Blood of a Jeep

Maybe. So its a red eliminator in Portland Oregon.The guy works at a market up here. Anyway, got to talking to him about it. He made it sound pretty beat,doesn't think it has much value, but I see a project. Its got rust and such, but it is complete and runs haha. He said hes gonna send it on its way soon. Anyway just throw in this up here.

Thanks guys. I really do appreciate the advice. All of it actually. I got where I needed with figuring stuff out on my own, but all input was mulled over. Currently, I'm just gonna get stock replacement components, mostly because I just wanna drive it now, and moneys tight with the holidays. I do like see in the discussions though because a lot if it sparks little things I forgot or missed. The Xj was my first car got her when I was 16 as a gift from family. I'm now 24 so as you can imagine I'm wholly invested in her. One day she'll get all the 'spensive goodies. Hopefully soon, but in the mean time its about keeping her Rollin. I've been her only mechanic since I got her, so far its been a blast. Anyway, thanks all.

OK I tore into the area. Found that my harmonic balancer piece spun inside of the outer ring. Got into the timing chain and found a roller style chain,like a bicycle has. I don't think that's stock the marks line up on the gears, but I'm curious about the amount of deflection on the roller style, is it still half an inch like the factory chain is?

I'm curious if this means anything significant to anyone. Clearly I have a few timing issues. I'm not discounting anyone's opinions, just trying to gather things I haven't thought of or checked. As far as minimum allowable compression, idk what it is, but I know 120s enough to run a 4.0, at least the ones I've checked.

Compression was 120ish on all. The last thing last night the Xj did fire, ran like total trash backfiring an such but it was alive.

Upon further, more intensive inspection, I'm pretty sure the timing chain jumped. I'm gonna dig into that in the next couple day . I'll update when I know for sure.

Double post oops

Well here's some clarification. Timing mark is at 9 o clock piston is at top of stroke valves are not being depressed. What the heck

Exactly what I was thinking. Was the XJ running before you cannibalised it? When was it running last? How old is the fuel? Did you take the MJ parts and put them on the XJ? Which parts? My 2¢. In response to all of this^. The Xj ran well before the parts swapping. I removed the distributor, coil, icm, ecm, cps, oil pressure sensor, temp sensor in the head, and recently valve cover to retime the engine for certain. Everything removed was reinstalled with the same part. all of the parts are original to the Xj. except the cps, but I have spark. I put 10 bucks in it yesterday to cover that base. I know the rail has pressure, but I don't know the exact number. I have poured fuel in the TB to check if it was a delivery issue, as well as starting fluid. Not at the same time. When i did these things there is almost no change in the cranking, almost, on occasion it does cough. But no backfiring out of intake or exhaust. By cough I mean seems like it wants to run but doesnt,

I would think not. It was driven until it was parked.

This. It's really easy to be 180 degrees off. I suggest: Cut a window in you dist cap at number 1, pull your VC, manually turn your engine over and watch the rockers/valve and make certain you are on the compression stroke of #1 TDC, your rotor should have just swept #1 on the cap. Done an done.

Yes. I have done and redone this multiple times, I suspected issues with it myself. The odd thing I noted, is that it appears my engine hits tdc based on valves and timing mark, but the piston has passed tdc when everything lines up.

I wasn't going to go that route because it has spark. But I will anyway because its one thing I cannot guarantee. Thanks for your input.

Hey everybody. Its been a while since I've been here, mostly because all is well in Jeep land. Well not anymore. My 89Xj will not run. The 90Mj will and I have been parts swapping to trouble shoot. The Xj is a 4.0 auto np242 3.73, power everything. In short its a Waggoneer. Currently the Xj has good spark, OK compression, and fuel, including injector pulse. The timing has been set and reset a bunch. I've been battling this for about a month or so. I'm at my wits end. I've done so much searching that I can guarantee it is not an evident issue. The story though is pretty short, so I've had the xj for 8 yrs. Most reliable rig I own. This past summer I caught the illusive Mj locally. So I did the stupidest thing. Made the Mj run with parts from the Xj. Fast forward to now. No combination of anything fixes anything. Any advice will be taken. Specific questions will be thoroughly answered. Thanks in advanced.

As far as the plastidip goes. Its all prep really. It sprays, to me at least, easier than spray paint. But it is a different technique. Ive always had good results with it. Ive done wheels, grilles, rally stripes, ive even smoked taillights with it. As far as how to check this place out http://www.dipyourcar.com/forums/forum.php

+1 for plastidip. Ive run it on numerous things including grills. If you prep right and put it down right its tougher than spray paint.

I figured it out. The truck had a bad ecm. Whoever worked on this thing before me got so lucky with what they did.Basically we all know the fuel pump relay has four contacts. One is ground from the ecm, one is power from a fusible link, one is the fuel pump and the fourth is a trigger i believe. So what they did is added a wire from the fuel pump at the tank on tue power leg, then they hooked that to the ecm ground leg. For some reason the ecm ground was outputting 12 vdc. So that went down the added wire hit the pump, then back fed up the original power wire to the fuel pump. At the relay i believe it was enegizing it backwards. Allowing the truck to get spark and run. Crazy.

Yup. I just verified it indeed goes straight to the ecm.

Erm. Maybe the ballast resistor. But the fuel pump is the solid orange wire. In all the diagrams Ive found, the orange with tracer leadsto the computer.

4.0 ax15 1990 2wd. Ok so like the title says. truck starts then dies did some research and now i have a question. On the fuel pump relay there is an orange wire with a black tracer. Where oh where does this wire go? Ive searched, Ive researched, I'm comin up short.

Ive played with this in the past. The biggest difference is the black center tray in a cherokee has the e brake hole. Other wise Ive found them to be identical.

The only thing modified was the springs. Everything else is stock. All bumpstops are gone. At all 4 corners the axle to frame space is 1.5 up front 3 ish in back. The current bumpstops are the shocks. Driveline angle isnt great, but no vibes currently. The front axle is shifted to the passenger side because of the trac-bar and the geometry up front is all bad. As far as ride goes, if i had shorter shocjs it'd be ok. My end game was c-notch the rear frame, box in and plate to re-enforce. Up front i was going to notch the axle and bend it for camber, much like Xj-r's Cherokee. I was also going to try the same shocks they used. But, for now she'll probably return to stock height plus 2 or so. And pictures will come soon. But for now i gotta get some sleep.

Did you perhaps bump the big silver fuse/relay at the bottom of the fuse block? Mine didnt work til i wiggled that, found the contacts were spread open.

I would guess that if your trucks current running gear is stock, your probably running 3.07 gearing. Have you looked for a tag on either differential pumpkin? If its there, it has the ratio on it. If it is 3.07's then your rpm is probably around 3k at 55=60. As far as what I would do? I would source a cluster with a tachometer in it and full gauges from an 87 or 88-90 Comanche or Cherokee. Then you would know what rpm your actually running. Also, what I've found is that shift light is useless if you have over size tires, or your going up a hill, or anything really. And finally, if you can't find the tag on any of the differentials, then pull off the cover and do some googling to find the ratio.

I have 2x comanche badges. From an 88 i believe.