No start.....

Ok, one of my CJ7's won't start. Turn key on, gauges all go up normally, turn to start position, get a "click" and then whole dash goes dead. Turn key off, then turn back to "on" position and all gauges go up again until the "click" then all go down.

I've swapped in starter, batt, solenoid, and batt cables off of my other (running and starting) CJ so I know all of that stuff is good.

I'm kinda thinking the ignition switch (down on the column) is bad. Anyone got any insight?

I would check your battery cables again. Sounds like you are not making a good ground connection to me. Its easier to check the cables before you go crawling under the dash to change the ignition switch on the steering column!

Yeah, that's what others have suggested. I'll fool with it after work and will update later.

Thanks!

Neg batt cable it was! Looks fine but apparently isn't grounding very well.....

What was your fix on this? I have the 2.5L and the cable is connected to the engine block. I'm assuming that attaching it to the frame or firewall would be better. I'm asking because I ran into a similar problem with my 8 not starting this morning.

You want the cable going to the engine block and there should be a woven grounding strap that goes from one side of the engine mount to the other to connect the block to the frame. I think there's another strap from the frame to the body too IIRC.

What you can do is get some extra battery cables with some external star washers and add them as grounds between everything, body to frame, frame to engine, etc. I did this with the old battery cables I replaced right after buying mine. You can't ever have too many grounds (as long as what you're grounding is supposed to be grounded).

When things aren't starting, it's usually the neg cable at the battery terminal. Happened to me once on a grand waggy I once had. Cable and terminal looked fine, but it wasn't making a solid connection, so no start. A new cable fixed it up.

bigwalton said:

When things aren't starting, it's usually the neg cable at the battery terminal. Happened to me once on a grand waggy I once had. Cable and terminal looked fine, but it wasn't making a solid connection, so no start. A new cable fixed it up.

Click to expand...

Bingo.

My cable was actually fairly new, but had a clamp on battery terminal, so when I clamped it I clamped partially on insulation. When new it worked fine, but as time went by and the Jeep sat a lot, the end of the cable corroded a bit and since only part of the copper was touching the terminal it didnt' give it enough juice. I trimmed back the insulation and put some dialectric grease on it and it's worked fine since.

Woohoo!

Found the problem this weekend. It is my starter relay attached to the passenger side fender wall. It's gone bad. Time for the old screw driver arc until I can get the new one.

Update: Got the new starter relay/solenoid today. Which by the way, I don't know how many of you guys have used Rock Auto, but they have my vote. I got this thing for 17 bucks including shipping and it only took 6 days here to Korea. They'll have my business again. Anyhoo, I'll be putting it on this afternoon. Hopefully my my troubleshooting was correct. I already miss driving my Jeep.