Rogue4x4

Looking good, man!

Basslicks

Thanks Roni!


Well, finally was able to set money aside this last paycheck for some much-needed fuel and ignition system attention. The Jeep's been stuttering to a start, tripping over itself at mid-rpm range, backfiring, and taking forever to crank. Also, when you "blipped" the throttle, it would think about revving, and then sputter and slightly increase RPMs.

After looking at the condition of my dist cap, I thought that might have been the culprit... I honestly don't know how the motor was running anymore. I had previously replaced the cap with a cheapy one with aluminum terminals from AutoZone... not generally a fan of cheap parts to begin with, but I also prefer brass terminals. In my experience, they seem to last a lot longer.

SO.... DUI Cap and Rotor from Summit racing, along with a Y-Collector for my wife's car (300M's exhaust needs some love), and a Carter fuel pump, AC Delco wires, and NGK Copper Core plugs from RockAuto







Made in USA goodness...


Murika


These will do until I can afford the DUI wires and coil


Looks pretty good in there with the res of the red stuff...




Looks like I have oil intrusion in 1 & 4 and they're all indicating a lean mix and wear. I expected the lean condition, pressure at the rail was about 31 PSI... the oil intrusion isn't too bad, so I'm not worried.



Here's a vidoe of the first start after getting it all together. Had to prime the pump a couple times. It actually starts quicker than this now and with the first turn of the key.

Mr. Pink

how hard was it to replace the pump? i have to replace mine due to a faulty sending unit. the jeep still starts up and runs great but the gas gauge is off by a ton.

Basslicks

On mine it was easy. But I have the earlier design with the send at the front of the tank. All I did was drive the back wheels up onto ramps and I had just enough room to sit upright under the jeep and pull it out without having to do anything to the tank.

On your 97, you'll either have to drop the tank, or very carefully cut a hole in your floor for access... which unless you're really good as setting the depth for whatever cutting tool you're using AND can cut through metal without making a spark - I'd recommend against that method. But, believe it or not, I've heard of people doing it.

That being said, it's not a bad idea to cut a hatch in your floor while you have the tank out for easier replacement in the future. Just make sure you use a good weather stripping to seal it.

Mr. Pink

Yea i have an idea for an access hatch.

Basslicks

Well, finally got around to matching up the driver's side with bedliner. No more multi-color Jeep... well... now it's just 2-tone anyway.

Before...



After...



All in preparation for Jeep Beach 2016... made it down there without a hitch. Well.. mostly. I got called in to work on Friday, so we ended up not leaving the house until about 6:45 that night. Between stopping at Walmart for a couple odds n ends, topping off the tank, and hitting up Steak n Shake, it was about 8 pm before we actually hit the road... which was just enough time for the rain to follow us the whole way there and then POUND us once we got to i95 and hwy 40. My wipers could barely keep up with the rain at full blast enough for us to drive 10 miles below the speed limit.

I would have stopped, but we were already about 5 hours late for our check-in and we didn't want them to cancel our reservation.

All in all, it was fun. Didn't really do "Jeep Beach" per se, more like drove to the beach DURING Jeep Beach, but definitely going to plan for participating in the festivities next year.

Pics... (cause it did happen)









Had to get a pic of this group because the M35a1 and the hummer were both parked in the parking lot of our hotel... and because well... they're awesome.



Jeep was there with their concept vehicles... happened to catch the Chief concept on the beach... it was awesome to see it in person. I hope they greenlight it for production.... but won't hold my breath, lest I become the same color as the concept.



This thing reminded me of the beach boys... little deuce coupe an' all. Not a jeep, but still.



Then, I had to take this pic just to taunt my wife (she hates seeing the overly-girl stuff).



So then... it had to end on a sour note...
Friday... drove it almost 2 hours to Daytona
Saturday... drove it on the beach and around daytona, then 2 hours back home.
Sunday... drove it to work in the morning, from work to the gas station in the evening, then from the gas station about 10 miles back home

This morning, started it up, drove it out the driveway and it freakin' DIED! Started it up again, drove it 1/4 mile and died AGAIN! Limped it back home, stole the wife's car, and made it to work with only 2 minutes to spare... with no coffee

Not a happy camper today.

cleenrob

I miss steak n shake, it was the best part of my time in florida other than universal horror nights!

Outlaw Star

Ugh..Well, I'll get a chance to meet up next time. If you want to save some cash next time, you can camp out with us. There's always room.

Basslicks

lol... I guess I take S&S for granted 'cause I've lived relatively close to one for most of my life. Do you guys have Publix in TX? If not, you gotta try one of the Publix Deli's subs... namely the chicken tender sub. You'll be full after a half and be able to save the other half for later. Steak n Shake is pretty good... I really miss having a Fuddrucker's around though. Awesome burgers, awesome shakes... just awesome.

That would be cool.... I'd like to for at least one night. I mean... I'd be down with campin' the whole time, my wife even likes camping, but for some reason she feels the need to be spoiled once the beach is involved.

But yeah, definitely gotta make it a point to meet up man. If not sometime within the next year, then definitely at JB

Basslicks

So I worked for about 4 hours last night on whatever the issue with my Jeep is. Originally thought it might be the fuel pump ballast... but it's not. Voltmeter is showing input of 12.5 volts and an output of 10.5 volts. THAT 24 year-old part is functioning fine.

I thought it might be the MAP, but I swapped a MAP in from a '96 with the same result. I think I've narrowed it down to the fuel pressure regulator. I just replaced it, BUT I paid like 13 bucks for the thing on eBay (dumb idea, I know). Fuel pressure is showing about 10 PSI on the rail. I don't know if my gauge is accurate, but I hooked up an attachment to the gauge and checked my tire pressure with it and it's showing correct within 2 PSI... so it seems like it should be working.

The Jeep has gone from starting and running for a few seconds and then DYING, to starting, and running at good idle for about 5 seconds, droop below idle and run like it's got a lopey cam for 5-10 seconds, and then do that back and forth... to then not even starting at all.

If it is in fact the FPR, I don't think I've ever heard of one declining in function so quickly. I attempted a couple of things to try and "diagnose" the problem, but it turns out, I had the function of the return system BACKWARDS so my diagnostic "hacks" weren't working. I mixed up which line was pressure and which line was return and didn't even think about it until this morning, so when I made my "hacks" to "bypass" the FPR, all I was doing was dropping fuel pressure down even more. It was going in the rail through the pressure line and running right back out the return.

So, tonight on the way home, I'm going to pick up a new FPR... either a BWD or a GP Sorensen... then we'll see what happens.

Here's a video of what the idle was doing:

Basslicks

Well, I was duped by wording. CARTER is the manufacturer of the pumps I was looking at. They make everything that comes in the kit. In the description on Rockauto.com's website it says "w/ Bosch OE pump" or "w/ Walbro OE pump"... which I didn't put 2 and 2 together that it meant "OE pump was Bosch or Walbro". So I THOUGHT I was getting a Bosch pump with maybe Carter components, but I was getting a complete Carter unit.

Now... I put the pump in and everything was working great. Pressure was up to a little OVER OE spec and everything was going great. Went great for about 2 weeks. I even drove it all the way to Daytona and back last weekend for Jeep Beach. Drove to work the day after that. Then, outta NOWHERE, Monday morning, I started the Jeep and it ran long enough for me to pull out of the driveway and then die. I thought it was odd that it did that, thought maybe it was just a fluke, so I started it back up and it ran rough for about another 1/4 mile and died again. I limped it back to my house with it dying a couple more times and took my wife's car to work instead.

That night, I checked the PSI at the rail and it was just under 10 PSI. I checked the ballast resistor and it was showing 12.5v in and 10.5 out, bypassing the resistor just to see what would happen showed no change. I thought maybe it was the FPR, so I changed the regulator with no change. I thought maybe my tester was wrong because of how low the pressure was reading, so I started trying sensors. All of them checked out fine.

I did some research on the 'net and a fellow user on CF was having similar pressure readings and he traced it back to the fuel pump. I don't know what else it could be at this point, but I do know when my OE pump started going out, it was reading low (not THIS low) pressure at the rail and would hesitate and sometimes backfire when I would accelerate. Now, it keeps dying until it's "warmed up" and then when it does, the idle fluctuates every 5 seconds and when you step on the pedal, all it wants to DO is backfire.

I'm pretty confident at this point that it's the pump.

Ordered a new Bosch 69302 unit (actually Bosch brand... not Carter) from RockAuto and having it shipped as "next business day" so it should be here by Friday.

I'll update with the results... if it works, I do believe the moral of the story here is to not cheap out on the fuel pump. I really did thought I was getting a quality unit though. I'm not going to say "don't ever buy Carter", but I myself would prefer a Bosch (again, what I thought I was buying).

This is NOT an editorial against Rock Auto or Carter. This is merely an informative post that may or may not help someone with the same situation in the future.

This is not a Walbro pump http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo....455&cc=1180112 - it is a Carter pump to be used as a replacement for those equipped with Walbro pumps from the factory.

This is not a Bosch pump http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo....505&cc=1180112 - it is a Carter pump to be used as a replacement for those equipped with Bosch pumps from the factory.

THIS! This, is a Bosch pump http://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo....307&cc=1180112 - it is a Bosch pump to be used as a direct replacement for the OE Bosch pump.

Outlaw Star

Damn. Well, I am up here in Apopka till Sat afternoon if ya need anything.

Basslicks

Thanks man. Well, we'll see if the pump gets here tomorrow. If so, I might take you up on an extra set of hands droppin' the FULL gas tank lol

Outlaw Star

Guess you're only an hour North of me. Lol

Basslicks

hahaha... yeah it's not very far