My "pulled it out of a field" XJ won't start
 

Yep, you read it right.

I pulled an XJ that the rancher was going to scrap out of the snowbank it was living in along side the barn and had a flat bed dump it in my (regrettabley unheated) garadge.

Accordign to the PO, who I don't think would lie to me as he is a friend of the family, it ran last Oct when it was parked there. The original problem was a busted hinge weld on the drivers door, so his daughter parked it and started driving her Wangler.

Well, I managed to get the door repaired so thats no longer an issue.

Now my problem is that it has no spark. So far I have ruled out plugs, cap, and rotor. (they are getting replaced anyhow, but no spark at the coil)

I also put a meter across the CPS and Ohm'ed it out as good. On the K ohms setting it reads open from pin b to c in the connector at least.

I am thinking looking up a procedure to bench test the coil, though it does not appear to be getting any power. I really don't think thats the problem, but one never knows.

I checked every fuse I could find with no luck as well.

Any advice on where to go from here?

Edit: I should probably mention that it's a '94 4WD XJ with a 5 speed manual and a 4.0L motor.

No spark out of the coil?

I had the same problem, no spark out of coil.

I gambled $23 on a new coil.

I won!

Went back and got another coil to keep on hand as a spare.

sounds like a bad ADS relay or PCM.

when you go to start it dose the fuel pump kick on. if the fuel pump dose not kick on then its the ADS or PCM

Actually I havn't even checked for fuel yet, beyond getting a smell of it when I pulled the spark plug to check for spark.

I kinda was figuring I would handle the spark issues first and then tackle fuel if needed.

I suppose I should check that today.

Ignition coil can easily be tested for primary/secondary resistances with a meter and a procedure, available in any manual.

The ASD (autoshutdown) system is still in play here as well.

Spark: 12 volts from ignition switch to the ASD relay; when the key is first turned on the PCM provides a ground to the ASD relay to energize it, then the ASD relay passes 12 volts to the coil primary side. If no crank sensor signal is generated after a couple of seconds the PCM cuts the ground to the ASD relay (and fuel pump relay too) and that cuts power to the coil (and fuel pump). Key to START and once again the PCM energizes the ASD relay. Now, a critical element is the crank sensor--no signal from the crank sensor and the PCM won't trigger the coil to provide spark.

Something quick and dirty is to swap the ASD relay located in the PDC (black box under the hood) with another relay. They are of the same part number, so swapping is of no danger.

I messed around with the no spark issue, did Cap, rotor, plugs, wires, crank sensor and whatever else. It turned out to be just a 25 dollar coil! :brickwall: Hey, atleast my ignition system is new now, huh.

well, looks like the camshaft position sensor in the distributor is cracked (at least the plastic plate is) so I am going to be tossing one of those at it while I'm in there testing the coil.

It may not be the problem, but broke is broke I suppose. Maybe I'll get lucky.

@ tjwalker I tried the relay swap trick, going from the ASD relay to the start relay with no joy. Hoping the cam sensor does it, if not at least I know one more thing it's not.

It... Is... Alive! :icon_cheesygrin:

Turned out it was the camshat position sensor in the distributor. Thanks for the help folks! :thumbup: