned all of the grounds, which also looked fine. I also removed the starter again and cleaned the area which it grounds itself to the transmission. Verified all wires going to the starter are tight. I started up the jeep about 5 times in the autozone parking lot before I left and verified that battery voltage was good so I am doubtful that I received a junk battery.

Where should I go from here? All of the wires that I am seeing visually look ok, I verified 12 volts is going to the fuse box, and that all fuses are not blown. I am a Toyota service technician so I know a decent amount about cars but I am not a diagnostician. Any help would be very appreciated. I am considering shotgunning a big 7 kit to see if that fixes the problem, because it seems to me a wire might be making a connection enough to let the beeper beep but not allow enough current for anything else. I love this Jeep and I am glad to be part of the community.

If it is related, when I first got the jeep, it would not idle on its own after installing the starter, I would have to pedal it for a while before it would idle. I started it up about 10 times after that and it would idle again, but after a day or so I would have to do that again, if that information helps with diagnostics. I have also tried searching for threads and haven't really found anything I haven't tried yet.

 

Anybody? Today I swapped the battery out for a known good one that was in my truck, still the same, cleaned the terminals with a terminal brush again, and cleaned the block grounds and fender ground with a wire wheel. I removed the starter and bench tested it, worked good, and cleaned the mating surface for the starter on the transmission. Still the same. I verified I am getting source voltage at the starter solenoid from battery positive, but if I try to jump it with a screwdriver, there is nothing, not even sparks. I am at a loss at this point, not sure where to go from here.

 

Sounds like a classic poor connection between the battery and engine/frame. Start with the battery terminals. Clean the connections. Next examine the cables. If they are swollen near the battery terminals, replace them. Clean the battery cable ground and provide a clean connection. That should do it

 

I cleaned the terminals again to no avail, but I decided to cut off the old ground terminal, the ground wire was nasty on the inside, just got it temporarily rigged up with a new terminal but I ordered a big 7 kit to put in. I never thought to look under the sheathing this whole time because the terminals and the ground locations looked fine. Oh well, now I know.