RagTop69

My son has a 2004 Grand Cherokee with the 6 cyl. engine. He called me today to tell me the thing won't start. It will click the solenoid, but it won't crank. He has lights and all electircals working. My telephone diagonsis was initially the starter has taken a dump, but he mentioned that the last time it did this out in the middle of nowhere, he wiggled the battery cable and the Jeep fired up. Didn't work this time. I recalled a similar problem with my late stepfather's 72 Mercury Montego. It would click the solenoid, but it wouldn't crank. I replaced the starter and found that the old one would spin like mad when connected to a spare battery in the shop. Turned out to be the nice, shiny red positive cable. The thing had separated on the underside of the crimp to the post connector and you couldn't see it on visual. Anyway, my kid has had nothing but electrical problems with this Jeep, from failed brake lights to windows that won't work. Is this another of the "standard" Jeep problems? Does anyone have any suggestions or similar experiences to share? Damn, I hate electrical problems!

Willys55

check the wires in the driver door sock(black hose between door and door jamb, broken wires in there cause all kinds of thing s not to work.....and on a side note....get the engine started yet?

RagTop69

He became painfully aware of the black hose between the door and the jamb when his power windows, interior lights and various other electricals stopped working some years back. Wow. These Jeeps have really fragile and poorly designed electricals, don't they? It's almost like owning a British car. He tells me that he took the battery over to WalMart and it registered 11 volts. They replaced it without charge, but he still hasn't installed the new one in the car yet. I'm thinking that 11 volts aught to be enough to crank the engine. He told me last night that he had wiggled the battery lead some more and smacked the starter (I hate it when people do two things and confuse the outcomes) and the thing fired, but the starter really groaned while slowly kicking over. That leads me to think it might be a combination of things, including the starter, weak battery and corroded leads. Damn, I hate electrical problems!

Bustedback

11 volts is not enough to power the starter, fuel pump, and ignition system. The battery is most likely dropping below 9 volts while cranking the engine over, maybe lower if the starter is on its way out. As far as the electrical systme being fragile, it's no different from any other American made vehicle. The problem is that the drivetrain is so good that it out lasts the electrical system. I see a lot more Jeeps lasting well over 200k miles than I see Explores or Blazers lasting that long.