My Jeep now revvs to 5000rpms. It also starts much nicer and runs smoother. The distributor gear wasn't installed correclty. The dizzy only goes on one way but it wasn't lined up with TDC. The shop was surprised how well it ran being so far out of time.
On my way home though, about 5 miles out from the shop, it stumbled pretty hard and acted down on power for a second. I clutched in and it revved out fine. I'll see what that's about tomorrow.
Glad she's getting better
Edit: and start gathering parts and money for that "Not A 4BT" 4cyl Cummins turbo diesel turn key crate engine
I've been avoiding this thread because I'm not going to tell anyone to not buy a Jeep. I see that's not what's going on now. I miss my 97 badly. I can't explain it, 4x2, 4.0, auto. Loved it. I'd buy another in a heartbeat if I had any interest in 90s Jeep electrics. Mine had the distributor fail, manifold crack, radiator split, ecm fail, myriad crank sensors, and the compass always said N even if I was facing S.
Glad your problems are getting fewer. Enjoy the Jeep. Check your grounds. Down with Toyota.
This chassis is clean enough I'd think of swapping but that's well out of the budget of this ski instructor. R2.8 being one of the engines I dream of though. Wonder if AdvanceAdapters wants to sponsor me for an XJ swap alpha kit.
I drove 17 miles this morning. Speeds between 25 and 55. Even up an 8% grade for 1/2 mile. Ran better than ever before until the last 1/4 mile. Pulling into the parking lot it lost power. I clutched in and it revved fine but under load it bogged and sputtered. I gave it full throttle and it bucked and kinda pulled and got me up the hill into the parking lot.
She wouldn't crank this afternoon. One slow crank and then nothing. Multimeter said 12.75 volts. Did I kill a battery too? Could low voltage be the stumble I felt earlier? This car's never charged very high, usually 13.75v at idle with nothing on and 13.25 with all accessories.
So when I give up and engine swap it, I'm thinking about the XJ Trackhawk look.
In reply to buzzboy :
12.75 is plenty high for cranking. Next up is turn the motor by hand to prove it can and then trigger the starter. I don't remember, will the Jeep let you bypass the starter relay with a chunk of metal or am I just remembering that from my Rabbit? A slow crank at 12.75 really sounds like a starter.
I had a 98 XJ money pit, but I did have a lot of nice work in it, I just couldn't trust it in the middle of nowhere. $3500 XJ with $7k in repairs and upgrades (I try not to remember) and then it blew a headgasket. If you stick with the 4.0 and/or your existing trans (assuming AX15), swapping to the 6 speed was the best drivability mod I did. So easy, so good.
Matthew
Yeah, I wasn't thinking, I was just tired and mad. I swapped the starter in the Safeway parking lot. From purchase to core return was just under an hour. At least she's easy to work on(except the damn CPS). And, with core deposit, it was cheaper than a new battery. Starts better than it has since I've owned it. That was likely the original starter.
Getting up to the driveway it did the stumble thing again. I gave it more throttle and it pushed through the stumble. It was idling a bit odd(video for reference). Hunting a bit. You can also hear how bad my exhaust leak got when it was taken off for the clutch job.
I did an ECU reset and fired it back up. Seems to be idling smoother now. We'll see if that continues tomorrow on my way to work. I can only hope.
Have you checked your grounds? I also had a negative battery cable go bad on a truck once and it caused all sorts of wonky issues.
If an ecu reset changed the way it ran, it must have built up significant trims, probably fuel trims. Is your exhaust leak upstream of the primary O2 sensor? If so, that sensor is reading artificially lean.
Fix the leak, or, in the meantime, electrically unplug the primary O2 sensor so it can't send a garbage signal to the ecu.
Exhaust leak is after the muffler. Actually when the shop did the clutch they replaced the gaskets upstream of the cat and fixed an old exhaust leak.
I've had about 100 care free miles and thought today might be the day to try my luck, 100 mile round trip to Reno and all my shopping down there. Loaded my dump tanks in the back and after work I set off to the big city. 3 miles outside of work the Jeep shut off again, much like in my original post. Berk. It wouldn't fire back up, but damn does she spin quick with the new starter.
I unplugged and re-plugged all the wires related to the ignition: CPS, Coil 12V and Coil HT lead. I also unplugged and wiggled the fuel pump and ASD relays. She fired right back up and I drove home with no stumbles or stutters. I just don't trust going in to the city today. I need to, but that worried me. Maybe if she makes it work fine tomorrow I'll go in. I really don't want to come back to Truckee on a rollback.
Sounds like fuel but I don't recall if you've ruled that out or not
New(5000 miles ago) pump, sock and filter. I agree though on it sounding like a fuel problem. Feels like an issue I've had on an old carburetted car with a bad mixture. What's weird to me though is it just dying then starting up fine a few minutes later.
It does not sound like you are getting warm enough to worry about vapor lock. Might there have been some bad gas and you have a glob of water that gets up to the injectors and then trickles back down to a low point? That is a stretch for a six cylinder, though.
Matthew
I had a similar issue with my Nissan, random shut off while driving, I ended up having a ignition relay near the ECU that had intermittent contact. Testing relays is quick and easy with a battery
It feels like a fuel issue this time for sure. I drove down to Reno today, about 50 miles no issue. Ran the tank almost dry and refilled with new fuel. On my way back up the hill I started to get some issues. It randomly feels like the engine has shut off while driving, zero power. But, I can clutch in and it revvs just fine. Coming home tonight, 1500 feet up to Truckee and another 1000 feet up to the house, it really felt terrible. Feels like it loses power and gains it back and loses it again. I can floor it to eventually get some power back but it stutters and bucks pretty hard. Still, clutch in it revvs out to 5k like nothing.
How do I diagnose a random issue? Today on my way to work the Jeep shut off while coasting in gear up to a stop light. Thankfully it fired right up. After work it shut off for me again, going up hill at 15mph in 2nd gear. It wouldn't fire back up so I opened the hood to make sure nothing seemed out of sorts. It didn't and it fired up and drove me 5 miles an 1000 vertical feet back home. I've got to drive this thing back to NC, 45 hours, in April.
Start moving wires and connections around while it's idling. I'd start with connections related to the fuel system.
That's what worries me, when it shut off I could still hear the fuel pump, actually louder because there's no other noises. The pump, sock and filter are ~6000 miles old.
It could be injector wiring....
Back at the mechanic again. Intermittent dieing is hard to diagnose. It took him a week of random test drives to have it die on him. When it dies the fuel pump is still running and the injectors are still firing. A dead CPS kills injectors on these and the tach still works perfectly after the ignition cuts. So that makes him believe it's not the CPS.
None of these problems happened before the clutch went out. I wonder if something changed at that point.
Less than a month until I have to drive back to the summer job (and Pitt Race!) so I'm starting to worry a little. There are some nice looking trucks on autotrader....
I would bet you have a bad/spotty connection that was compromised when the transmission was r/r'd
Mechanic drove the jeep 70 miles: around town, up the steep pass then out on a dirt road. Never acted up. He doesn't want to just throw parts at it and charge me money. Those being coil, CPS and PCM. I respect that decision highly. So I paid the man for the O2 sensor and diagnostics and headed home. Of course it lost ignition about 2 miles from his shop....
I decided to buy a coil and CPS from Napa just to cross them off the list. The old coil's primary resistance tested a little high at 1.4Ω while factory spec is 0.95-1.2Ω. Hopefully that helps. I have a tested spare PCM but it's in my storage unit 2850 miles from here.
My worry now is timing. I need to be out of here by April 6. What if I don't trust the Jeep by then?
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