Help jeep wont start

[westcoastflea]

lots of history leading up to this point but will start here:
jeep wont start
no noise no lights nothing
same symptoms i get when the blue ignition wire on steering column comes loose.
its not loose.

Hooked up my auto start charger to power up overnight read fully charged this am tried to start jeep and got a little noise from the solenoid or starter not sure which it was it so brief, sweet but brief.

put starter back on to charge it reads fully charged but i get nothing when i try to use it to start the jeep. no noise at all from anything.

using a test light i show power on my battery, its not bright.

i show power where the positive battery cable connects to solenoid

i show power on top where the red wire connects to solenoid.

i show no power to starter side of solenoid.

i show no power to blue ignition wire coming off top of solenoid. this is with the ignition key turned on .

i put a wire from the positive side of battery to the starter side of solenoid direct got sparks no noise. again with ignition in on and off position.

put power from positive battery terminal to the solenoid where the blue ignition wire is nothing.
tried doing all of the above using the auto charger which reads fully charged nothing.

i tested the neutral safety switch with my test light its a 3 hole plug i have power in one hole the hole the red wire feeds. the other two holes fed by i believe a brown and a white wire have no power when testing the plug, is this correct?

i have power to coil, using multitester i have the same amount of power it shows the battery as having (what i still cant figure out is how much)
i have power coming out of coil.


i have put the jeep in neutral and tried to start nothing. jiggled the gear lever around nothing.



used test light on ignition switch show weak power on all the fat wires red, red with a white stripe and yellow i believe were the colors all but the blue ignition wire have power.

when i turn the ignition on if i remember correctly i lost power to the fat wires that were showing power previously.

i show power to fat yellow and fat red going to back of instrument cluster but no signs of anything on the front of the instrument cluster.
my battery gauge on the instrument cluster has the needle in the middle between over and undercharged..

no power to clock or radio no interior lights nothing,everything is dead dead dead..

i have tried to check my battery for voltage using a radio shack 50,000 ohms volt multitester cant figure out how to read the thing.
however when i set it at i believe it was the 50v setting the needle does move about 1/3 of the way to the right.

same reading when i test the coil .

so i dont know if the battery is fully charged.
i cant figure out how to read the multitester i do know that when i put the positive cable on the post on the battery i dont get the usual sparks, i get nothing as though the battery was very weak.

i tried hooking up the auto charger with the dc adaptor installed and juice feeding directly to it from the house. i know something was happening because my multitester leads were hooked up to the battery at the time and it started smoking.

i redid connections on battery, checked grounds etc. i guess to me anyway the issue seems to be lack of power to the blue ignition wire starting i assume from where it connects to the solenoid.
of course im assuming the blue ignition wire from the top of the solenoid should be showing power?.

i have had no problems at all with the jeep starting before this.

i did mess around with the wires in putting the vacuum booster as they were in the way so had to be pushed aside, but i dont see that any are disconnected etc .

so i need help i cant do any more testing unless i know if my battery is charged. and i cant figure out how to read the multitester. and i assume my battery starter is good so why isnt starting the jeep?

i have got to get this thing running and inspected. now....

would it help if i took a pic of the multitester ? not sure how i would post it but knowing if the battery was fully charged would certainly be a first step i would think.

im desperate here ive done all the troubleshooting looking thru old posts etc that i can do on my own.
ive been stuck now for almost 2 weeks working on this thing night and day

i need food,
i need to mail all my packages im going to have 1,000 ebayers hunting me down here.
i need to get the hell out of my own yard for a few hours
im going crazy!!!!!!!

HELP!!!!!!!!

[PlumCrazy]

Jump to the tech archives and pull up a wiring diagram from the pages, that will help you decipher what wire does what. Wiring is easy if you take it one at a time...repair the bad stuff with splices, not by twisting them together and check all your grounds to make sure there is no corrosion...you may have lotsa volt but no amp flow.

If everything checks out alright, drop the starter and see if you can get it to spin (best if done in a vise) to make sure the starter isn't binding.

If you have never heard the motor or did not see it running, try to spin the motor by hand (using the belts or a 15/16"? socket on the crank bolt to make sure it's not locked.

Wayne S

[J10_Jimbo]

Take a heavy gauge wire and strip the ends hold one end to ground, brush the other across positive, you will know if it is charged. A weak battery will cause problems even with the jump starter connected.

[Brown Bear]

and i assume my battery starter is good

Tis dangerous to start assuming. Battery could be showing good, or near good voltage, and still be bad. If you can, pop the top off the battery and look inside with a flashlight. Look first for water damage, then look for any areas that look abnormally denser than others. You will see some of the plates. I'd almost bet that one of those plates has come loose, or shorted out to the bottom (it happens, metal comes loose from the electrolysis process). If you can't see, it, doesn't necessarily mean it's still not bad. Also, if the battery is bad, it still probably won't start even with a jump.

Easiest way to check is to put in a different battery. Even an undersized battery from a nissan will run this jeep just fine, for awhile. Best way to check is to take the battery to a parts store with a load tester. Sounds like you're a ways away from one. I'd try to find another battery, preferably a known good battery, and drop it in. Even if you have to borrown one from a neighbor (if you have one that far out, what are there, like 300 people in Maine now?).

If this doesn't fix it, then it could be the solenoid. A good jumper wire will test that.