TurboMinivan
Still plays with cars
- Location
- Lehi, UT
(I tell this story in the hope that it may one day help someone else in a similar situation.)
As some of you know, my Jeep broke in the middle of running Kane Creek Canyon at EJS--it wouldn't start. Push starting it worked great, and once it was running it ran perfectly normal. It just wouldn't crank.
Side note: when I first discovered the problem, John (gijohn40) was right behind me in line. When he heard about my no-crank issue, he quickly grabbed his multimeter and proceeded to crawl all over the inside and underside of my Jeep. I swear, he must have verified continuity on damn near every wire on the entire vehicle. He began at the starter and worked his way backwards to the ignition switch, and we also verified power at the PDC (all fuses intact, relay working properly, etc). In the end, he pointed the finger of blame at the ignition switch itself. I didn't have a spare with me, and we didn't have the time to swap it out anyway. John jumped in front of me in line, permanently attached a tow strap to his rear bumper, them looped the other end over his spare tire. For the rest of the day, whenever we stopped and I shut down, he used his Jeep to pull start me. (John is now officially invited to accompany me on every future Jeep trail run I make.)
I trailered the Jeep back home and parked it in the driveway until I had time to look at it, which was today. This morning I tore into the steering column to remove the ignition switch... which means I had to remove a number of other items to get to the switch. No big deal. Eventually I got to the point of removing the switch itself. Just as I pulled it from its mount, I heard a distinct metallic ping, ping noise as something either fell or flew out of place and bounced around my interior. My gaze instantly went to the floor to see where the item would eventually fall, but... no luck. I had no idea what it was, where it came from, or where it landed. Great.
Shrugging it off, I took the ignition switch to my work bench for testing. I have fresh copies from the FSM which detail the pinout of the switch and what each wire is supposed to do. Using a screwdriver to move the switch through its range of stops, I tested and verified that the switch was working perfectly. Even in the Start position, it properly connected the input power circuit to the output power circuit, exactly as it is supposed to do. The switch itself has now been exonerated.
Confused, I went back out to the Jeep. Without really thinking about it, I found myself starting to look and feel around for the mystery part that went flying. After a brief search, I found this:
It is about 1/4" wide and about 3/4" long. I had no idea what this was, but because it was made of metal I was positive this was the flying item from earlier. I decided to find out where it goes... and it didn't take me very long. As it happens, the ignition lock cylinder does not interface directly with the ignition switch. Instead, there is an intermediate metal piece which is turned by the lock cylinder, and this piece is what fits into the ignition switch and causes it to turn in tandem. Guess what it looked like?
What do you know--it has a matching break spot. It was obvious that this break was a recent happening, because both pieces were perfectly shiny and clean along the surface of the break, unlike every other thing inside the steering column which was covered in a thick layer of dust and dirt. As I held the broken piece in place, it all started to make sense. The end of this piece (combined with the part that hadn't broken) forms a rectangular shape, and the ignition switch has a matching rectangular hole for it to fit in. From my bench testing of the switch, I now knew that it is very easy to move the switch through the Acc-Off-On-Start positions. However, it takes considerably more effort to rotate the switch to the Start position, apparently because you are fighting against the internal return spring. I theorized that the remaining half of the broken rod was able to turn the switch through the Acc-Off-On-Start positions, but it could not transfer enough torque to engage the Start position.
To test my theory, I needed another intermediate rod. Chrysler won't sell me one by itself; I would have to buy an entire steering column. Alpine Lock said they couldn't get one, either. I drove up to A-Partsmart (next to the dragstrip) since I knew they had a few TJs in stock, but they were all missing their entire steering columns. Getting desperate, I found a 2000 Grand Cherokee with an intact column. I began dismantling its column and could see my holy grail, but suddenly I remembered that you can't remove it without first removing the lock cylinder, and you can't remove that without having the key to turn the cylinder from Off to On. I tore through the entire vehicle, but its key was nowhere to be found. Damn--so close and yet so far.
I gathered my tools and was about to leave empty handed, but decided to look at their two other WJs just in case. One of them had no column, but the other had its column in place and it was entirely intact except for the lock cylinder itself, which for some unknown reason was missing. Woo-hoo! I hastily tore it open and retrieved my cherished item, then happily paid $10 and left. Once back at home, I installed it and gave it a go--the Jeep fired right up.
So it turned out not to be an electrical problem after all, but instead a bizarre mechanical failure.
As some of you know, my Jeep broke in the middle of running Kane Creek Canyon at EJS--it wouldn't start. Push starting it worked great, and once it was running it ran perfectly normal. It just wouldn't crank.
Side note: when I first discovered the problem, John (gijohn40) was right behind me in line. When he heard about my no-crank issue, he quickly grabbed his multimeter and proceeded to crawl all over the inside and underside of my Jeep. I swear, he must have verified continuity on damn near every wire on the entire vehicle. He began at the starter and worked his way backwards to the ignition switch, and we also verified power at the PDC (all fuses intact, relay working properly, etc). In the end, he pointed the finger of blame at the ignition switch itself. I didn't have a spare with me, and we didn't have the time to swap it out anyway. John jumped in front of me in line, permanently attached a tow strap to his rear bumper, them looped the other end over his spare tire. For the rest of the day, whenever we stopped and I shut down, he used his Jeep to pull start me. (John is now officially invited to accompany me on every future Jeep trail run I make.)
I trailered the Jeep back home and parked it in the driveway until I had time to look at it, which was today. This morning I tore into the steering column to remove the ignition switch... which means I had to remove a number of other items to get to the switch. No big deal. Eventually I got to the point of removing the switch itself. Just as I pulled it from its mount, I heard a distinct metallic ping, ping noise as something either fell or flew out of place and bounced around my interior. My gaze instantly went to the floor to see where the item would eventually fall, but... no luck. I had no idea what it was, where it came from, or where it landed. Great.
Shrugging it off, I took the ignition switch to my work bench for testing. I have fresh copies from the FSM which detail the pinout of the switch and what each wire is supposed to do. Using a screwdriver to move the switch through its range of stops, I tested and verified that the switch was working perfectly. Even in the Start position, it properly connected the input power circuit to the output power circuit, exactly as it is supposed to do. The switch itself has now been exonerated.
Confused, I went back out to the Jeep. Without really thinking about it, I found myself starting to look and feel around for the mystery part that went flying. After a brief search, I found this:
It is about 1/4" wide and about 3/4" long. I had no idea what this was, but because it was made of metal I was positive this was the flying item from earlier. I decided to find out where it goes... and it didn't take me very long. As it happens, the ignition lock cylinder does not interface directly with the ignition switch. Instead, there is an intermediate metal piece which is turned by the lock cylinder, and this piece is what fits into the ignition switch and causes it to turn in tandem. Guess what it looked like?
What do you know--it has a matching break spot. It was obvious that this break was a recent happening, because both pieces were perfectly shiny and clean along the surface of the break, unlike every other thing inside the steering column which was covered in a thick layer of dust and dirt. As I held the broken piece in place, it all started to make sense. The end of this piece (combined with the part that hadn't broken) forms a rectangular shape, and the ignition switch has a matching rectangular hole for it to fit in. From my bench testing of the switch, I now knew that it is very easy to move the switch through the Acc-Off-On-Start positions. However, it takes considerably more effort to rotate the switch to the Start position, apparently because you are fighting against the internal return spring. I theorized that the remaining half of the broken rod was able to turn the switch through the Acc-Off-On-Start positions, but it could not transfer enough torque to engage the Start position.
To test my theory, I needed another intermediate rod. Chrysler won't sell me one by itself; I would have to buy an entire steering column. Alpine Lock said they couldn't get one, either. I drove up to A-Partsmart (next to the dragstrip) since I knew they had a few TJs in stock, but they were all missing their entire steering columns. Getting desperate, I found a 2000 Grand Cherokee with an intact column. I began dismantling its column and could see my holy grail, but suddenly I remembered that you can't remove it without first removing the lock cylinder, and you can't remove that without having the key to turn the cylinder from Off to On. I tore through the entire vehicle, but its key was nowhere to be found. Damn--so close and yet so far.
I gathered my tools and was about to leave empty handed, but decided to look at their two other WJs just in case. One of them had no column, but the other had its column in place and it was entirely intact except for the lock cylinder itself, which for some unknown reason was missing. Woo-hoo! I hastily tore it open and retrieved my cherished item, then happily paid $10 and left. Once back at home, I installed it and gave it a go--the Jeep fired right up.
So it turned out not to be an electrical problem after all, but instead a bizarre mechanical failure.
