Check Your Battery Cables!!!

[Wildman]

This past Saturday, I had the (mis)fortune to 'help' someone with a '87 XJ.

 

No start, no power, So, this is the first thing I notice-

 

Leading to investigate further -

 

Which turns out to cause this - Sorry for the fuzzy picture :oops:

 

Yes, that's a fried out resistor in the ECU :eek:

 

Look from the back side -

 

So........Bad battery cables (22 years old) lead to the ECU getting fried. Replaced the ECU, and new cables, had power, but no starter, so a 'used' starter relay and it was cranking :D

 

Still no start :fs1: And no spark :hmm:

 

Guy claimed his brother installed a new CPS, So yesterday, we jacked it up, dropped the tranny down, and pulled the CPS that only had one bottom screw in it, and found this -

 

Yea, that's the end of the CPS broken off :eek: The one on the left, new one on the right.

New CPS, and we had spark :D But, still no start :hmm:

 

So, we reset the distributor that the "new" tech school grad pulled out, to change the slater, and found the dizzy was way off.........set it, no start........but then the back fire :eek:

 

I had the dizzy 180* off :teehee:

 

Reset it again, had spark, had fuel........wait........truck sat for 6 months while they change just about every other little part on this thing..........Drained the 6 month old gas :roll: Changed the fuel filter, dumped in 2 gallons of fresh gas, had crank........and.......Start :banana:

 

Moral of the story.........CPS went south, new one not install proper, in the meanwhile battery cables took out the ECU, New tech grad's don't know Renix systems (guest they don't teach than any more :hmm: ) Oh.......and fresh gas does help.

 

XJ back on the road (well, it needs a couple finish touches) and owners happy (so is his wife) :yes:

 

Now to get back to my own projects :roll:

[maddzz1]

very nice detective work.

[dakal]

wow. way to deduce

[BlueXJ]

Good job. Those CPS' can be bad right out of the box. I notch out the bottom of the bolt holes on mine so it can be changed without pulling the bolts completely out. That way you never have to worry about dropping a bolt down in the bellhousing. Makes for a quick trail fix.

[dakal]

x2

[Geonovast]

Good job. Those CPS' can be bad right out of the box. I notch out the bottom of the bolt holes on mine so it can be changed without pulling the bolts completely out. That way you never have to worry about dropping a bolt down in the bellhousing. Makes for a quick trail fix.

 

That's a good idea, but I'd be worried that excess vibrations could put it out of adjustment.

[Wildman]

Those CPS' can be bad right out of the box.

 

Very true.

 

Thats why I alway do the Ohms check on a new one, I don't like changing them to start with, and don't want to change the CPS twice :no: