Here's the story: Oh and i'm Tony, I was born and raised in Syracuse, NY and recently moved to Estes Park, CO and haven't looked back! I absolutely love it here and what a great state to have a Jeep... THAT WORKS!..

So, here's the story:

2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport 179xxxmiles, beautiful RED.

Driving down road, notice terrible shifting sequence and pulled over. Found tranny return/feed line (Below passenger seat) broken off and leaked all fluid out. NO START! Paid $$$ to tow the beast back up the 45min canyon to Estes Park from Longmont, CO. Fixed the plug connector and re-installed line, no leak, tranny fluid now refilled.

Problem: Turns over allllll day long, NO START!

Diagnosis: I have read and read that it seems like a CPS, so reluctantly I got under the Jeep and replaced the CPS after about an hour of work... NO START!

Secondary Diagnosis: It must be fuel or spark, the CPS is new and in great condition, no CEL. Listened for fuel pump when in ON position, I believe I can hear it, and when i checked the nozzle on the fuel rail, it spurtd out with pressure. So, fuel check... the only thing I could think of that woudl go wrong is some wiring behind the passenger compartment on the undercarriage that frayed or was shorted from all the hot tranny fluid coming out... The ignition system is all forward of the line break, and I hate to be a believer in coincidence that A plug, or something had died. Possibly the CPS did in fact break? Therefore I flooded the cylinder a bit and maybe now the plugs are fouled?

What is the next step, I do have an ohmmeter but I am not the most vehicle-electrically inclined. How can I get this thing running again!?

Thanks For Looking! P.S. This is the little ladies car, mine is an SRT-4 tootin' around 400hp

Here she is... Yes, "more lift" is needed, picked up some RockyRoad 2" spacers for front to match, has a 2-3" SkyJacker kit in it already.

 

40 Views, no theories yet? I'm open to all thoughts... I'm down to fuel and spark, fuel seems fine, but I don't understand why spark would be gone after an incident like that, unless the PCM is still goofed?

 

I would go with spark also. But on my cherokee its an 89 but one day it would not start. So I went through the ignition system first, good plugs, all wires had appropriate ohm reading. So I checked the fuel rail like you did. Didn't help until I had some one turn the jeep over for only a sec while I held down the valve stem on the line. Then it fired right up! It was weird maybe a fluke in the system but it would hurt to try

 

I'd go ahead and pull the plugs and clean them (it won't hurt) then check for spark. Also might want to check all fuses, relays and the ground connections. After that, you can start checking the various sensors (lots of writeups on here so I won't repost). If you can, borrow (rent) a manual fuel pressure tester and verify that the fuel pump/regulator is working. When was the last fuel filter change? You've just going to have to get under the Jeep and get dirty and start to diagnose the symptoms.

 

Spark seems like the most likely cause pull them plugs not too hard and get a fuel pressure gauge! Make sure you have the right amount of psi at the rail. If so and your plugs are good. Check for spark pull a plug with wire Hooke up and hold it to ground and look for spark if you have spark that's good! Ten pull the fuel rail and crank it over you should see fuel spray from the injectors. If all that checks out your not getting air into the motor. Remember you need three things to make a motor run ! Air fuel and spark! And congrats on your location change I absolutely love Colorado beautiful state Estes park is amazing! Have an ex girl friend out there! Might have to road trip my jeep up that way soon! Also if any of those things I suggest to check fail find what sensor is in control it and make sure that works! And double check it all! You'd be surprised at what would cause a no start some times. I've seen bmws run for years missing a fuse that controls the entire engine management system and one day it finally realized that it didn't have the fuse no start at all after years.

 

Ill tear apart toward those plugs tomorrow. Al fuses that I can see are fine, relays on the other hand, i cannot see so those are still an option. But, what after that incident would possibly burn out or decide to not work from some sort of OFF reading when the tranny fluid is all gone, and I turn it off?

 

Pull the plugs out, open the distributor, pull plug wires and check for anything unusual. It wont hurt and will only take about 10 minutes.

You can also do a sort of redneck ohm check.

Start by pulling the Ignition coil wire off of the distributor. Then take a screwdriver, stick it in the end of the wire. Set it next to some type of grounding source, (away from any electronics) and have someone turn the jeep over for a couple of seconds. It helps to do this in a low light scenario.

If the spark is blue or white you "should" be good on that. If it's yellow or orange you need either new wires or a new coil.

You can also repeat this with a plug wire to verify you are getting spark to the plugs. Same rules apply to the color of the spark here.

***This method is obviously not scientific, and does have some minor safety concerns. Use some common sense while doing it.***

 

If oil got into anything that can electrically control the engine you could have all sorts of of issues! Make sure all connectors are clean and dry. Oil is nasty on electrical components. Spark plugs cap rotors all that relays and all check and clean contacts as cruiser says refresh connectors before replacing components

 

those transmission lines pump fluid pretty fast did it break in a way it could have sprayed up into the distibutor?

 

Woah, Woah this is a distributor/cap style ignition? I am looking at the "spark" side of the engine bay and see a long metal rail with three bulges over the cylinders, as in 1 for 2 plugs- that looks like coil over plug module, connected to a normal electrical connector toward the rear. No distributor looking cap or housing anywhere that I remember, I guess I gotta look in there again.

 

Just checked the Repair Manual and it says 2000-2001 4.0 received the coil over plug module. So the distributor check won't help lol sorry, had me worried there that we had an 01' engine in a 00' body and who knows what might be loose.

 

Do we do bumps?

 

Not supposed to, but as long as your not crazy about it you should be fine.

 

So... After a new engine from a cracked crank, a new transmission from the main seal blowing, and taking the new tranny out and replacing the spiderwebbed flywheel... You would think it would be fine now? No!

It now stumbles, like hitting a wall, sensing skip, backfire, something when under any amount of throttle and around 2000-2400rpms. It's impossible to get anywhere.

New suggestions please?

 

Help? What sensor might cause 2300rpm stumble like limp mode?