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Slight hesitant starting

4x4JeePmaNthINg

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Colorado
Starting sounds weak but it fires up with a pause like not enough juice to the starter. Battery shows good voltage, alternator(newish).., shows it's charging.

I'm going to get the cranking amps tested tomorrow. This battery is a rather new interstate battery under a yr old.

What robs cranking amps in the summer I'm baffled?
 
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How do the cables and terminals look? If they're dirty or corroded, baking soda and water works great. Cut the bottom off of a can, put some baking soda in it, and add just enough water to make a paste. Clean the terminals off with an old toothbrush to avoid scratching the terminals. Does the battery fit good? IMO, the batteries for XJ's are a bit on the smallish side which limits the cranking amps, so run the biggest battery you can get away with. What about accessories? A/C compressors can suck up a good chunk of power when they're engaged, so make sure the A/C's off when you're trying to crank it.
 
How do the cables and terminals look? If they're dirty or corroded, baking soda and water works great. Cut the bottom off of a can, put some baking soda in it, and add just enough water to make a paste. Clean the terminals off with an old toothbrush to avoid scratching the terminals. Does the battery fit good? IMO, the batteries for XJ's are a bit on the smallish side which limits the cranking amps, so run the biggest battery you can get away with. What about accessories? A/C compressors can suck up a good chunk of power when they're engaged, so make sure the A/C's off when you're trying to crank it.

He got it dead on. But, that's also what my starter did right before it totally died.
 
good call, thus far i am going to replace the ground terminal and cables. terminal has a crack and isnt snug, the cable has slight corrosion under the sheathing.

what do you recommend to replace/ rebuild the battery to body to block ground cables, a friend suggested 4 gauge wire. + side has a military terminal already and i think ill follow suit on the - for hooking up winch and lights.

Also what do you mean by does the battery fit good? its an interstate with 650CA
 
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If you feel comfortable making your own cables, go for it.
I chose to simplify the solution and give some money to a member and a vendor. I have a set of 0ga g cables from Jon Kelley aka 5-90 on my XJ.
And have a set of cables from current vendor mean lemons. Build quality is great. Worth it for the money, IMO.
 
When I replaced my battery cables, I just got the shortest, universal fit, 4-gauge parts store cables I could. Bought them from O'Reilly's (my buddy I went to school with was the night-shift manager at the store closest to me. He used to hook me up with the military discount even though I've been out for years. :D) Surprisingly, the ones I got were made in the U.S. The terminal fit was always pretty tight, but no biggie. Hindsight being 20/20, I would've soldered the ring terminals on and covered them with heat shrink tubing. If you wanna get crazy and run bigger cables, I'd say go for it.
 
Pretty much any parts store. Buy the cables (make sure both cables have a main and smaller wire, body ground for the ground cable, fuse box feed for the power cable) and some black and red wire of the same gauge size as the small wires if you don't have some already. You'll also need some butt and ring connectors (I like the heat shrink type.) Cut out some sections of small wire long enough to attach them where they need to go (fuse box and inner fender), strip the ends, attach a ring connector to one end and attach the other end to the small wire on the cables, install and done.
 
Pretty much any parts store. Buy the cables (make sure both cables have a main and smaller wire, body ground for the ground cable, fuse box feed for the power cable) and some black and red wire of the same gauge size as the small wires if you don't have some already. You'll also need some butt and ring connectors (I like the heat shrink type.) Cut out some sections of small wire long enough to attach them where they need to go (fuse box and inner fender), strip the ends, attach a ring connector to one end and attach the other end to the small wire on the cables, install and done.

Edit: What I meant by the battery fitting good is it should completely fill up the battety tray and you shouldn't have to snug up the battety hold down too much. When I first got my XJ, it had the wrong size battery in it. It worked, but was just the wrong size. The right size NAPA Premium Gold battery I got for it only put out something like 725 cranking amps (and even fewer cold cranking amps) which I think is a bit on the petite side, especially if you're running lights, a winch, an audio system, electric fans, ya know, all the fun add-on toys.
 
My starter was doing the same thing a few months back. Then one day it wouldn't turn over at all. Had to hit the starter with a hammer to get it going again. Probably just time to throw a new starter in and be done with it.
 
Pretty much any parts store. Buy the cables (make sure both cables have a main and smaller wire, <--- Huh?:dunno:

body ground for the ground cable, fuse box feed for the power cable) and some black and red wire of the same gauge size as the small wires if you don't have some already.

what smaller wire on both, i dont understand
 
This picture shows it pretty well-

DSC00048-1-92924.jpg


See how both terminals have TWO wires? That's the kind of cables you need. The large wire on the red/positive cable attaches to the starter, the large wire on the black/ground wire attaches to an engine block ground. However, you'll need to attach a ring connector and almost certainly a short length of wire to the SMALLER GUAGE WIRE on BOTH terminals. The SMALLER red/positive wire attaches to a stud on the front of the engine bay fuse box (it normally has a plastic cover over it) and the SMALLER black/ground wire is held in place on the passenger side inner fender with a small bolt.
 
oh haha i thought you were suggesting needing two different gauges of wire. smaller wire= the shorter wires, gotcha!

Kind of. The big, long, main wires on the cables you can get at most parts stores are 4 gauge. You won't need to mess around with these. Just make sure these wires on the new cables are long enough and attach them where they need to go.

But the shorter wires that attach to the terminals are smaller gauge (probably like 10 or 12 gauge.) These short, smaller gauge wires will probably need another section of wire attached to them with a butt connector to get them where they need to go (The fusebox and the fender.) If you don't already have some extra wire to do this, you can buy some at the parts store while you're getting new cables. The cables I ran already had a cheap butt connector crimped onto these wires on the new cables. Those worked fine, but if you wanted to, you could remove those butt connectors and install a heat shrink type to prevent water intrusion. I had to use short sections from my smaller gauge bulk wire that I could attach to the butt connector on the new cables to have wires long enough to get to the fender and fusebox stud. I think I just stripped the insulation off one end of the bulk wire, crimped it into the butt connector on the new cables, and then with the wire still on the roll, ran it out to the areas it needed to attach to, cut it, stripped it again, and installed my ring connectors (I like the kind with the heat-shrink plastic.) If you need ring connectors, you can buy them at the parts store too. Just make sure the ring can fit around the bolt/stud and the crimp connector on the other end is the right size for the smaller gauge wires.
 
I did a home brew cable upgrade. 2ga welding cable with copper crimp lugs. I have a sound system and plain on a winch and more lights. But today after work it was hot and muggy so I turned the air on, headlights on because it was starting to rain( state law requires headlights in any precipitation) and decided to really use the 2 12inch subs. I look down at a stop light and see 10 volts. Turn the subs down, switch to markers and turn the blower down to 1 and it comes back up. Seems like it's time for a bigger alt.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
ok, let me ask this then. as i see these pre made kits, they all seem to be the same gauge wire. is this bad not to have the smaller gauge wire which you say will short? is this a safety feature or can all wire be replaced with a single gauge wire.
 
ok, let me ask this then. as i see these pre made kits, they all seem to be the same gauge wire. is this bad not to have the smaller gauge wire which you say will short? is this a safety feature or can all wire be replaced with a single gauge wire.

The smaller gauge wire on these pre-made cables will just be physically shorter, it won't electrically short if you put everything together right.

Yes, you could probably replace those wires with larger gauge ones if you had everything to put it together and I did run across some pictures of guys who had done this on their rigs. Me, I don't see the point on a stock XJ. The biggest benefit to larger gauge wires is that they can handle more amperage. But like I said the smaller gauge wire on these parts store cables attaches to a stud by the fuse box. I also know that there's a bit of fusible link wire that attaches to this stud (I think it feeds the whole fuse box.) As the name implies, fusible link wire is a special kind of wire that acts like a fuse. If too much amperage passes through it, it melts and goes open. Sure, a larger gauge wire to the fuse box will be able to pass more amperage, but if the fusible link wire can't handle the extra amperage, what's the point?
 
When I replaced my battery cables, I just got the shortest, universal fit, 4-gauge parts store cables I could. Bought them from O'Reilly's (my buddy I went to school with was the night-shift manager at the store closest to me. He used to hook me up with the military discount even though I've been out for years. :D) Surprisingly, the ones I got were made in the U.S. The terminal fit was always pretty tight, but no biggie. Hindsight being 20/20, I would've soldered the ring terminals on and covered them with heat shrink tubing. If you wanna get crazy and run bigger cables, I'd say go for it.
The military disco. also applies to veterans. So, use-away. Haha
 
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