New Jeep owner here

S

SBellew

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Attalla, AL
Hi, my name is Scot and I am new to the world of Jeep and 4WD in general. I previously had a Dodge Ramcharger, but did not get offroad with it too much and have sold it off and bought a 1988 Jeep Cherokee.

I bought it off ATL Craigslist, the guy was asking $200 but I ended up paying $175. The problems he told me of are no fuel to the engine and it burns oil.

So far, I have replaced all the orings on the fuel injectors and put in a known good fuel pressure regulator (and oring) and new fuel quick connects due to leaking on the input line and missing on the fuel return. It will run a few seconds with gas in the TB, but will not start on its own. I pushed the test port and gas comes out. I have to get a gauge to check the pressure now.

Any suggestions would be great. I do know for sure it has a new CPS on it though.

Pics you say? Why not:
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That is an awesome score for $175.

Welcome to the club.
 
Heck yeah it is. I've been thinking of starting over. All I gotta do is find a $175 dollar Jeep and it's MINE!
 
First of all welcome :cheers:
I would get a fuel pressure gauge and see if it is at the correct pressure if it is not it will not run . check to see if there is power going to the pump when the key is on . that is all I can come up with right now
 
Welcome! In addition to what Shrek suggested, take a look at the fuel filter and/or pump. Went down a similar road not too long ago on a 90 4.0L. All of a sudden started running like crap, then got to the point where it was backfiring a tad through the intake (indicating lean mixture). We changed the filter with no results. Hooked a fuel pressure gauge to it and it was reading pressure, however not anywhere close to what it should have been. Picked up a pump from the local junkyard just to try out and upon removing the pump from the 90, we saw that the pick up line to the pump had fallen off...whoever installed the last fuel pump didn't tighten it up.

Put the pick up line back on, threw the pump back in and it fired right up and ran great....however immediately blew out the fuel pressure regulator :banghead:

Might not hurt to pull the pump out and make sure all lines are still connected.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys, gonna head on out and test out some of the ideas. Hopefully this will not be a nightmare. The kids that I bought it from did not seem to know what they were doing. Still trying to figure out why they have a push button under the hood for the starter. Have not jacked it up yet to see what kind of mess the wiring is in.
 
SBellew said:
Thanks for the suggestions guys, gonna head on out and test out some of the ideas. Hopefully this will not be a nightmare. The kids that I bought it from did not seem to know what they were doing. Still trying to figure out why they have a push button under the hood for the starter. Have not jacked it up yet to see what kind of mess the wiring is in.
Click to expand...


Welcome to the club and SEC! On the push button for starting it might be like mine and the neutral start switch is shot or intermittent at best so I wired around it with a momentary toggle switch so I can just put the key in the start position and tap that switch and she fires up. Our they didn't know about the NS switch and hardwired the starter :doh:
 
Is the key tumbler/ingition cylinder working okay? Mine had a push button starter in it since the key ignition was messed up. I bought a new one from Advance Auto for $10 and problem was solved.
 
I decided to go ahead and try to locate the reason that the switch will not turn the starter. I located a green wire coming from the starter and going to this thing here (green wire on the center terminal) that is mounted directly behind the battery (which I have no idea what it is at this time, the manual does not show what this item is but it looks like some type of relay with power gong off it to several other devices under the hood):

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It got dark on me and I have to finish reading a book and start writing an essay that is due Thursday so I hope that I will get a little more time tomorrow to look into it, but am not quite sure yet.
 
ok on the back of that relay you have a post that goes to the battery. i think that plug you have under it with the red and green is the one you need to jump to that post. it will fire the jeep up as long as the ignition is in the run spot.

pushbuttonstarter.jpg


heres the pic i have on mine. the "new" yellow ish connector goes off to a post in my button starter and the other post is connected to the post. i put inline fuses on both because i melted some 12g primary wire.
 
I finally found a picture of that component in the Haynes manual. It says that it is a Motorcraft starter solenoid. Here is a link to a new one, but my starter appears to have the solenoid built into it so I do not know if this is even necessary.

The wiring diagram in the manual is not all inclusive like I was hoping. Guess I will try to trace wiring from the switch tomorrow and see what I can find out because none of the wires that I see on the component were hot when the switch was turned over to 'start'.
 
Last edited:
SBellew said:
I finally found a picture of that component in the Haynes manual. It says that it is a Motorcraft starter solenoid. Here is a link to a new one, but my starter appears to have the solenoid built into it so I do not know if this is even necessary.

The wiring diagram in the manual is not all inclusive like I was hoping. Guess I will try to trace wiring from the switch tomorrow and see what I can find out because none of the wires that I see on the component were hot when the switch was turned over to 'start'.
Click to expand...

Yea the 84 - 90 xj's had them in both places. The one on the fender is the one that gave me trouble in my 84. It needed it too. For those of you with NSS problems, just ground it out. Problem solved. I believe its the black wire with white stripe.
 
Well, she's alive and kicking. Went down to the Pull-A-Part in Birmingham the other day and picked up a starter solenoid and ECU. Put them on and she started up. Also starts up now with the switch so I got rid of the push button that the PO put on there.

Tested out the transmission and found that it is in Neutral when the shifter says park, so when I get a chance, gotta crawl under there and adjust the linkage. Then comes the test drive. Seems like all the electrical items (headlights and such) work so far.

Next time I am at the PAP, I will get a turn signal (broken lever) and a couple of tail lights (both cracked).
 
SBellew said:
Well, she's alive and kicking. Went down to the Pull-A-Part in Birmingham the other day and picked up a starter solenoid and ECU. Put them on and she started up. Also starts up now with the switch so I got rid of the push button that the PO put on there.

Tested out the transmission and found that it is in Neutral when the shifter says park, so when I get a chance, gotta crawl under there and adjust the linkage. Then comes the test drive. Seems like all the electrical items (headlights and such) work so far.

Next time I am at the PAP, I will get a turn signal (broken lever) and a couple of tail lights (both cracked).
Click to expand...

It will probably be jsut as easy to pull the whole collum. LOL! I see you were "Bored" LOL!
 
that is a starter relay not the starter solenoid, i just replaced mine uneccessarily because of a bad connection at the battery terminal. it is technically a solenoid BUT its not the true starter solenoid, it just tells the the starter to fire up.

first check and see if you can get sparks with a screwdriver across the top of the starter solenoid (ie the cyclinder on the starter) then if you are getting spark you need to check to see if the relay is bad by putting a 12v from the battery straight to the starter solenoid to check and see if it trys to start.

also checking the battery and/or starter is free at advance so that can help eliminate the gremlin... if it starts with the batter straight to the starter then i would check the ignition switch,

oh and dont forget to check the battery terminal connectors... mine was just loose and it cause me to die everytime i tried to start it (if it would even start/turn over)

hope that helps...
 
YJ-GENRAL said:
that is a starter relay not the starter solenoid, i just replaced mine uneccessarily because of a bad connection at the battery terminal. it is technically a solenoid BUT its not the true starter solenoid, it just tells the the starter to fire up.
Click to expand...

That is not correct on the 84-86. They have a starter solenoid on the PS fender. I see his is an 88 though. I cannot remember on them.
 
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