89 Renix, no power at all

I have an 89 Cherokee Limited and over the past few days, whenever I hit a hard bump, all of the lights in the gauge cluster would flash brighter and sometimes I would get lots of "whine" in my speakers like a bad ground. I have a Sirius satellite radio receiver that is plugged into the cigarette lighter, and when I unplugged it, the whine would quiet down but not go away totally.

The other day when I went to leave work, I got in my Jeep and it had no electrical power at all. A few weeks ago my battery was acting like it was going bad, and not holding a charge overnight, but when I took it to NAPA, they were able to recharge it all the way and their machine indicated no problems, it was just low. So I pop the hood and pull the negative cable off the battery, then put it back on, and I hear the key in buzzer inside, so I get in and it cranks up just fine and starts. I drove home without any further problems, and the next day had no problems with it starting either. Yesterday morning I go to drive to work, and I'm back to having no electrical power again. This time fiddling with the ground cable on the battery isn't doing anything, it just has no power at all.

I don't have a voltmeter with me at the moment, it's at a friends house from diagnosing an issue on his car a couple weeks ago. Does anyone have any ideas on what it could be? I was planning on getting a new battery cable from the Carquest here in town but I'm working for the remainder of the week and they're closed by the time I get off in the evening. Is there anything I can check on my own to see what I need to repair/replace? I am very tight on money at the moment and don't want to just throw parts at it, I want to fix it once and be done.

Oh, somewhat off topic from that, how the hell do you guys get aftermarket head units to go back into the dash? A friend installed the one in mine last summer, and I was thinking the feedback in the speakers could be a loose wire, so I pulled the HU out this afternoon. All the connections looked good, but when I went to reinstall it it just seems like there isn't enough room for the wires back there so I can slide the HU all the way back.

Problem A: Possibly a bad ground, Or a bad alturnator

Problem B: Keep trying, you gotta push the wires out of the way. its not easy

First of all, refresh all your grounds. Don't just look at them. Refresh means disconnecting the wires/cables where ever they connect, clean the wire terminals til bright and shiny. Then scrape the body/engine connection spots til they're bright and shiny. Then reattach the wires/cables. The two biggest culprits are the engine dipstick tube stud, and from the back of the head to driver side firewall. I would do the sam with your negative cable connection. It never hurts to add a second ground cable from the engine to the chassis and/or a ground cable from the negative battery cable to the chassis. I did both. This is your starting point.

Agree.

Your problem could be bad cables/grounds, bad alternator, parasitic draw, or worst of all CODT--Combination Of Different Things.

Your problem could be CODT or ASOS, but start with the grounds and cables.

asos = All sorts of shit? lol

nw-xj-scott said:

asos = All sorts of shit? lol

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You win the cookie.

Good advice but if this is happening to groups of items then I would look at the fusable links. These guys are tricky and should not be overlooked.

Since you could have a CODT or ASOS I suggest FTFG.

Finally got a day off tomorrow that I can look at it and grab a new ground cable. Gonna try that first, and go from there. Definitely sounds like a bad ground, I'll see what I can dig up.

Got it fixed. Replaced the ground cable first (terminal was messed up anyway), didn't fix it. While looking around the wires, I found a cable that comes from the positive terminal that goes to some distribution area rear of the battery tray that had come apart thanks to the previous owner's hack of splicing together a wire. Grabbed some new wire, made my own piece, put it on, and it fixed it.

Congratulations.

Miller Time :cheers:

joe_peters said:

Miller Time :cheers:

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Actually the current beverage in front of me is a Dos Equis. :cheers:

SonicCougar99 said:

Actually the current beverage in front of me is a Dos Equis. :cheers:

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Theres something funny with this. and it has to do with you being in arizona... haven't put my finger on it yet tho.:greensmok

nw-xj-scott said:

Theres something funny with this. and it has to do with you being in arizona... haven't put my finger on it yet tho.:greensmok

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Dos Equis--is that probable cause in AZ? :confused1

joe_peters said:

Dos Equis--is that probable cause in AZ? :confused1

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My sniffer suspects he's a smuggler.. atriot:

joe_peters said:

Dos Equis--is that probable cause in AZ? :confused1

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The illegals actually prefer Bud Light. Dos Equis comes across the border legally, without trashing our beautiful state. .

cruiser54 said:

The illegals actually prefer Bud Light. Dos Equis comes across the border legally, without trashing our beautiful state. .

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:laugh2:

Yeah, I've never been much of a beer drinker so I'm not picky, I usually just drink whatever my friends bring over or have in their fridge. But I have found that Dos Equis is pretty good actually. MUCH better than Corona, I have to say.