1998 Jeep Cherokee ignition key wont turn car is in park

jiggy-jiggle the steering wheel left and right, while pushing and pulling on the key. if this does nothing one gets tempted to break out the ball-peen~

Yup, jiggle the key while turning the wheel left and right. Might be your shifter interlock as well.

i did have the same problem ion my 88 XJ i had to tear apart the steering column and reset the thing that the key connects to it's white n about half way down mine was worn out its very tricky to get it exactly so be sure to follow a haynes manual of course this might not be your problem but might be worth checking into good luck

inspect your shift lock cable it is a black cable (kinda like a bike brake cable) with yellow feeds on the ends of it one side conects to ignision right at bottom should pop right out simple clip and other side is connected to shifter base if this is not your problem it is definatly your ignision try getting a new key cut if your current one is worn down and if non of that works u need a new ignision a very easy way to replace is to take the hole steering colum out it 4 bolts under dash nd a bunch of wire clips u can get parts cheeep at any auto wrecker

Bang on the key. towards the colom. this will rattle the tumblers, allowing cyl. to turn. If this works respond to me and ill tell ya how to fix the cylinder