Weak Starts

1987 XJ 4.0 AW4

Yesterday my XJ began to act up. It cranks very slowly, it dies out when cranking. If you try a second time, it cranks like normal and fires right up. I let my fuel pump "prime" everytime. It does this everytime I let it sit for a little bit, then try to start it.

At first I believed it was the battery, but I tried to charge it and it was fully charged, so it's ruled out. Then I thought it could be my alternator, but I disconnected my battery while the XJ was running, so that rules out the alternator. I've checked all my vaccum lines, they appear to be fine. The only thing that I could imagine would be doing this is the starter or the starter solenoid. What do you guys think? I have to go to work right now, but when I get out i'm hoping to come back to some comments, thanks a bunch.

The first step would be to clean the battery terminals.

but I tried to charge it and it was fully charged

Click to expand...

Not necessarily so a bad battery will show as full on many chargers.
You need to have it tested to be sure it’s good

when you say dies does that mean stops cranking, or sputters and quits running. if it is the latter of the two try turning the key fwd. to the run position a few times before starting this prims the fuel pump a few times. if it stops cranking it is prob a bad connection clean them all well.

Battery terminals are very nice and clean.

Langer i'll be sure and check, I should go ahead and replace my battery anyways.

The jeep cranks very slowly and just dies, no fire.

I'm pretty sure it's the starter/starter solenoid.

Thanks you all for the help.

Had the same thing happen to my '89 Laredo. The original starter cranked slow but would always start until it stopped cranking for good.

But what a surprise with a new remain starter....turns over quicker than ever and starts right up.