Hello All,
I've got a mostly stock '99 Cherokee that refuses to start. Here's the run down:
Twice in past two weeks or so I've noticed to voltage gauge pegged out. I pulled over, shut it down, and restarted. Everything worked fine after that.

Thursday morning, in the rain, it acted like the battery was dead. A once over showed all switches and lights off but I though I may have left the radio on as it is possible to pull the key out while it is in the accessory position.

I had my wife pull her explorer over for a jump start. After leaving the cables hooked up for a minute or two I could start the Jeep but it would only stay running if I kept it over 1500 RPM or so. If I let it idle down it would die. I wound up getting a ride to work from my wife.

Friday I had a work thing and could not get to the Jeep. Finally today, I put the battery on a slow charge for 2 hours. Dropped it back in and nothing. I played around with that battery, checked all the fuses, grounds, battery cables etc. Tried it with a battery out of my old car and nothing. I did however discover this, and this is what makes it weird:
If I turn the ignition on, all the lights illuminate, the radio works, the interior lights work. If I then try to start it nothing happens, also none of the dash lights illuminate and the interior lights only glow slightly! Weird!

Has anyone ever run into this problem before?

Thanks in advance for your help! This looks like a great forum, I wish I had come across it sooner.
Thanks again!

 

I had one similar the ground rear the hood prop snapped
My positive cable wasn't tightened fully once and it would light everything up till I tried turning it over
And again after I had a tranny swap done he broke all the grounds and after a week of driving the whole eletrical system ****ed up

 

Grounds can be the root cause of many electrical gremlins. Refreshing grounds is NEVER a bad idea!

You can't just check or look at these grounds. You must remove, scrape, clean until shiny the cable/wire ends and whatever they bolt to. The one on the back corner of the head, and where it attaches to the firewall. Scrape the paint from the firewall. Best to replace that woven cable with a #4 or #2 gauge cable. You can attach the one end to the intake manifold if you would like.

Next go over to the engine dipstick tube stud. Remove the nut and clean the wire ends and scrape the block until shiny at the stud. Reattach tightly.

If you are so inclined, add at least a #6 cable from the negative terminal of your battery to one of the bolts on your radiator support. Scrape the paint off first.

 

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll go through the grounds tomorrow and let you know how it turns out.

Thanks again!

 

You guys were right, but Double Ought you nailed it! I went through the grounds and sure enough the ground in the inner fender snapped free when I tried to loosen it up. I managed to get it off by pulling the wheel well out and holding the "bracket" with a pair of channel locks while my lovely assistant turned the bolt. Cleaned everything up and mig welded it back into place. Works like a charm!

Thanks again fellas!