Fiddleplayer

Hi all been a while since on here. About 6 months ago I bought a 1998 Cherokee sport. In the last 4 weeks the ignition switch got stuck while trying to start. As a resolve I had to jimmy the key around to get it to catch and turn to start the vehicle.
I tried rocking the steering wheel back and fourth and moving the shift button but non of this seems to work other than playing around with the key for a while. It doesn't do this all of the time.
Is this an ignition switch about to fail or could something else cause this. Are these switches prone to go bad? I have a 95 and never had an issue with this on the 95.
Any ideas would be great.

BwanaBob

Sounds like you might have a bad actuator pin, found on 97-01 XJs. It is the piece
that connects the ignition cylinder to the ignition switch.
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...6XhRKBmQ%3D%3D

The long end that inserts into the ignition switch can sometimes crack and weaken,
as it did with mine. In that case, sometimes it works and sometimes not, and fiddling
with it can maybe get it to go.

Take a look at this video which explains the how the cylinder/actuator/switch assembly
works together.