Just got my first Cherokee, a 96 2-door with the 4.0L. I knew when I bought it, that it had some problems, but it seemed mechanically sound. Drove it home yesterday, about a 60 mile trip with no notable problems. Went out today to get tags, insurance, etc, and about five miles from the house, I hear a pop, then the engine dies. Pull it over and it will turn over no problem, but will not start??? First, I'm thinking maybe the fuel pump. Tow it home and let it set a while, then crank it, and it starts and runs just fine....

Any ideas?

 

As you are scratching your heads on this one with me, here is part 2 of the saga:
Started it up this morning, no problem. Runs fine, sounds great.
Driving down the road a few miles, and it dies again. But this time, while coasting, I floor the accelerator for a second or two, it backfires, and "WHAM"! it starts again and cruises another mile or so, then does the same thing again. I floor the accelerator with the same results. This happens three or four more times before I turn around and take it home.
Funny thing is, on the way home, it doesn't do it anymore.

I guess the first thing I need to do is check for any code...

More to come...

 

i had that same sh** happen on mine..

that short (~7") ground strap that runs from the firewall to the back of the valve cover was rubbing on the wiring harness for the injectors and cut thru the insulation. anytime they would touch, it would either die immediately, or sputter real bad for a few seconds unless i floored the accelerator.

but if that looks fine, its probably your crank sensor going bad.

 

Well the ground strap is the flat bare wire type, but it was close to the injector harness, so I moved it just to be sure.

Tested the crank position sensor as described in another thread and got 780K ohms.

 

yes, the ground strap is a bare strap, which makes it easy for it to cut into other wires that are too close. but it sounds like your good there.

idk if 780k ohms (sounds awful high to me) is a good number or not, but testing resistance of the ckp is often futile because you need to know what the reading is right when its acting up. a bad ckp will usually put out a bad/no signal for a split second, stalling the vehicle, and then start working again allowing the vehicle to be restarted.

 

That's what I was thinking as well, so I'll try replacing it and see where I am after that.

 

Swapped out the CPS with new and it has been running fine since (YAY!) Nobody told me that I needed arms like ET to get to the bolts, though! SHEESH! Finally found enough extensions to reach.

Thanks for all the help.

 

You were lucky. When my cps went out and I went to change it out BOTH of the bolts the hold it in place SNAPPED. Talk about a pain in the A$$. Had to pull the trans after that. Glad you got it running.