As said here before, test the fuel pressure.
You can also check your coil for enough spark, I believe it is called a ohm test.
You may want to check and see if the rotor under the distributor cap has excess wobble due to bearing wear.
You may want to see if the ecm is throwing off any codes.
you may want to get some electric contact cleaner and clean the connectors on the CPS, the Cam Position sensor, the coolant sensor and the throttle position sensor. Also look at the upstream O2 sensor for wires being burnt by the exhaust manifold.
Make sure your grounds are refreshed and in good order.
You can try a "reset" of the ecm as a last resort.
Take a real long and slow look under the hood with a flashlight at all the wires and sensors and connections.*

*that is how I noticed my oem coil had a crack in it.

make sure you keep your battery at full charge while continuing to start the jeep..

try starting it in neutral.

hope this helps..

If you poured gas or sprayed starter fluid into the throttle body and it did start then your problem would be fuel related.

If you sprayed starter fluid and it still didn't start then its probably another issue.

Just wanted to add that, when checking spark, it should be bright blue. A yellowish orange spark is a weak spark. Check your grounds, too. Another thing i did when i got my 97 was remove each fuse, and clean the blades using FINE sandpaper (i think i used 400 grit). Clean one, put it back and move onto the next. If the blades look shiny, stick it back in. If they are anything but, clean them. This goes for the JB and the PDC. Look for any corrosion in the sockets while youre at it. You can check the relays as well, but i find those to be pretty clean most of the time. Even if it doesnt help, its worth doing.

these 2 statements do not add up. even if it's 180* out of time with a terrible orange spark it will fire on ether, that stuff is highly combustible. how did you test for spark? have you inspected the plug itself?

x2 doesn't make sense.

How do I test the fuel pressure? I have no clue what valve you are advising me to use and I don't have any sort of gauge to do so. That's something I have to order, if there is something you'd recommend please let me know. Does it matter my fuel pressure regulator is in my gas tank, as a part of my fuel sending unit, along with my fuel pump??

I sprayed starter fluid into the intake as advised. I also followed one of eric the car guys videos to test for spark.

-Jessica

Mine will be here sometime in the next couple hours, so I'll be swapping it out once it gets here. We shall see if this makes a difference at all. For only $40 I figured it couldn't hurt to replace it.

Doostica, you are stuck now with a problem beyond your ability to solve, so stop replacing parts blindly, save your money, and take it to a good mechanic to fix. It will save you money in the long run and it will save the Jeep from the damage of running poorly.

I don't say this to be negative but to help you get to a better place.

Good luck.

I appreciate your input, however I have no clue who is a "good mechanic" as I don't live in a major metropolitan area and I recently relocated. I live in a very rural area, I have 1 store, a Walmart, within 15 miles of me and 17 miles away is my nearest gas station, a WaWa. I have no issues with replacing parts. To me if they are cheap, less than $40-50 I'll just replace the part if I know I've not replaced it (I have every record from the day I got the car 5 yrs ago and I have my brothers book, that he kept from when he bought it since new -6 miles on it) there is not many options for me here, as I live in an area with 24 hour guard gated community, why I have no clue seeing theres only a few other neighborhoods near me, and zero stores or gas stations, anyhow the resident services people patrol every hour here and this place has a strict pain in the **** policy on doing work on your vehicle not being allowed. I've been written up a few times for doing it anyways and they recently cited me $50, per my lease agreement after 3 warnings. So I have the evenings really to do any work I can on my Jeep and I typically wait until the person on duty has driven by and I go out and do what I need to do, for the most part they come by every hour, sometimes two hours. At night I can hear the golf cart headed down the road, so I typically go back inside and wait for whomever is on duty to do their rounds, then I go back out and continue doing this, as it's the best option I have when I do not have anywhere to take the Jeep and I buy all my parts online. It's my only option. Therefore I wouldn't know who "a good mechanic is" because for some reason when I said I would prefer to live in a rural area not heavily trafficked when I was given the relocation, I didn't realize bfck egypt would be where I'd be living. It's an amazing place sure but to get heck for every little thing is absurd and my older neighbors don't hesitate to call and complain. The jeep is always clean, and looks just as nice as it should, perhaps I need to be driving a cadillac or a range rover like my other neighbors but obviously thats not me nor something I can afford.

point being, I have limited options, and "blindly replacing parts" is what it is and I have no issues replacing things and keeping all my parts I've replaced as well. All nicely stored and tagged with the date they were replaced.

As for the item suggested by RGS80074, I just put it in and the Jeep is running fine, for the moment. It's only been a few minutes since I put it in, for now though..... it works. Hopefully it'll be the fix to this nagging long issue I've dealt with.

While taking it to a reputable mechanic would have been preferred, I know I would have spent a sizeable amount of money to have someone, If could find someone, near me that worked on Jeeps or would be reliable enough to pay that money and have it fixed, correctly, the first time.

Before I relocated I took it to a Chrysler/Jeep dealership who replaced some things and they didn't fix my issue, so I refused to go back that route, as they just wanted more money to diagnose my issue, not even FIX what I took it there to fix in the first place. This issue.

Perhaps I'll make an app that links reputable ase certified mechanics in your area, that does house calls to come to your place to help you, or offers towing services (for a fee) etc to give all the great mechanics in the world a chance to make more money. I work for a major tech giant, and I work in tech....unfortunately not automobiles.

Thanks RGS80074, SO FAR THAT WORKED!!!

edit: oh my bad, glad its running now

marc

Well, hopefully you got the issue resolved. Good luck.

simply to clarify for anyone reading this at a later date - the issue was a no spark condition caused by the pickup coil in the distributor. correct?

yes i think thats the short of it.

that part keeps it from doing the spark at the distributor forward.

i could be wrong but i think if you pulled the boot from the main wire from the coil to the distributor you'd get a spark.

I just knew when i was having issues it was not fuel or spark. as the fuel pressurized i could hear it and let gas out at the rail so i didn't bother to hook up the gauge.

knew i had spark because when i'd replace something the vehicle would run just fine for a day.

people had said to replace the cam sensor early on but i could not find any part for that name because they don't call it that on the vehicle.

did i replace more than i needed too? Probably. I probably could have not replaced a few parts. I could test this theory but putting back on the old parts and see if they run, i suspect the old coil would work just fine as would the old rotor and distributor cap and wires. but they all was old so it was just preventative maintenance as i see it. my crankshaft position sensor was bad the old one would not stick to any metal.

so i could have saved myself maybe 50-60 bucks on the repair but now i have new parts i shouldn't have to worry about for some time.


Ryan

Ehhh not really.... some parts stores call it a "sync sensor"... because it does just that. It syncs up with the CPS to tell the computer that both the crank and the cam are showing in correct position for the distributor to fire.

I've seen it called "Camshaft position sensor", "Pickup sensor", "Stator", "Sync Sensor", "Coil pickup sensor".... can't remember what the chrysler book actually calls it... being lazy and don't feel like looking it up either lol