Having replaced my modestly built '87 stolen XJ some 5 years ago with a pretty decent 2005 TJR, the second irritation regarding the TJ was needing to depress the clutch in order to fire the engine. Reaching around the steering column through the window to start the TJ when working on it under hood was not possible as it was with the Cherokee. The '87 XJ solution to the safety issue of accidentally running over someone in case of a gear engaged start was to require 6 revolutions before the pcm would fire the engine. Well, that did shorten battery and starter lives by 30% over the years. Even a deep cycle battery rarely lasted much beyond the warranty period and I never regretted carrying a spare starter with a lifetime warranty. Starters in that wondrous Cherokee were virtually plug and play. I love the instant fire the TJ gives and the battery in it is about 12 years old and shows no sign of giving up despite being completely discharged when I first test drove this TJR some 5 years ago. The 2005 Rubicon does have a space allocated for the clutch safety defeat fuse, but that's all it is, a space. There's no circuit to fuse in the box under the hood. So, under the dash I went. 1) remove the cover panel under the instrument cluster..... easy, two screws. The front seat then must be removed, and it's mounted just like the '87 Cherokee, except a lot heavier! As I've worked on the TJ, I've come to discover why it gets horrible mileage compared to the XJ. Everything is so much heavier than the XJ! It's less of a brick than it's a block of concrete. So, the seat's out and there's the switch.....waaaaaay up in the foot well, nearly invisible and hard to reach. After many contortions and clipping the over strong stud to remove the crazy connector from the associated brace I was finally able to work with it from a sitting position after reinstalling the seat. I did not want to destroy the connector, but this was not a simple two conductor plug. After awhile and some struggle cursing the engineers I was able to pry a tab and disconnect. I noticed the leads in the supply side of the connector were spaced exactly the same as the fuses. Finally, a stroke of luck...I needed to only press a 10 amp fuse in there, cable tie the wires to the brace to easily reach behind the 2 screw panel leaving the original setup for some future owner to restore. The first irritation? No accessory compartments on the dash! Everything on the dash slides out the window onto the road or trail you're driving. The solution? These are available on Amazon and are necessary.
