I left work and the Montero started normally, I went a few miles down the road to pick up something at the store. 10-15 min later I get back in the car but now it won't start. 3.5 V6 automatic. I took apart the shifter to look at the inhibitor switch, which I cleaned a month or so ago.

It's acting the same way as if the switch isn't aligned right, I.e not fully in park. Which has happened before. No click-click-click sound nor dead battery. I'm thinking a bit of crap got underneath the moving part of the inhibitor switch, but I don't know. I guess I'll sit here and see if I can clean it some more but its getting dark. Lol

FYI, its got 223k miles and most everything has been rebuilt, including an engine rebuild 10k miles ago etc. Has run great.

The alternator is new and battery has plenty of juice. When turning the key to crank, I can hear the relay click, but nothing after that - I.e. no cranking sound like if it was trying to start.

Inhibitor switch gone bad? Something with the ignition? I'm out of ideas but it's been a long day.

btw is it a 3.0 and you typo'd or did your or someone swap in a 3.5 v6? 90 didn't get that motor(3.5)
If your hearing a click could be bad solenoid or the ignition switch is going and isn't passing a constant amount of juice down the pipe. I've had both go bad before bout. if you need a new Inhibitor switch autozone carries them for about 50 bones now when those have gone bad you get nothing power doesn't get past if you think its that the black and yellow wires are the starter wires just make a jumper wire at the inhibitor plug. you can cross the poles on the starter solenoid and start the truck if you get nothing doing that go pull the starter and change it out if you do this make sure to put the truck in park and set the parking brake just to cover your bases why not right.

Thanks! Sorry about the typo, I meant 3.0 of course. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/drunk.gif" alt="" />

I'll check those out things out. The inhibitor switch looked good and I scrubbed the gunk off it that I missed earlier last month, unless there's some internal part that is clogged or just shot.

Which solenoid are you referring to? You mean the ignition coil?

no the starter solenoid take a screw driver and use it to bridge the two points that i circled in red this will make the starter run if you run the key to run and should the starter work it will start the engine so beware.

Turns out the inhibitor switch was just plain dead. The roller pin might just have not been making decent contact anymore(?), even after cleaning. I didn't try jumping the wiring though, so who knows. I wish I knew a way to take that sliding part out to inspect it, but it seems you'd have to mangle the housing to do so, but hell, got a whole new one in there now and everything is back to normal.

Thanks for the assist!

You may benefit from this thread that I revived from over a decade ago.

Salvaged my inhibitor switch

Hey Jay, I did find your awesome thread when this happened the first time 1 or 2 months ago. So at least I got a few more miles out of the old switch after cleaning it....this time around though, no amount of cleaning seemed to bring it back from the dead.

I'm glad that there are people here with info & resources that help us keep these on the road (and off-roading too).

Hey,

so I just learned this trick. If that switch dies, you can make a little piece of wire (like an inch long) and jump past the switch by tieing together black/yellow wire going to the plug for the inhibitor switch. Yea, so you'll be able to start in any gear but at least that will get you going...

part from autozone is around $50... ask me how I know <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> lol

Anyone ever had a new inhib switch fail on them? It won't start 1st thing this morning, after sitting overnight. I've had zero problems in the last ~3 months, now I'm seeing the same behavior as before - turn key all the way to on, everything acts normal, but it won't crank - just the one click.

Tried racking the shifter through the gears a few times, pulled and inspected the switch. Didn't try jumping the 2 wires on the switch as the part might still be under warranty (need to check on that).

I haven't ruled out trying to jump the starter, but is there anything deeper down in the shifter guts, or under the floorboard past the inhib switch that I should check? Kinda perplexed here.