fivequarter
12-10-2007, 06:53 PM
My Jeep has not been driveable since the Weds before Thanksgiving. This system has been in service for a year and a half. It's been trouble free since the first time it was started. It has only balked when I push some of the adjustments to far. When I started it up after work the other day, it coughed and sputtered and popped in the exhaust. I nursed it home and began to troubleshoot according to the Manual at the weekend between hunting excursions. There are no leaks in the intake. Fuel pressure is right at 50psi. I have excellent voltage in the system. I suspected the Jeep ignition switch, so I ran the system directly off the battery. I had changed the ignition switch once before for a different problem. Still no improvement. No warnings had ever appeared on the controller. Yet the readings on it are pretty eratic. I'm standing there really scratching when I lay my hand on the dist and gave it a turn. It turned. Wow! I thought I had found it. It would have to wait until the next day as I had to repaint the timing mark on the counterweight and clean paint from the nickle plated cover. There is such a tiny hole to look through with the timing light. Next day that bright yellow stripe made it easy to set the base timing. It didn't make a bit of difference. But I did discover that there were frequent losses of spark pulses which got worse the higher the RPM was. After dinking around with my VOM for a while, I guessed that it might be the coil. Certainly it's the cheapest and easiest component to change. I called the local parts places. Nobody had ever heard of an e-core type coil. Edelbrock says a late model mustang but I didn't know that when I called around. So I ordered a new Mallory from Summit. Had to wait until the weekend to change it. Showed my son what I needed done and he took care of that, but it did know good. It was popping and missing just the same. But we let it run. When the engine reached its normal operating temp, we noticed that at idle, it ran perfectly. RPM was pretty steady at 630 and all the other displayed data was constant. When you added any throttle, the missing would start and get worse with ever more throttle added. All the data on the display was so eratic that nothing could be read. That is how it stands today.
Back when I found the dist loose, I opened it up to look at the sensor. I found some debris inside that looks as though it came from rubbing between the rotor and cap. Could this be where my focus should be? This problem is fustrating and made even more so as I have been sick now for a week.
Back when I found the dist loose, I opened it up to look at the sensor. I found some debris inside that looks as though it came from rubbing between the rotor and cap. Could this be where my focus should be? This problem is fustrating and made even more so as I have been sick now for a week.
