I personally don't bother, but it's an accepted practice. Just enough for a thin coating. of the metal contacts on the cap and top of the plugs. What was your question about the wires?

 

the question was why there was 6, why one was all black and a whole lot longer.. I think the answer is someone messed up at the factory..

 

The black is a duplicate coil wire. It's possible they include the extra for more than one application in cases where the coil is farther away.

 

so I put the socket on and slowly turned until the plugs didn't turn anymore.. without actually using the ratchet feature.. how much more do I do? its about to rain

 

You're not trying to crush it with all your might. Just a really good effort pull until it stops. The actual spec is 33 ft/lbs, which is about a third of a lug nuts torque. It's hard to explain from a keyboard. Just snug them up.

 

well they wouldnt really move more so I hooked everything else back up.. and she starts!!!! sounds like crap but full tank at 2.5 months ago.. but she started.

thank you so much guys

 

Why, for what reason, does it sound like crap?

 

maybe a rough idle.. maybe I got too used to the merc being quiet. jeep has a different muffler on it to make it a bit louder. plus I ran out of power steering fluid.. and need to inflate a tire.. decided musical cars would be a fun game but moving the merc showed a massive oil slick.. so.. its not raining enough to do anything for that.. so I am cleaning the driveway

 

Well, let it run for a while, look for anything that might have happened "that" night. Drive it around close to home for a while. Soon you'll have your confidence back it. Excellent job on this. Lots of forum posters would have really struggled with this, if you look at archived posts for distributor swaps, you'll see. Anymore a lot of people are looking for a simple answer to their problem, like, "your fan belt has come unbuckled - and here..., I can re-buckle it from my keyboard..., O.K your on your way." Don't forget to check those intake runner bolts and the other tips as well. Best wishes to your family.

 

musical cars so I can get her on level ground and better check these things.. fluid levels.. I will check out the intake bolts..
might have a question about the pcv valve.. its an empty breather on the valve cover like this https://www.summitracing.com/parts/c...okee/year/1991
which, of course, is on the rear of my cover where the oil leak is worse..

thank you again so much for all your help. I already have more confidence in it than the merc.. if you can tell by my edited siggy..

 

no codes.. 12 and 55... no codes..

 

Diagnostic Code List - Jeep Cherokee Forum

These were just posted. Your's is the third group of codes. You're going to have 12 for 50 starts, unless you disconnect the battery again, then the clock starts over. 55 is "End of Message". Your PCM is happy.

 

and we know I took off the negative cable..

seems to be back where she started from.. so now we play with the fuel system.. i'm pretty sure there is gas in the oil.. Ive conducted a search of the forums and garage and unless I can use the compression tester to check the fuel pressure at the rail.. or tire pressure gauge (I saw that on a youtube video but I'm not doing it).. I will have to buy a tester this week.. I saw something about injectors.. seems easy enough..

 

maybe its whatever injector goes to whatever cyl had the lower compression..
also saw the regulator can cause it (elsewhere) plus new filters.. fuel and oil. its fine.. it just has to wait a couple days..

 

idk if it matters but she was made in oct 1990...