Totally Dead Electrical on my XJ!

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Date: Sep 11, 2007

Totally Dead Electrical on my XJ!	Permalink

So as we all know I have a pos 1988 Camry DD. Well, driving this for the past month or so I've been letting my Jeep sit. Since the Camry had a 650cca battery and the Jeep only a 540cca, I decided to swap them. The camry had starting issues and so I put the 650cca back in the Camry, and all is well. I never tried to start my XJ with the 650cca, so it has just sat for about a month. It has a newer alternator fyi, and all of this happened over the weekend. Today I'm short on time, so I plunked the 540cca in the XJ, while I was wrenching down the pos. terminal I made a spark with the AC compressor and decided to take my time and be more careful with no more sparks or anything. Everything's all buttoned down, and I hop in. I turn the key a smidgen and the warm green glow from around the key lights up, and I give it a twist to crank it and it cranks for 1/10 of a second or so and everything dies. Everything. No interior lights, no cranking, no radio... nothing. No green glow from around the key, either. The fuses underhood look (read: look) good yet, and I don't have a voltmeter to see if the battery is good or not, so I'm a bit confused and short on time and not wanting to post this at JeepsUnlimited since I'll probably be commanded several times to use the search button. <even if it is useful Well, any help would be appreciated! -Matt __________________ My Fleet 1996 XJ "Snowball"- 3.5" lift, bunch of little mods. I hate pegleg rear axles! 1974 AMC Javelin "Jade Grenade"- 360v8, 4sp, green inside and out. Underfunded Project. 2009 Kawsaki Vulan 900 "Rocket III"- Summer DD

LEAD_NOT_FOLLOW

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Date: Sep 11, 2007

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I suspect the battery. Have you tried jumping it with another vehicle? If it starts with a jump it's your battery. -Adam __________________ '93 XJ Cherokee Sport - build thread '89 XJ Cherokee Laredo - build thread '88 MJ Comanche Pioneer SWB - build thread '87 MJ Comanche LWB '94 YJ Wrangler - build thread

ChevelleSSLS6

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Date: Sep 11, 2007

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I might try that today, might not have time... I did clean the terminals on the battery before install... but I'll see what happens. Might be a fusible link or something? NOTHING works on my XJ, but having enough juice to short to the ac compressor I think it'd have enough to at least click the solenoid.

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My Fleet
1996 XJ "Snowball"- 3.5" lift, bunch of little mods. I hate pegleg rear axles!
1974 AMC Javelin "Jade Grenade"- 360v8, 4sp, green inside and out. Underfunded Project.
2009 Kawsaki Vulan 900 "Rocket III"- Summer DD

ChevelleSSLS6

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Date: Sep 12, 2007

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I hooked it to the 650cca via jumper cables for several minutes, and the dome light worked, it cranked slow and fired once but that wasn't quite enough to keep it going. cry

I'm thinking it's the battery, and it won't take a charge from the booster battery- thankfully I didn't screw anything up when I shorted the + terminal to the ac compressor! Optima is too expensive but I'd like at least 650cca... preferably 700 or more. Any suggestions? In the meantime, I'll see if a charger will work on it. idea

for the noobs:
cca= cold cranking amps= power available @ 32* F.
ca= cranking amps= power available @ I think 70* F

-- Edited by ChevelleSSLS6 at 01:49, 2007-09-12

__________________

My Fleet
1996 XJ "Snowball"- 3.5" lift, bunch of little mods. I hate pegleg rear axles!
1974 AMC Javelin "Jade Grenade"- 360v8, 4sp, green inside and out. Underfunded Project.
2009 Kawsaki Vulan 900 "Rocket III"- Summer DD

Topic: Totally Dead Electrical on my XJ!