Alright, after weeks of pulling my hair out about why my Jeep won't start :mad3:, not to mention the couple hundred I spent on replacing starters, sensors, and such, I am 99% sure that I have found my problem: a PROLOCK ignition interrupt/kill security key thingy. I never knew what this thing was, until this morning. The Jeep had difficulty starting again, no clicking sounds, but power sent to everything else. I literally could not get it to start. So, I haxored it and used a screwdriver to send power directly to the starter and, low and behold, it cranked and fired up. I let it run for about 15 minutes, then shut it off. I decided to take the PROLOCK key out and put it in my pocket to throw away later. When I tried to start it back up, though, nothing happened. Three key turns later, still nothing. "Okay, this is weird...the engine was plenty warm and should have started right up. Maybe this key thing is important." I firmly plugged the PROLOCK key back into its receptacle, and turned the key...the Jeep instantly roared to life. I unplugged it = no crank, no start. Plugged it back in = instantly starts up. Just to make absolutely sure, I tried this unplug and plug back in procedure and it performed exactly the same as before.

SO, how do I get this thing out? I did some quick research this morning and it looks like PROLOCK went out of business about the same time that my TJ was manufactured (it's a '97). I'm guessing this system was dealer installed and I should probably take my Jeep to my local dealer to have it uninstalled. But, before I pay through the nose to have them remove a few wires, I wanted to see if anyone has encountered a similar issue.

By the way, thank you to all those who responded to my previous posts. Your advice helped me to better understand the whole system and how to narrow down the actual problem. :D

bump...anybody? I've read something about removing the starter kill relay inline, but don't have the foggiest idea where to go from there.

Its hard to tell without looking at it, but basically in a nutshell that key and the wiring that is attached to it was spliced into probably one of the 12v power wires, maybe the 12v switch, I'm not sure. Basically if you track down the ignition wires and see where they are spliced and remove them, repair the original stock ignition wire, then theoretically it should go back to normal. It doesn't sound like a system thats too confusing, I could be wrong. Get a test light, and start poking wires, it should be the easiest way to go about it, unless you can find a wiring diagram.