My father-in-law has a 1990 jeep cherokee 4.0L inline6. He was driving it the other day when it died on him. Now it will start but stall immediately after letting go of the key. I have been reading some threads and thought possibly an ignition switch problem. If anyone can help out with this or has any ideas it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Need more details.
Here is my story.
Have a 91 Limited with the factory security system.
When you disconnect the battery (or have a bad ground connection) it will reset the system default to no start!
Spent 3 days pulling my hair out. I have been a mechanic on and off all my adult life and couldn't figure out what was wrong. I'm a lot older than I look!
Seems the key (pun intended) is to put the key in the drivers door lock and turn it back and forth a coulple of times. This will reset the security system. Should start right up.
Oh yeah fix that bad ground too!

 

Mine has done the samething several times,I always seem to forget what causes it when it does,but on the left fender well inside the engine bay is a small white porcelin connector with a wire to and from,if it is not connected or loose,it will stall,it is for the fuel pump,but not sure yet what is does. try it and see.

 

It's a resistor to step down the voltage from 12 volts to 7 or 8 or something. older chyrslers had one that went to the distruibuter.

 

wow i learned tw things in this thread and i have been a mechanic since 94 and worked on billions and billions of things

getting this 89 XJ recently in not running condition(had to stab in the distributor and connect ground wires and crank sensor to the ECM to make it run, the other day after no one could make it run in the past 4 years of trying ahahah, it took me 45 minutes to make it run and i have was driving it offroad all day today it runs like brand new


anyways wow i never have cme across a security system that would reset by turning a door lock back and forth wow

and i was wondering about that porcelain thing on the fender as well

i dont do older chryslers because none exist anymore
and usually the security systems reset by leaving the ign key switch in run position for about 20 minutes

or so on the '90s gm cars anyways

i learned something new here for the brain bank yay

thanks

good luck!

 

i had this exact problem when i first got my 89 it will stay running as long as the key is held in the start position as soon as you let off it will die i changed out many of things threw out the ignition on the passanger side behind the battery there should be 3-4 relay one is the ignition relay it should be the only relay with 4pins on it replace it with a new one it MUST be a 4pin relay though ive heard if you ask at autozone they show it as a standard 5pin relay which if you put one in you will get the same issue and it will not fix the problem
idk why this isnt stickyed alot of people have been having the issue recently