TJ died while driving and now it won't start

ADsLJ

ADsLJ

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Joined
Apr 4, 2020
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8
Location
Arkansas
So yesterday 4/3/2020 I was driving my jeep and it died while going down the road. I made it to the side and tried to start it back up and nothing happened no clicking or any attempt at all to turn over. Everything seems to be working fine other than my gauges and not being able to start. I am not very mechanical so I don’t really know what to look for. I have enough mechanical skills to have someone walk me through it just don’t know where to start. I checked all fuses and relays all which were fine. I checked ignition actuator pin and ignition switch and both seem to be normal. I am getting power coming directly out of the switch going to the starter (I’m guessing) but I’m not getting power on the the plug that hooks onto the starter. Anyone have any ideas?
 
I don't know what the electrical diagram looks like for the ignition circuit, but I assume you've looked in the FSM?

I would think that it goes from the ignition switch to the fuse box, to the relay box, to the starter. If you're not getting power to the starter, I think I would follow the wiring back from the starter and see where you eventually get power.

It could be an issue with the wiring itself, or some sort of electrical component that's inline with those wires. What that would be, I don't know. But tracing the wiring would be a good start.

I had to do something very similar when I couldn't figure out why my HVAC blower wasn't working on my XJ.

Turned out to be a bad wire connection right at the fusebox junction believe it or not.
 
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Chris said:
I don't know what the electrical diagram looks like for the ignition circuit, but I assume you've looked in the FSM?

I would think that it goes from the ignition switch to the fuse box, to the relay box, to the starter. If you're not getting power to the starter, I think I would follow the wiring back from the starter and see where you eventually get power.

It could be an issue with the wiring itself, or some sort of electrical component that's inline with those wires. What that would be, I don't know. But tracing the wiring would be a good start.

I had to do something very similar when I couldn't figure out why my HVAC blower wasn't working on my XJ.

Turned out to be a bad wire connection right at the fusebox junction believe it or not.
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FSM? You’ll have to excuse me I’m not very mechanical. I tried tracing wires some today but I am going to try some more tomorrow
 
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First thing I would do is clean the battery connections.
 
No, really.
Alot of people "clean" them. Then they come here, get told to take them off, clean them with a wire brush (including inside the cable terminal) and re-attach.
You'd be surprised by the OMG moments.
 
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My terminals and and cables are all clean they were cleaned with a wire brush when I said they had been cleaned. If my connections were poor I wouldn’t have power to literally everything else in the jeep besides the gauge cluster and the starter
 
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Have a look at this other convo with a guy that had similar starting symptoms, I copied a diagram of your PDC and circled in red the two terminals you can jump to figure out if it's an issue in the ignition circuit or in the starter circuit (post #4) https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/2006-4-0-will-not-turn-over.33027/#post-535854

What that little trick does is manually sends voltage directly to the starter bypassing the ignition switch. If it cranks then you know the problem is in the ignition, if it doesn't then you know the problem is between the battery and the starter.
 
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