Battery or Starter?

My problems started after I switched from OEM motor mounts to MORE bombproof motor mounts. I switched the mounts and then two days later the motor would barely crank over.

Two things happened when changing the mounts:

1) When I was removing the oil filter bracket I grounded out the hot wire from the battery to the starter on the chassis and…

2) I briefly shorted the battery out by accident with a wrench.

If I drive the Jeep for a few hours then restart it within about 15-20 minutes it has no problem turning over.

If it sits over night, it will barely crank over the motor. I don’t know how old the battery is. I’ve had the Cherokee for a little less than a year and to this point haven’t had problems like this.

Any ideas?

Battery.

One short is bad......two is worse. I would replace the battery first.

Rev

Probably a bad battery. But you also may have blown a diode in the alternator, which can drain a good battery overnight. I would start with a proper load test on your battery, then if it checks good, move on to the charging system.

I've read in a couple of other post about when the starter goes bad, it draws too much current. Is this something that can be checked while the starter is in the vehicle or does the starter have to be taken out?

karstic said:

I've read in a couple of other post about when the starter goes bad, it draws too much current. Is this something that can be checked while the starter is in the vehicle or does the starter have to be taken out?

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I think you can do a voltage drop while it's still under the jeep, but it will take two people.

You say the problem came about just after you changed to a different type of motor mount... could it be that there is a poor (or non-existant) ground path for the engine with these new mounts? Perhaps you need a ground strap from the engine to the frame.