1989 Jeep 6cyl Auto; was working fine Sunday. Will not start this morning. Turn the key and nothing, even the warning buzzer in the dash sounded funny. Jumped it with my other car and still nothing. Fooled around with the shifter(shifted to neutral, low, back to park etc...) and finally it turned over but would not start. Gave it a shot of starter fluid and it did start and ran fine. After I shut it off it would not start again. I do seem to have power, the light work but when I turn the key it seems to be loading down. Do I have a bad ignition switch, solonoid, or starter or something else.

After I shut it off it would not start again) does that mean it would not start or would not turn over?

After I shut it off it would not start again) does that mean it would not start or would not turn over?


Sorry-- would not turn over. The symptoms are the same as before, no click, no nothing and the door buzzer will change tones when I turn the ignition key, almost like something is loading down the circuit.

okay, so I think we can narrow it down to either the starter is just drawing a lot of current and not doing anything or the starter relay is bad or the neutral safty switch is bad or the ignition switch is bad. I would start by checking to see if power is getting to the starter relay when you turn the key. The starter relay is located next to the battery and you would want to check if there is power at the SOL terminal, I believe its the green wire. Let me know, do you have a test light or multi meter??

I have all the tools, I will have to do this tonight when I get home from work. I am leaning towards a neutral safety switch because when i fooled around with the shifter earlier today it did turn over. Do you know if there is anyway to by-pass or jump that switch out? That switch is like $250.

the neutral saftey switch (NSS) , when in park and neutral sends a GROUND signal to the starter relay and the ecu., computer. Instead of crawling under your jeep, go to the starter relay and locate the Black/tan wire, this is the one from the nss switch. Turn the key to the on position and check for ground at the black tan wire, it should be there. If not, you could jump a wire from ground to the black/tan wire but leave the wire hooked up as the computer needs the ground signal as well. As far as I can tell by looking at the wiring diagram , that would bypass you nss. The nss switch is a common problem on these jeeps, most this age, including my 89 do not have reverse lights working , which also comes from the nss. Most people here, and I will too someday , rebuild the nss following for nothing, just labour, go to the link below and download the nss rebuild article and also the 88 shop manual would be helpfull to you as well.Please be carefull if you bypass the switch, you know what its there for. Keep an open mind, it may not be the nss at all. Good luck, let me know if you need anything else.