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I have a 1997 jeep cherokee and its dead. It was running fine and it just wouldnt start one day. I think its either the battery, battery cables, starter or a cellunoid. I have no idea where to start and I dont ave much money. I tried to start it with jumper cables and it just doies a quick chirp and then nothing. Any idea what this could be? Any help would be great.
How old is the battery? alt. might be bad, go to checker's to test it. could be loss wire on batt., alt., starter., Or voltage regulator on back wall. good luck...
Check the Colorado Jeep Club section of Jeepforums here is the link
http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=123
NAXJA.ORG Great place for cherokee(xj) owners! if somebody cant help you, your problem doesnt exist! lol
COLORADO4x4.ORG - Always people on here going wheeling and such, usualy pretty good with tech. Decent classified section.
I would take it to checkers, pepboys or autozone they do free diagnostics and they can tell you exactly what is wrong with it.
They don't get paid $8 an hour for nothing.;)
They are master technicians with 20 years experience that is why they work there. ;)
VA Gunz,
Is the solenoid under the hood or mounted on the starter? If it is under the hood, find the wire that comes from the battery and the wire that goes to the starter and jump across them. If the starter turns over change out the solenoid. If the starter will not turn over it is likely the pinion gear in the nose of the starter. They can be changed, but it is usually much easier to just replace the starter.
This can be done if the solenoid is mounted on the starter, you just have to remove the cover from it.
If you have a multimeter, make sure the battery has a charge of at least 12.3 volts.
A bad alternator will not prevent the vehicle from starting, it just won't charge the battery while it's running and your lights may be very dim.
Like was said, you can pull the starter and have it tested at Auto Zone or Checkers, same with the battery. From the sound you describe I would suspect the starter pinion gear.
Hope this helps.
The truck has a brand new alternator
I always start out with the cheapest first,check and clean, tighten battery cables, - try different battery in it.
If that don't help I would take it to HunterCo.
Good luck.
Was the alternator replaced to try and fix the problem or was the old one confirmed to be bad? You also could have gotten a bad alternator. I've seen remanufactured alternators go south once they're actually worked after installation. A battery also takes a beating when an alternator is going bad, so the battery could have puked.
Other than that, there's really not enough info describing what's going on.
I hear that Tim works on cars on occasion. He told Manny, Moe, and Jack where to go so he doesn't work at Pepboys, but I wouldn't hold that against him.
When I bought the truck the chick said she had replaced the alternator recently.