Afternoon everyone,

Well, I went to take my old gal to work this morning and when I turned on the ignition switch I got power as usual; gauges lit up, doors, dinged, everything. When I turned the key to initiate the starter motor - nothing. I tried a couple of times and same result. I noticed something kind of similar happening the other day, but after trying again, it started no problem. I'm thinking that maybe the little rod in the column may have bent? Is there a way to test this or check? Can you buy just the rod? Any other thoughts?

I'd greatly appreciate it any insight!

S/F,

-Matt

 

As I have recently learned, the ignition switch in older XJ's seem to "catch fire" a little bit and it melts the plastic plug and switch so the connection gets messed up. You can try that.

 

Have you checked the neutral safety switch? It sounds similar to an NSS problem. Try pushing the shifter up and then starting it again. A lot of times if the NSS is dirty, just wiggling the shifter, or pushing forward on it will get the contacts to - well, make contact - and allow the Jeep to start.

Try wiggling the shifter and, if it starts, you need to clean the NSS

Here's a decent how-to video on it...

 

Oh haha totally forgot about the NSS. Try that first. It's actually much easier to get to in my opnion.

 

Thank you both. The NSS does need a cleaning, I'm sure. I've had to "tap" it once in park basically since I bought the vehicle so that the key will release from the ignition. I'll check both again to see if one of those two items have failed me. I'm assuming it's pretty tough to bend that rod? It looks significantly stiffer than the one that got bent in my '75 International Scout II - that little bugger was like a coat hanger - I don't know how it lasted 40 years to begin with.

 

Well.... I don't know how hard they are to bend, but I've never heard of it happening, so I wouldn't COMPLETELY rule it out, but I'd say it would be pretty rare. My gut tells me it's the NSS.