Airborne Janitor Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 89 MJ 4.0L renix. Not the original motor, has an HO block but everything else is renix era (I think). MJ was starting and running fine. It would sometimes buck a bit when starting and I noticed the distributor was clocked quite a bit off from other 4.0s I've seen, so I decided to do cruisers #12 and #13 tips on TDC and distributor indexing. (Old photo, notice distributor clocking. #1 terminal where #4 terminal "should" be) While I had the distributor out I noticed someone had already cut the mounting tab off. The pulse ring was super rusty so I took it off and cleaned with it a wire wheel. There was also a bit of oil and mud inside the distributor so I cleaned that up best I could. Set #1 cylinder to TDC, did the finger pressure test, checked piston location and lined up the harmonic balancer mark to the 0 timing mark. Reinstalled distributor and wires, starter works but it won't turn over. There is spark at the plugs and fuel pressure at the pump. I've redone the process half a dozen times to no avail. I even just started clocking the distributor in various places to see if I could get any attempt to turn over and still nothing. Its driving me crazy, I hope I can get some answers. Thanks. (Last non working setup: #1 set to TDC, rotor at 5 o'clock, trailing end of rotor at #1 terminal per inspection window in cap) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 I wonder if your harmonic balancer outer ring has slipped and it's not showing true TDC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airborne Janitor Posted March 22, 2020 Author Share Posted March 22, 2020 1 hour ago, cruiser54 said: I wonder if your harmonic balancer outer ring has slipped and it's not showing true TDC. I was wondering that too, but I made sure #1 cylinder was at TDC and it lined up with the 0 mark on the timing like it was supposed to. The balancer def does not look like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ωhm Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 Your photo of the distributor rotor shows the centering contact is bent down with signs of arching. Might just be the photo though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airborne Janitor Posted March 22, 2020 Author Share Posted March 22, 2020 34 minutes ago, Ωhm said: Your photo of the distributor rotor shows the centering contact is bent down with signs of arching. Might just be the photo though. Yes it was, I did fix that. I should note all these parts were in good working order when I parked it. They have less than 20 miles on them, as my MJ has been sitting for awhile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airborne Janitor Posted March 22, 2020 Author Share Posted March 22, 2020 I got it running! Theres out I wasnt lined up with the correct cam tooth, just had to advance the oil pump driveshaft clockwise a tiny bit. I also found this picture which helped give me a better visual of rotor/dist placement at TDC. After doing the process so many times I guess I'm an expert in Renix dist replacement now. 😀😥☹🤷♂️ Now to replace my 98 XJ distributor.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdog Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 glad to hear that you got it running Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ωhm Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 Finally some good news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omega_rugal Posted March 22, 2020 Share Posted March 22, 2020 indexing only has to do with inyector timing, if the ECU can not sync after a few tries it switches to batch injection, it could be a bad rotor or you didnt install the dizzy at TDC oh never mind you got it working Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Mohler Posted March 23, 2020 Share Posted March 23, 2020 I got it running! Theres out I wasnt lined up with the correct cam tooth, just had to advance the oil pump driveshaft clockwise a tiny bit. I also found this picture which helped give me a better visual of rotor/dist placement at TDC. After doing the process so many times I guess I'm an expert in Renix dist replacement now. 😀😥☹🤷♂️ Now to replace my 98 XJ distributor.... 2 hours ago, Airborne Janitor said: XJ distributor.... been looking for this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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