Hiya everyone long time reader first time poster here.
I have 96 Cherokee that wont turn over. I can here the solenoid clicking but thats it. I thought for sure it was the starter, I replaced that and I still have the same problem. I know its not the batter cause everything else comes on, plus I can push start it as its a manual. No corrosion on the battery terminals. Also I replaced the starter relay. I'm at a loss. Any help would be grateful.

 

Don't be so sure about that battery. It takes minimal juice to light up your dash gauges.

Have your battery LOAD TESTED. Any parts store will do this for you for free. It is the only accurate way of determining battery condition.

Still problematic? Get a meter and put it on the starter itself. You should have approximately full battery voltage there with the key in the ON position. If you do have that voltage, suspect your starter. If you do NOT, then you need to start working your way back into the engine bay to find out why (ie: voltage drop due to bad cable, etc).

 

I just put in a battery from someone else's car and it fired right up. But thats the second battery I have replaced just after a year of having it in. Alternator problems? Thanks for the help.

 

Alternator output is pretty easy to verify.

You can have a parts store check it for free or you can perform a quick and dirty test yourself.

Get a meter and put it on both terminals of your battery. Choose 20V DC range, unless meter is autoranging. At idle, with a fully charged battery, you should see somewhere between 13.5 and 14.0 volts, give or take a little, no need to be ****.

If the charging system is working fine, you have just had bad luck with batteries. It happens.

 

Just because the lights and radio come on does not mean the battery is good. A load test is the only way to see if the voltage is dropping down too far with a heavy load.

 

Just got the alternator tested. Everything was good. I guess you're right, I just have bad luck with batteries.