TS'ing a no start

[manther]

Hi, been troubleshooting a no-start situation. Could use some advice.

Here's what I've done.

Turn the key, nothing.
Hooked up a remote start switch to the s terminal on the starter motor and yes it starts right up.
So I'm thinking neutral safety switch, or ignition switch.
Got a lokar shifter, I get a continuity beep on p, r, n, but not drive.
it's a 1997 TJ with a chevy lq4 eng.
So when I look into the ignition column i'm not real sure what all is going on in there. I've googled around looking for some ref's to troubleshoot the ignition switch. Any links or pics or advice would be welcome.


*I did pull apart a couple of the wire clips under there and sprayed down the receptacles with contact cleaner and snapped them back together. That didn't help.

 

[RustyC]

Battery voltage?
Check all fuses.

Edit jumper at starter = good battery.
Check for voltage during starting at the smallest wire on the starter.

 

[manther]

Battery voltage?
Check all fuses.

Oh yes checked that too. > 12 ( I forget exactly how much.

 

[sexxy]

Will the module in the column (around key cylinder) cause this? I know jeep has trouble with them but dont know what the symptoms are in a tj.

 

[manther]

Battery voltage?
Check all fuses.

Edit jumper at starter = good battery.
Check for voltage during starting at the smallest wire on the starter.

Will check and report back.

Meantime I found this which is helpful

Gonna go get a read on the various wires there as well.

 

[manther]

Welp, solved. Kinda. It just started. I went into those wires coming out of the ignition switch. Found the constant hot wire, found the wire that gets hot in the first ignition position, found the wire that gets hot when I try to start it, and it was working properly, it lit up my tester when I turned the key over, but no start. So then i started trying to trace that (yellow) wire back into the engine bay. It was a bitch to follow so I took a break and rechecked the fuses. They all looked ok. I took out the starter relay fuse, to see if it was dirty. It didn't look too dirty. Put it back in, and tried to start again. Started right up....

So now I wanna feel confident I know whats wrong. Don't want a day of wheeling to be ruined by this creeping up again. Maybe tomorrow I'll pull that fuse and look at it with the multimeter.

 

[BUG-E J]

Put a push button on the dash to start it. It still won't run without the key in the run position.

 

[manther]

Put a push button on the dash to start it. It still won't run without the key in the run position.

Thanks for the tip. I have a bosch remote starter, I can throw that in my glove box. However, I'm confident I found the problem now. After securing the wire it still happened again. I took the starter relay fuse out and ran diagnostics on it. The relay was going bad. It would click into place when you applied voltage to pins 85/86, but there was resistance between 30 and 87. Also when I added 12v to 30 pin 87 was unable to draw current. Went and bought a new relay at AZ, and it's started every time since then.

I think the loose wire was a false diagnosis. I think when I took the fuse box apart the wire probably got pulled out of it's socket.


Here's one of the better walk throughs on testing a 5 or 4 pin relay. For anyone interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpRWcNoLdwQ&t=299s