factory battery harness on 98xj

Anyone have anything to say about this wiring harness? Are they a common problem. It appears that juice is not making its way back into the battery from altenator. Battery is good, guage is reading 14vdc at idle, starter works fine. My guess is a bad battery cable/harness. Can anyone confirm before I spend $180 on new harness?
TIA
Brian

anotherjeepguy said:

Anyone have anything to say about this wiring harness? Are they a common problem. It appears that juice is not making its way back into the battery from altenator. Battery is good, guage is reading 14vdc at idle, starter works fine. My guess is a bad battery cable/harness. Can anyone confirm before I spend $180 on new harness?
TIA
Brian

Click to expand...

Did you check the fuseable link? Look just like a wire.

Thanks. I will take a look at it tonight.

anotherjeepguy said:

Anyone have anything to say about this wiring harness? Are they a common problem. It appears that juice is not making its way back into the battery from altenator. Battery is good, guage is reading 14vdc at idle, starter works fine. My guess is a bad battery cable/harness. Can anyone confirm before I spend $180 on new harness?
TIA
Brian

Click to expand...

I just re-read your post, 14vdc at idle is good, whats your problem? If you were not charging that would be more like 11.5-12 vdc.

The problem is that it will crank very slow at first and then not crank at all. So I charge the battery back up and it starts fine the first time. I will drive it for awhile and shut the engine off... and then the engine has the same behavior. Voltmeter is telling me that altenator is just fine thats why I think it is the cables. Thanks for the input.

My '98 had similiar symptoms as yours, and even replaced the battery because I thought it was the culprit. But it turned out to be the starter instead. Check to see if you get power to the starter. If so, and it still won't crank, remove the starter and have it tested.

The starter is pretty simple to remove. There should be 2 (maybe 3) bolts holding the starter on to the bell housing, and 2 nuts holding the electrical connection. It shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes to remove.

Ivan