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Hard starting...

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Old 01-23-2010, 04:28 PM
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Default Hard starting...

We have a 99 Cherokee sport with the 4.0 2x4 that my wife drives... we bought it 5yrs ago with 75k on the clock and now it has 115k. About a month and a half ago I was out of town and she had an erratic squeek comming from the motor so she took it in to a "family friend" thats a mechanic. He tracks it down and told her its either a distributor drive gear or bushing, He replaced the dizzy assembly along with the cap, rotor, plugs and wires. Jeep runs fantastic except now its hard as hell to start at all temps, ocasionally the engine will kick back like the timing is off but you cant adjust the timing on these motors, But thats the best technical description I can give it. Also upon the first few seconds of running it runs extremely rough, sputtering and smooths out and runs great after running. Ocasionally it will take a few trys to get it to start, The motor throws NO codes at all which makes it a nightmare tracking down any bad sensors or such. This guy is also a D bag and tells her "I drove it for 2 days and had no problems" or "it started fine for me". Any tips so I can get this thing reliable again...
Old 01-23-2010, 06:48 PM
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Maybe it is unrelated to the previous repair.....you should have the fuel pressure checked, make sure it is holding pressureat the rail when shut off. Then if not decide if the fuel is bleeding back to the tank or leaking into a cyl or two (bad fuel inj)
hope this helps!
Old 01-23-2010, 06:50 PM
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yupp, that sounds like the valve to keep fuel in the lines has gone bad...a very common issue on these vehicles
Old 01-23-2010, 06:55 PM
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Ill get a fuel pressure guage and check the rail tomorrow for good reason... But my reasoning behind it being related to the dizzy replacement is it started imediatley after the change.
Old 01-23-2010, 07:52 PM
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he may have the dist a tooth off.....verify by bringing the motor to TDC on compression stroke and removing the cap and making sure it is pointing to the #1

Last edited by 98 JeepJeep; 01-23-2010 at 07:54 PM.
Old 01-23-2010, 10:14 PM
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but if that was the case could the computer compensate for being one tooth off?
Old 01-23-2010, 10:16 PM
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I have the same type of problem..with my 94 sport, it seems that I can only get her started on the first crank in warm weather/or when the engine is warm. When it's colder out, i have to prime it for a good 10 minutes, then if im lucky it will start, sputter for a bit, until its warm. Most of the time i have to try and start it about 20 times before it catches. Im thinking its something to do with fuel as well, either the filter/pump..but ill take the advice of the valve in the line that keeps pressure and tell my mechanic that!
Old 01-23-2010, 10:17 PM
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yes it can id check for top dead center also its free and easy to find
Old 01-24-2010, 07:41 AM
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well you dont want to be off..because it could be trying to fire between 2 cylinders....i needs to be directly on the #1
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