I have a 2000 Durango 5.9l, and it has been giving me trouble starting. I replaced the neutral safety switch recently, had the battery tested and it is good, tested the starter....good, and still iffy.

What is happening is we got in it a week ago and nothing. No click or attempted cranking, nothing. That made me think it wasn't getting signal to the starter so I changed the nss.(It was doing this about a month ago too.) It started fine for 2 weeks, until a week ago. I thought maybe defective nss, but no good. When we removed the starter, had it tested, and put it back on......it turned right over. After driving it for 20 minutes or so, we parked it, killed it, and tried to turn it back over......nothing.

So I thought maybe warm and cold related? This morning i went out, tried it, and it turned right over. After warming it up for 15 or so minutes i shut it off and tried it......nothing. Then I realized that I had tilted the steering wheel while i was letting it warm up. I tilted and turned the key one click at a time until I raised it all the way up. It fired right up. In this position it fired numerous times.

Now I am by no means a mechanic. What's shorted out, and how do I fix it with out ruining my dash?

 

open up the steering column and look for a worn or damaged wire, the column opens up rather easily

 

So I did that, and it looked good. Problem I did find was that the manufacture date was 9/99, and it turns out the ignition switch and lock tumbler are a single assembly which created some confusion. It seems as though the problem lies with that part, so now I am hunting down YouTube videos to see how to transfer the actual tumbler section from the existing part to the replacement. After that, it should be a rap.

And love the quote.

 

also check your batt terminals i had a similar situation. and for some reason if there was the slightest amount of corrosion of the connectors my rango wouldn't start. so i sand the connectors really well and tightened the **** out of the connectors to the terminals and spayed on some anti corrosion stuff and it has never happened again. sounds weird but a loose connection and a little corrosion can be all it is. cheap and easy thing to try . that's my two cents hope you get it figured out.