old_man
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Loveland, Colorado
I have been working on cars for over 40 years and seldom do I get stumped. My specialty is the XJ. A buddy got a 90 YJ for his wife and it has two probems. My thought is that they may be related.
They originally brought it to me because randomly it would not crank. As always when I got it, I couldn't make it fail It had the tilt column and it was very loose, so I disassembled it and tightened it up, then gave it back to them. A few days later it started the no crank symptoms again.
If you waited a few minutes, you could normally get it to crank. If it cranked, it started just fine. Yesterday, they called me and sait it would not start, even if it cranked.
I was able to take a look at the vehicle tonight. When you turned the key, it might crank, it might not. In the middle of cranking, it would just stop. You could hold the key perfectly still in the crank position and it might just start cranking again. I put a voltmeter on the trigger wire on the starter and it had 12v and then it would drop to 0v and stop cranking. This means that it is not the starter. That is one issue.
The second issue is that even when cranking, it does not fire. I pulled the coil wire and it has nice big fat sparks. The rotor and cap look fine. The plugs had some brownish buildup and were totally gas wet fouled. I pulled the plugs and cranked it over several seconds with plugs out, then put in a fresh set of Champions. When I cranked it, I got a couple of pops for the first second or two, then no fire. I shot some carb cleaner down the intake and still no fire.
There are only three things I can think of: the cam position sensor is crap and it is firing 180 off, the injectors are firing so much that the mixture is too rich to ignite, or the exhaust is plugged (not likely as it was working fine before).
Any YJ folks have and insight on things that might be unique to a YJ?
I am going to put a set of noid lights on it tomorrow.
They originally brought it to me because randomly it would not crank. As always when I got it, I couldn't make it fail It had the tilt column and it was very loose, so I disassembled it and tightened it up, then gave it back to them. A few days later it started the no crank symptoms again.
If you waited a few minutes, you could normally get it to crank. If it cranked, it started just fine. Yesterday, they called me and sait it would not start, even if it cranked.
I was able to take a look at the vehicle tonight. When you turned the key, it might crank, it might not. In the middle of cranking, it would just stop. You could hold the key perfectly still in the crank position and it might just start cranking again. I put a voltmeter on the trigger wire on the starter and it had 12v and then it would drop to 0v and stop cranking. This means that it is not the starter. That is one issue.
The second issue is that even when cranking, it does not fire. I pulled the coil wire and it has nice big fat sparks. The rotor and cap look fine. The plugs had some brownish buildup and were totally gas wet fouled. I pulled the plugs and cranked it over several seconds with plugs out, then put in a fresh set of Champions. When I cranked it, I got a couple of pops for the first second or two, then no fire. I shot some carb cleaner down the intake and still no fire.
There are only three things I can think of: the cam position sensor is crap and it is firing 180 off, the injectors are firing so much that the mixture is too rich to ignite, or the exhaust is plugged (not likely as it was working fine before).
Any YJ folks have and insight on things that might be unique to a YJ?
I am going to put a set of noid lights on it tomorrow.
just tryin to help
