well looking and tugging on the ground strap, it seemed physically alright. the jeep is at the service garage right now, i'll stop tomorrow and ask them to try the ground.
As it is right now, they've told me they can't communicate to the CPM, so that's what we're waiting on to arrive Thursday (used $102.00-- is that good??) . We are under the assumption that the CPM is dead.
Thanks for all the suggestions and help.
oh and btw, as mentioned in another post I should have also mentioned more about the jeep--it's a:
97 XJ 4.0L 6 cyl. automatic 4wd and yes i could pull up the on- off-on-off...codes prior to this.Thanks again to everyone thats helped.