help me hotwire my jeep

someone tried to steal my trail rig, and in the process f'd up the steering col.

i can get the ignition on and the wheel unlocked, but i cant crank it.

how do i get it started in this condition?

ive heard the ol screwdriver across the starter trick, will that really work? which posts do i short?

thanks..
indulf

What year? There are two ways to do this.

1. There is a small wire (typically green) that is connected to the starter solenoid on the start unit itself, if you supply that wire with 12V it will trigger the solenoid and start the jeep.

2. Under the dash, on top of the column, there is a connector that connects the steering column to the wiring harness. There is a green and a red wire at that connector. If you can get the key turned on, you can short these wires together and trigger the starter solenoid. This exact samething happened to my nephews jeep, I temporarily spliced those red and green wires to a horn button that I bought at the parts store. I put the button up under the dash till he got a new column.

how I had to drive around for a few days after my rig was "borrowed" .

IF they busted up the plastic collar like piece around the top of the column just before the dash, you should see where they exposed a geared slider bar that moves up and down the column when the ignition is turned, get your screw driver on it and pull it up towards you, you will feel more resistance right near the end of it's travel that indicates the ignition is going from on to start so give it an extra effort for a short moment and it should fire up.
HTH

In regards to Cheapjeep2 first way, I did this too, and just ran it to a push button on my jeep, then to the terminal on the left if looking at the solenoid from underneath and the front. Be sure to fuse it. BTW, speaking from experience, since this bypasses the the switch that stops you from starting the car while in gear, make sure you are in park! Good luck. All the parts are at wallmart.