I have a 1996 grand jeep Cherokee 4.0 4x4 . My 16 year old daughter was driving down town columbus ohio at 5 am . Pulled over to call home and tell me she forgot her wallet. Shut it off and it won't start back . All windows work. Heater ,headlight, turn signal , radio. .. everything works but won't start back . No grinding or noise at all when trying to start. .. NO SOUND ST ALL. Tried to Jumpstart. No luck . Tried tapping starter with hammer. .. no luck . . Replaced battery. ..no luck... siloniod...no luck ...help I'm stuck ....... thank you

 

Going out on a limb here as I know little on the '96, I want to suggest the Auto Shut Down (ASD) relay, assuming the '96 has one. Look for it in the Power Distribution Center (PDC). The PDC is a black box under the hood with a removable lid. The underside of the PDC lid has a map of what's in there. Pull the ASD relay (might be tough at first tug - wiggle & pull), tap it gently then restore it into the socket. If that doesn't work then swap it with a similar relay from another socket (there may be more than one like it in there). The auto part store should have them in stock. Good luck.

 

Automatic transmission? Try starting it in neutral, issue could be with a NSS, Neutral Safety Switch.

 

BINGO! Just what I thought. My 97 sometimes wouldn't start unless you pressed the shift lever hard toward park or slammed it into park, but it would start in neutral. Actually in neutral you had to play with the position of the lever before it would crank.

 

Same thing happened to my 97 GC lol.