I had a chirping sound coming from my distributor, but the Jeep ran fine (98 cherokee 4.0). I replaced with off brand distributor and engine would not start. I reinstalled all the old parts i had removed and it runs, but now it runs rough at idle and pulses and dies. It runs well if i keep my foot on the gas or hand on the throttle. If i let it idle without interfering, the tach drifts between 500 and 1000 until it finally drops too low and dies. I set #1 plug to TDC with plug out to ensure i am on the compression stroke, and then stopped on 0 degrees on crank case compass with notch on harmonic balancer. Rotor is not 180 degrees out, I am on compression stroke. What should I look at next? Would this happen if i damaged a plug wire and I'm not firing on one cylinder? It sounds and feels great if i can just keep it at 700 rpms.

 

You should check the distributor indexing. Perhaps you're a tooth (or two) off.

 

Agreed

 

Thanks! Same day service, too! I had installed it that way at one point, but since i had to remove the retaining pin in order to do it, i got gunshy and didnt actually attempt to start it in that configuration. It's running great now.