Hey guys, new to Jeep's and to this forum... I bought My Jeep (1998 XJ 4.0 Auto) a little less than a month ago. I'm still learning the ins and outs of them overall, as well as the common faults and problems they have. I bought my XJ to be a DD as well as have some trail duty. Unfortunatley, I have sunk pretty close to $600.00 into it in less than a month. I'd get into that more, but that's not my question at hand.... Currently, my Jeep will not start. I have been searching and searching for a possibile answer but have yet to find it. My jeep will NOT start using the ignition. My battery is good, and I JUST replaced the starter and starter solonoid. It was driving normally with NO issues, and then all of a sudden decided it did not want to start... I have checked fuses, relay's, and aligned the NSS so that the reverse lights come on when in reverse, but still no dice. I even bypassed the NSS by putting a safety pin through two of the wires by the harness on the firewall and had no luck. I should also note that the truck WILL run, I drove it home after replacing the starter (originally what I thought was wrong) by doing the screwdriver trick to jump a spark on the solonoid to get the starter to power up. It drove home just like normal, but when I got it home and parked it, tried to re start it, I got nothing yet again. Here is what I know...

-When I turn the key to start the car, I can hear the relay clicking
-My starter and solonoid should be good because they're brand new
-It WILL start if you jump a spark to the starter


Sorry if all that is kind of a cluster of information, I'm trying to tell you guys everything I know as of now... ANY thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

P.S. If you have a real gut feeling about a relay or fuse etc... that I already said i checked and think I may have screwed up checking it, say something. I can turn a wrench but I make mistakes like anyone else.

 

That would be my first guess. I've had it happpen more times than I can count, the culprit is the new part that I took out of the equation.

 

I'll check it out. I dont know alot about electrical and grounds and such, would I still be able to start it using the "screwdriver trick" i mentioned earlier if the solonoid was bad?

 

if you can start it by jumping the solinoid something not getting power, that's why ur able to jump it and it work. hope it helps and makes sence

 

Also, I forgot to mention the key has gotton reallllllly hard to turn in the ignition... the best way to describe it is that the steering wheel lock is on when it really isnt... you have to force it to get it out. I just took apart the colum, but didnt see anything out of the ordinary after taking off the bottom piece. I dont know what to look for with that, if that ends up being the problem I may take it to a shop that can replace the cylinder.

 

Replace your ignition switch

It is a elctrical component on top of the steering column but under your dash. Remove the lower piece of your dash panel. Then drop the steering column down. You have to remove the two arms and then the two bolts at the top. ONce you drop it down you will see the ignition switch. Those commonly burn up. Also it has a rod from your key igntion switch to the elec ignition switch and it is probably jammed up due to some corrosion or from melting.

They are pretty cheap to replace I have done mine on both Jeeps and they were in pretty bad shape when I pulled them out.

Just drop your steering column down some and you will see what I am talking about.

If it has melted some you may have to replace the connector side of the harness too. And I do believe they sell just a pig tail side of that harness also.

HTH (hope this helps)