jeep died! EMERGENCY repair in middle of nowhere help

[kcash]

RE: checked on my block today...

SO yesterday I am driving to austin from glen rose texas (out in the proverbial middle of nowhere) and I am cruising along at a steady 65 or so mph, when jeepy dies. I lost all power and coasted to the side of the road. There are two possibilities in my opinion, 1) the alt has not been charging the battery and its been running off total batt. pwr and finally ran down (the easy solution --which I hope to confirm today) OR 2) I lost the timing chain and I am soooo screwed. I dont even have my Haynes manual out here (although I do have my toolkit). I was able to jump the starter and confirm that the motor has not seized, it will crank, but that wont tell me if the timing chain is gone. Any thoughts y'all? Thanks

 

[90Xjay]

Do you have compression? Pull a plug and then turn it over to see if compressed air comes out.
Remember, when any IC motor won't fire, you go back to basics..

Fuel, Fire, compression

Good luck, hope it is somthing simple and cheap to fix

 

[kcash]

Battery fine, alternator fine, no power to horn or gauges or ignition switch but lights and interior lights will come on. Car will turn over if you jump the starter but won't start, fuses are O.K. I'm thinking timing chain.

 

[90Xjay]

Did you check for compression yet?

It is unlikley that a timing chain breaks or jumps cogs while driving under moderate load.
Mostly they fail at start up.

Check for compression by removing a plug and turning motor over.
The timing chain would not be the cause of no power to the ignition.
That could be a burned fusable link, not a fuse, a fuse-link.

hope you get it diognosed soon.

90

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

RE: How

Check all the jumbo and mini fuses in the power distribution center under the hood, it's likely one is blown. Also may want to check the ASD relay.

 

[graewulf]

The Golden Snowball Award

is there a fusible link? That could cause this too. bad ignition switch? did you test all fuses with an ohm meter or visually inspect? Sometimnes they blow at the end where you can;t actually see it.

 

[siminsez01]

just a thought, but cps? when mine went, my gauge cluster wasn't getting power, and my lights came on just fine. i dont know if a cps is likely to go while you're driving tho.