1996 Cherokee Country; I need to clean the contacts of the injector connectors to see if that cures its suddenly poor running, but I can't figure out how they come off. Chltons shows wire clips like my 90 Cherokee has, but there are no such clips on the 96 connectors. I've tried prying out on the lower sides of the connectors below what looks like a little catch but no success so far. How do these come off?

 

There are small "clips" on each side of each injector. I always use a small flat head to push them off, but you should be able to just pull the off.

 

OK, I'll try again tomorrow. In the mean time I checked the fuel pressure (steady 47 PSI) and pulled the spark plugs which are definitely a contributing factor with .07" plus gaps and need to be replaced, although it seemed to be running fine before I let it sit for several months and now has a definite rough idle and a miss.

These plugs are Bosch Super R6 968. I usually prefer Champion plugs - any recommendations?

 

NGKs, cap with brass terminals, rotor, and new wires every 30,000 miles.

 

Spark plug application chart:

 

FIFY

 

OK, thanks for the charts. I located the original owner's manual and it lists the Champion RC12LYC plugs too. Guess I'll go with them as they seem to work well on my older Jaguars.

Checking back I did not find that I had ever changed the plugs on this Jeep, so the Bosch plugs were put in by the PO long ago and had done 188K miles. These will only have to do 30K to hit my goal of 300,000 miles on the Cherokee Country.

 

New spark plugs with the correct gap made a big improvement; it is still not quite smooth at idle but much better so maybe I don't have to clean the injector connectors after all.

One thing I found was that turning the key on does not run the fuel pump to prime the rail; It had no fuel pressure with the key on until I cranked and started the engine, and then it had a steady 49 PSI. Should the fuel pump run for a short time when the key is turned on? Is there a 4 second relay for this function like most cars of this era?

 

HEY !

 

yes when you turn the ignition on before starting you should be able to hear the fuel pump maybe the rough running is a fuel pump I went through a similar situation and it was the fuel pump.

 

Cap, rotor, and wires every 30,000 miles. Only cap with brass connectors. Taylor wires are the best.