is my starter bad?

I started noticing my Jeep (93) has been a little sluggish starting lately and I chalked it up to colder weather and I thought my battery might be a little weak. Tonight I went to turn it over and nothing form the ignition switch except I had battery with bright lights and all guages working (fuel pump humming) Removed posts from battery and replaced then crawled under the Jeep and moved the cables to the starter around while jumping the wires. I got the starter motor to spin so I jumped in and it fired right up. My instincts and (search) tell me to replace the starter. Can anyone offer any advice? TIA and Happy New Year

sbxj said:

I started noticing my Jeep (93) has been a little sluggish starting lately and I chalked it up to colder weather and I thought my battery might be a little weak. Tonight I went to turn it over and nothing form the ignition switch except I had battery with bright lights and all guages working (fuel pump humming) Removed posts from battery and replaced then crawled under the Jeep and moved the cables to the starter around while jumping the wires. I got the starter motor to spin so I jumped in and it fired right up. My instincts and (search) tell me to replace the starter. Can anyone offer any advice? TIA and Happy New Year

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If moving the wires made it come to life, it could just have been a corroded connection at the posts. Clean the connections first. If the problem persists, you might need a new starter, but XJ starters are expensive (gear-reduction Mitsubishis, well over a hundred bucks even rebuilt, not like those 20-buck Delcos!), so don't replace it unless it needs it. It's not at all unheard of for a starter to last for over 200 thousand miles. Mine is original at 227K. My 87 went to 235K or more, and my stepson's conked out in the 190's.

Now that things are working do this test: Turn on the headlights and crank the motor. Notice how much the headlights dim. I'm assuming you are now getting a healty crank.

Wait for it to happen again (and hope it isn't too inconvenient when it does). Repeat the test, headlights on and crank. (1) If the headlights dim way down then there is high resistance within the battery, or high resistance at the battery cable contacts, or the starter has a big short (unlikely). (2) If they stay bright then the starter isn't drawing much current and the starter solenoid is shot, the starter brushes aren't contacting, or the starter isn't being commanded to start via the ignition switch.

If (1) look at battery and contacts.

If (2) you can command the starter to start by connecting the small contact on the starter solenoid (mounted on starter) to batter +. Watchout!! If things are working this will crank the motor in any gear. Be sure you are sure you are in park before trying this test. If the motor now cranks then suspect the circuits involved in commanding the starter to crank. I'd especially suspect the neutral saftey switch (NSS) mounted on the trans. There are instructions on how to clean this switch elsewhere on .