Hi everyone,

Hope all is well! Have a starting issue that is completely puzzling me. Went to start up my Cherokee yesterday, which I recently replaced the starter about 3 weeks ago, and all it did was just a repetitive clicking noise from the starter area. All lights and dash come on without any issues.

First thought was the battery. So I attempted to jump it, no dice. Went and had the battery tested, they said it was a little old but had a full charge and nothing wrong with it. Since they said it was a little old, I went ahead and just bought a new battery. Put in the new battery, same deal. Since I just bought the starter I went ahead and pulled it and went to have it tested. They said it tested fine, but did sound a little funny, but nothing out of the ordinary, so they went ahead and just gave me a replacement. Put in the new one, same situation. Went ahead and replaced the starter power cable, same thing. Checked the voltage using + from battery and the body of the car and it's getting 12.5-12.68. Thought about the starter relay, so I pulled it out and swapped it with a relay from another spot and same clicking noise.

So to recap what I've done:

- Attempted to Jump It
- Swapped out the Starter
- Replaced Battery, since it was old
- Replaced Starter Battery/Power cable
- Starter is getting 12.6v using a multimeter
- Made sure crankshaft was able to turn.

Anything else I may be missing? My feelings are that it's a power issue, but I don't know what else to check.

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

Check connections for tightness and cleanliness, and the ground wires are often neglected as a culprit.

 

Rotten cables maybe. You measured the voltage to the starter while trying to crank it?

 

Thanks! This was the issue. I cleaned up the ground connections at the block, top of the block and jumper on the side next to the battery, as well as replaced the negative cable from the battery to the block. It started up immediately and sounds a lot better!

Thank you again!

- Dan