Hi all... I had a quick question for the experienced Jeepers here. I have a guy wanting to trade me a 1988 Jeep wrangler with the 4.2 and its an automatic. I have had a couple jeeps in my younger years..nothing newer than a CJ... Hes wanting to trade me for my 1993 Toyota with the V6. Both vehicles look good. both have good frames. the jeep is alittle hard to start when cold..the gas gauge reads full all the time and the heat aint that great. Heat is not a terrible fix..ive replaced heater cores before on these.. and usually takes care of the heating prob along with an upgrade blower. My only real concern is the automatic in these. Never had an automatic jeep ever.. its seems to pull and shift like a new one.. what should I be looking for as far as notorious fail parts on these? My toy has 300,000 miles on it and the jeep has 180,00.. Im thinking trade..what do yall think? Thanks!
thanks for the reply. I went ahead and traded for it..just another toy for the garage.. Its a mess under the hood..vacuum lines are all jacked up.. someone has swapped the carb with the stepper motor for the same carb without one.. almost looks to me like its had a recent engine swap..everythings just a bit to clean.. its sounds great and runs good as long as im giving it gas but it will just about quit every stop light..it idles like hell! I can hear a vacuum leak when driving when I let off the accelerator but cant hear it when its just setting idling or even when I rev it up..Im in the process of fixing all the vacuum leaks. Ive been doing some research on the nutter bypass..I think I might give it a shot and see what vacuum stuff I can get rid of. Any thoughts on the nutter bypass? I don't know how much good it will do me since the carb has been swapped out anyway so the computers not doing anything for the carb anyhow.. any input would be appreciated..thanks!
superj
Well-known member
cap all the vacuum lines and just run one to the distributor for now. then you can tune the engine and set timing to make everything run. i had just the line to hte ditributor with a tee in it that went to the 4x4 on my i6 when i was still running one and mine ran fine. i drove it across texas with no problems.
use a vacuum gage to set time and the carb and it will be perfect
use a vacuum gage to set time and the carb and it will be perfect
Thanks for your input man! I did check today if the nutter had been done... it has not. Dist wires are still intact and running right into the firewall where theyre supposed too. Ill have some time thru thanksgiving here to play with it..if I can stay out of the woods deer hunting =) I may have some questions if I run into problems,, Im just excited to get back in the Jeep world! Im gonna follow your advice and just run vac to dist and 4x4 and see how that works out... Thanks again!
I have a question for ya if you or anyone sees this.. Im not a master mechanic but Ive drove and worked on junk all my life. So Im no stranger to the wrench... but Ive never encountered this problem before. when I checked the timing today I brought #1 up on compression and checked my rotor button that it was in fact pointing to the #1 plug wire...then looked for the timing mark. It was 180 deg on the opposite side of where it was supposed to be. I double check 3 times to make sure I was on comp stoke and not exhaust. Whats up with that!?! And I took your advice and plugged off a bunch of vac lines..ran one to dist and one to 4x4.. 4x4 works but light stays on and wont go off. It kicks in and out of 4x4 good .. why is that going on? it worked fine before?? I wanna add that after plugging them the motor runs a lot better. Could it be 180 out of time? how do I remedy that? thanks in advance!
69jeepcj
New member
a engine usually wont run 180* out, it will try though, spit, sputter, backfire, die. timing may just be WAY off, or maybe timing chain jumped a tooth. You say in post #3 that it "sounds and runs great " as long as you keep the gas on. That could be timing, vac leaks, carb, idle speed set too low, etc... but I seriously doubt 180* out.
It does run good as long as I am running down the highway.. but misses badly at idle. I should be more clear about the timing.. I put my finger over the #1 cylinder and felt for the compression stroke and then pulled the dist cap and made sure the rotor was pointing at the #1 post.. and it was. but the timing mark on the damper was 180 way from the marks on the block.. almost like the damper was put on wrong. Ive just never encountered this.
Hopefully someone will chime in and give me some advice.. I don't know unless the damper is bad and "slipped" I just don't know. On another note.. I fixed the idle problem.. bad intake gasket. Thanks for yalls help! The Jeep Rides Again!
69jeepcj
New member
I would say if your on compression stroke and the rotor is pointing to #1, but the timing marks are not lined up that the balancer ring slipped. that don't explain your problem of it stalling if you let off the gas unless the timing is off. Wish I could be more help. you can buy a timing tape to put on the balancer to set your time.
Bounty__Hunter
Super Moderator
How much have you turned the distributor to check for improvement?
I turned it enough that it stalled out and quit. then set it back like it was.
Yeah that's where the timing marks are at.. but my mark on the balancer is almost 180 off from that on the passenger side towards the bottom.. is it possible someone had the dizzy out and put it back in backwards you all think? Could I not pull the dizzy and rotate the engine 180 and drop it back in? or just rotate rotor 180 and drop in? Just a thought...
And I forgot to update that I got the 4x4 light fixed too.. I had the blue vac line hooked to vacuum and it wasn't supposed to be. Apparently its just a vent or vacuum release of some kind so I stuck a check valve in the end of it and zip tied it up out of the way. Every thing works fine now.
superj
Well-known member
The timing mark will be off every other turn, right? The crank turns twice for turn of the cam on a reciprocating engine because there is a compression stroke and then a vacuum stroke where air is sucked into the cylinder by the piston going down. (This is a very very basic description)
Maybe you checked it on the opposite stroke?
Maybe you checked it on the opposite stroke?
