Im working on a 97 Jeep Cherokee sport 4.0 4wd auto for a Friend, I just installed a 3" lift on it, I jumped it (had dead battery need's to be replaced) drove it around and backed it up to the shop and lifted the rear end, went to Jump it to turn it around to lift the front and cant get it to do anything. turn the Key on radio windshield wiper's and all will come on, head light's will come on. battery only showed 9.42V, so i hooked Jumper cable's up to it and it went to 13.87v which should be plenty, still got nothing. turn the key over and nothing, starter wont engage or spin. I can hear the fuel pump cycle in and all. So i took the starter out hooked it up to jumper cable's just like it is hooked up under the jeep and ran a small wire to the Key post(spall terminal on the starter solenoid "exciter wire") and Starter engages and turn's over fine, so i jumped under it to put the starter back in but before i did checked my reading's at the starter, had a little over 13v where it bolt's to the starter. but im getting nothing to the wire that goes to the ignition switch when someone is setting in the Jeep turning the keey over to the start position. I put the starter back in, wiggled the shifter around in P and then switched it to N and tried cranking again, wont start in either. I checker all Fuse's and put in the Optima Battery out of my Comanche that start's it fine and checker out fine. Im guessing it's a NSS but how do i check it to see if that's the issue? or could it be the Ignition switch? how do i go about checking/testing it?

I will be running a 10 or 12g wire down to the starter from the battery to the starter to see if it will crank sometime this week when i get a chance to work on it again, so that i can atleast move it out of the way since i have to get to work on my other truck's

Thanks for any help in advance!

 

anyone??

 

Do the reverse lights work?

 

might be a bad ground to the starter somewhere otherwise i think that the NSS switch is my only other thought, aside from a brand new starter.

 

Starter tested out good (i did a back yard test on it) but Idk if the reverse light's will work or not, would they work if the truck wont crank at all?.. like i said when i get a chance im gonna try to bypass the key to start it just to move it around. but leaving for work at 5am and not getting home tell 6pm kinda limit's me on light ot work with, or wanting to work on it at all when i get home.

 

got home a few minutes before light today, hooked a wire to the small post on the starter that goes to the key, turned the key on then hooked the other end of the wire to the battery and it fired right up, got my younger brother to put it in reverse while i watched the rear light's and it has no reverse light's, guess that confirms it is the NSS? is it normal for it to go out like that with no warning?

 

It's probably not "out" it just needs to be disassembled & cleaned, a quick search of the site will show you how. Good luck.

 

alright, gonna have to look into that then. gotta get this thing outta the way got 2 other truck's to work on and race season start's in about 3 weeks.