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'96 GC won't start...out of ideas

Last week my '96 Grand Laredo 6 cyl. wouldn't start. When i turned the key nothing happened. no starter motor...no chatter of the selinoid, no noise at all except a whrrrr in the back that I assumed was the fuel pump. The battery was charged, the head lights, stereo, etc worked fine but the starter wouldn't even attempt to turn over. After a bit of head scratching and for the heck of it I put the jeep in neutral, pushed it forward a few feet and turned the key. Vroom...it started right up. I've been driving for the last week and everything was fine. Problem solved.....right?

Wrong. Today I had the same problem again. The battery is charged but the starter won't even attempt to turn over. I did the thing where I put it in neutral and pushed it forward again but this time.....nothing. I hooked up jumper cables to another running car without any luck. So now I'm stuck.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what may be the problem and how I can get the beloved jeep back on the road?

Best Regards,

Marcel

Reply to
maleemi
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Check the connector that runs to the crankshaft position sensor. (about 11 o clock on the transmission housing) The connector is either back from the throttle body or over by the dipstick.

Disconnect, reconnect, try again.

It could also be the nutral safety switch, but I'm not sure where it is on your year.

Reply to
DougW

Hi Marcel, Some place you have a bad battery cable connection, I've found a couple of wagons without a lock washer at the starter's solenoid. A bad ground will disconnect you, too. Then there's the neutral switch:

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God Bless America, Bill O|||||||Omailto: snipped-for-privacy@aol.com
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Reply to
L.W. (Bill) Hughes III

I don't see where the CPS has any part to play in allowing the starter motor to crank. A bad CPS may keep it from starting, but not from cranking.

That would by my bet. Marcel: Do you have a manual or automatic transmission? If it is an auto, did your back-up/reversing lights stop working? On the auto transmission there's a switch assembly that controls the backup lights and also prevents cranking while in any shifter position other than Park and Neutral. When you did get it to crank you were in Neutral, right?

Bad news: For the auto that's a $400 part.

-- "We began to realize, as we plowed on with the destruction of New Jersey, that the extent of our American lunatic fringe had been underestimated." Orson Wells on the reaction to the _War Of The Worlds_ broadcast.

Reply to
Lee Ayrton

My vote goes for the neutral safety switch. Pushing the Jeep couldn't have possibly done anything, but moving the shifter out of park might have caused the switch to function temporarily. I don't know what Lee Ayrton is smoking - it's a $15 part at Autozone.

Of course, it could be something different so do some diagnostic work before throwing parts at it.

-rev

Reply to
The Reverend Natural Light

The automatic's switch is a $400.00 freaking part.

The switch can be adjusted and rebuilt usually, but then if he wiggled the gear shift just out of the exact stop area, it would start.

here is a link on messing with one kind:

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Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's Canadian Off Road Trips Photos: N> My vote goes for the neutral safety switch. Pushing the Jeep couldn't
Reply to
Mike Romain

kind:

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I checked Autozone.com, entered "96 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4x4 6cyl auto" and clicked the Neutral Safety Switch in the electrical section. $15 in stock at my local store.

Is there another neutral safety switch? If there is and it's $400, I'd bypass it and put in a toggle for the reverse lights.

-rev

Reply to
The Reverend Natural Light

kind:

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On the older ones it was integrated with the gear shift selector on the tranny. This was an expensive part.

Good to see someone had some brains and changed it, unusual when they can sucker folks for 400, but hey.

Mike

Reply to
Mike Romain

Reply to
philthy

Lee Ayrton proclaimed:

Before you spend 400 on a part you may not need, go buy a cheap volt meter.

First try a Sears screwdriver across the solenoid.

The formal tactic is to check the voltage at the pick drive on the start relay in the relay box. You CAN jumper across that relay if you are not getting pick voltage.

If you don't get pick voltage, you'll need to chase it back thru the part/neutral switch on the transmission, back up to the ignition switch.

I fought the same issue for almost two months before I got ticked off and chased it down....then replaced a corroded ignition switch that the dealer swore up and down rarely ever failed.

Reply to
Lon

Mike Romain proclaimed:

On the '95 it is a simple switch, dunno why they would go backwards on the '96, but then this *is* Chrysler. Fairly cheap switch as memory goes.

Reply to
Lon

kind:

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$400 is the dealer parts counter price.

The price for the neutral safety switch varies wildly, depending on the transmission and model.

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XJ w/AW4-4 transmission $162.991984-86 XJ w/A904 transmission $11.99
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has the XJ switch for $183.99 My error was in assuming that the GC shared that part with the XJ.

-- "We began to realize, as we plowed on with the destruction of New Jersey, that the extent of our American lunatic fringe had been underestimated." Orson Wells on the reaction to the _War Of The Worlds_ broadcast.

Reply to
Lee Ayrton

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