Finally!! And the answer is...

[Big Willy]

As the title says the XJ won't start up on it's own.
This morning it started up first turn of the key. Donna drove into town and on her way back stopped at an Irving station; when she tried to leave... nothing. She said when she turned the key all she heard was a "clicking" sound. The guys there tried a booster pack but it wasn't charged enough. But another guy jumped her with his car and that worked.
She got it home and I checked it over before shutting it down. I put a meter to the battery and it had a little over 13 volts in it and on the cables it was at 14. So I then turned it off and tried to start it again. This time there was no power at all. Checked the battery and it had full charge. I was a bit confused so I sat and had a coffee.
Went back to the XJ and checked the oil level because I remembered in my last two when the oil was really low it wouldn't turn over; but it was good. So I tried the ignition again and I got the "clicking" sound again. I thought about the gear shift linkage but Andre replaced that with a new one last fall. I have an auto car starter and alarm on the Jeep but as with the linkage I am pretty sure Andre disconnected it when he changed out my steering column. I am not sure about the starter though as I haven't checked it yet. Anyone have any thoughts, ideas, similar experiences as to what could be my problem?

TIA

Chris

[HardKorTJ]

check your cables?

[Sandboxcowboy]

starter solenoid may be on its last legs......it deliver the power form batt to the starter and will do same thing if its not giving the starter full juice to turn it over
$18 at crappt tire.......

give the starter a good smack with hammer if it does this again.....if it work then u have ur prob right thr......may be whole starter but can be cheaper than $160 replacement!!

[justajeep]

Same as a couple years ago when you had problems, check all the connections! Clicking sound means there isn't enough power getting from your battery to the starter.

[Big Willy]

hardkorxj said:

check your cables?

I had the cables peplaced at the same time when the column and the shift linkage was replaced. But I am still going to clean them off.

sandboxcowboy said:

starter solenoid may be on its last legs......it deliver the power form batt to the starter and will do same thing if its not giving the starter full juice to turn it over
$18 at crappt tire.......

give the starter a good smack with hammer if it does this again.....if it work then u have ur prob right thr......may be whole starter but can be cheaper than $160 replacement!!

I have a new starter I was going to put on the 92 before putting her on blocks. So I will try that and the selonoid too. Thanks.

[justajeep]

Have you checked the voltage in the cable with it shut off? Checking with it running will show the alt output, and if you had 13 volts in the battery and 14 in the cables, that shows the cables are not getting power to the battery, it should all be the same.

[Big Willy]

jstasn said:

Have you checked the voltage in the cable with it shut off? Checking with it running will show the alt output, and if you had 13 volts in the battery and 14 in the cables, that shows the cables are not getting power to the battery, it should all be the same.

Just did and I got 12.22 on the battery and 12.21 on the cables so I guess it's not the battery. I'll swap out the starter and solenoid with my other one and see what happens then.
But! Not before I clean the posts and clamps. Had this problem once and sat there for dam near 20 min with greasy hands. Before Donna said "the battery looks awful dirty?" The posts and clamps were caked with grease and dirt, lol.

[projectnightmare]

this sounds like it's going to be cables. a bad ground coming off the battery to the block can do the same thing. the ends on mine looked great but when I looked inside the plastic, it was all corroded and black. I took the old cable into PFT in burnside... they have a crimper there and can make just about any cable while you wait for a lot less than buying pre-made.

[Big Willy]

The clamps and posts looked great on the outside (minimal dirt and grease and a few nicks from some boosts I gave last winter)... but when I took them off there was little clumps of dirt and a film of grease on the posts and in the clamp rings. So I cleaned them up and of course it started right up. Man this XJ sure does get allot of dirt and grime in that area, more than my other two did. Thought I didn't wheel the 88 and 92 a whole lot. Thank god I didn't have to do the swap. My garage is a bit flooded right now. Have to love those "open air concept" garages, lol. ;D

[HardKorTJ]

hahaha, good to hear ya fixed it

[Big Willy]

Dam I went to go out and start it and now I am getting the "clicking" sound again. The contacts on the solenoid are full of dirt and grease so I am going to clean them off. But it looks like I'll be crawling under to do that swap after all. Man I hate rainy day Jeep problems.

[tchase]

Ok, I'm not the expert on this in the household but I think you might be going battery shopping. 12.2v is pretty low, a good battery should hold 12.5-12.7 I believe. I know mine won't start at 12.2. Try having someone try cranking it while you check the battery voltage, I suspect you'll see it drop pretty low. Just my $0.02 though, like I said I'm not the expert.

[Stevens]

I've had batteries that had 12 volts, but not enough amps to start the engine. Have the battery load tested.

IIRC the starter needs around 10v to spin and 175-200amps, when staters gets old or cables cet corroded, the amp draw increases.

[Old Yeller]

A quick way to load test the battery, is to have someone inside the jeep try to turn it over, while you check the voltage at the battery when they go to do it. If it doesn't drop below say 11v, you are fine, something else is causing the problems. I really doubt the battery is bad though because you would have never been able to start it intermittantly like you are now.

Wiring or ground problems, or possibly dead spot on the starter.

[Big Willy]

Well. Where do I start?

I took off the old starter cleaned her up and it looked good. Then I dropped it on the shed floor and broke the small terminal on the solenoid.
No worries though I have a whole new starter and solenoid I say to myself. ;D
So here I am again under the XJ (Oh I should mention I am outside in a rain suit while it is pouring out ) and as I am tightening the nut on the terminal it snaps right off. (!#@$%&*^%@)
So out to CT for a new solenoid. Get home put it all together and got it on the Jeep with no problems. Start to hook up the battery cables and notice that I don't have a battery tie down (Hmmm got to fix that)
As I am trying to tighten the negative clamp I notice it looks a little bit longer. The it hits me... I just did a whole lot of work for nothing and in the rain to boot. LOL.
So I turned the negative cable over and it fit allot tighter. I have to mess with it sometimes to get a good connection. But when CT opens tomorrow I'll be picking up clamps and a Tie down.