Strange XJ behavior

You are describing a dirty or loose main battery cable.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Snow wrote:

Hey Snow... Sounds like a ground problem but check to see if you lost your radio presets & time. If they are still accurate it may be a bad ignition switch or wiring in the column.

-Brian

... also, if you have the "factory security system" (it prevents ill-willed passers by from installing a battery in your XJ undetected)... if the battery lost ground and 'reconnected' the lights would flash until you unlock the drivers door with the key.

-Brian

They seemed tight and clean but I will check them again.

Snow...

I'll have to check those when she gets back, as she has now taken the kids to swimming.

Snow...

Nope no alarm.. if someone wanted to steal the XJ... well, they could have it....lol

Snow...

Now that could be it... I know when I got in I pushed the shifter fwd, but didn't notice any movement from it, but that is a very good possibility..I will ask her when she gets back from swimming.. Thanks

Snow...

Both ends, eh....

There also is a ground strap from the head to the firewall.

Mike

Snow wrote:

Ignition switch? Mike loves that ground cable. I read him post about it so many times that I have a 1" wide one I added to mine lol. KH

LOL!

I live in the rust belt and that open mesh cable just rots.

The one on our Cherokee crumbled to dust when I rolled it in my fingers after changing the CPS.....

No buzzers does not imply the ignition switch, maybe the key switch, but more likely a power failure in my mind.

Mike

Kev>

Loose nut behind steering wheel?

Don't laugh. someone once stole my ratty-ass '86 XJ. Fortuately it was on a bone-dry tank and was found about three miles away (gas station was 1.5 and I knew this...). Cop said they tend to steal whatever's around when they're too lazy to walk home.

What WAS a laugh was getting a call three weeks later from a police patrolman claiming to have 'found' it... AGAIN. I ran like hell outside to make sure they didn't tow the damn thing again. THAT was funny. I did worry they'd pull me over in the middle of the night for months after that...

But it sounds like it's either corrosion inside the connectors (mine does this all the damn time) or problems with the ignition switch wearing out (likewise mine's doing this too). It could be the brake/transmission switch but that's not likely to induce the 'no lights' scenario. One reason it would work is trying to start it induced a small 'jump' throught the corrosion, not enough to start. But enough to heat up the nearby stuff and make it expand. Thus it worked the next time around.

Clean both sides of the battery cable connectors and retighten. Check the ground strap too.

-Bill Kearney

Well I could have told you that.... I tell everyone the WIFE is NUTS...lol just don't tell her.

Snow...