89 YJ DIED w/ no warning. No Start

[69jeepcj]

My dad had a 87 yj and it just shut off one day. It sat for 2 days while my brother and I tried to figure it out. He had air, fuel, spark and we checked everything. On the 3rd day I discovered by accident that he had a short in his wiring harness where it comes through the firewall. If your grabed the bundle of wires of the harness and wiggled them around it would start and run fine, It only shut off about 4 times or so while he owned it. Not saying thats your problem but something to keep in mind as a last effort. Oh, in response to above posts, when you check your fuel flow through the fuel lines, after you get the line apart crank the engine over so the pump operates and not just flow from gravitey.

 

[superj]

yes, those kind of things /\ are the things that drive you crazy and do happen. luckily those are the odd ball things and the last things to check for

 

[djemalo]

Its usually 2 things stop an engine: No Spark/electrical or no fuel. Do the spark plug test as Gennybro noted. Do so in a dim or shaded area so you can see (or not see) the spark. For carburator engines I usually will squirt some gas into the carb and have someone try turning it over, if it sputters or fires up. If it does I usually flow or squirt more to see if it will keep running (done at arms reach with no face hair over carb) as it could back fire. If it does fire, then usually it's a fuel delivery issue: fuel pump, fuel filter clogged, fuel line issue Etc.

Hey guys, Good news, i tried everything in order as it was given here on the forum and it started, however it sounds like maybe the fuel delivery is where the problem lies.
I 1st checked for spark, the plug with the wire agaisnt the block and it was sparking right along with the engine.

2nd i checked for fuel, i took off the Air cleaner thing off the Carb, added some fuel (buttlefly was already opened) while someone tried to crank it. At 1st it stuttered then was getting more power so i added a little more fuel, then i hear a loud bang, sounded like a backfiring noise cos it came from behind/under the jeep. i got a little scared so we turned it off and waited.
I then tried to started it myself and it cranked up fine! and stayed on.

Given this, i am going to assume the pump itself could be the kryptonite here. So i will now be attempting to check the pump for delivery using the method you guys gave me to manually pumped the gas and watch for squirts of gas inside the carb.

 

[superj]

which carb do you have on there?

 

[djemalo]

Looks like the stock one to me.. The Webber or something? I looked for a model name but I don't see any.

 

[superj]

its a weber? stock is a carter. can you snap a picture? most people have a weber 34 which is not a super carb

 

[Ghost Rider]

Fuel pumps go bad sometimes. Electric or mechanical they all fail at one time or another. Old VW engines used to have issues with fuel pump diaphragm going bad. Same with Stromberg carburetors on British cars...

 

[djemalo]

its a weber? stock is a carter. can you snap a picture? most people have a weber 34 which is not a super carb

Sure ill take a photo, It does look like stock to me. but in good condition. I just ran the car for several miles and turned on and off several times to see if it really has no issues and so far its running as good as before.

The fuel pump sounds like its either going bad, or maybe its getting weak, because that day it shut off on me, i remember accelerating and running the car like the i was trying to impress a girl lol :shades:

 

[superj]

ha ha ha, it just couldn;t handle it, ha ha ha

 

[Gennybro]

Good to see that your makeing progress. I learned a little bit to, it was about searching for vacume leaks with carburator cleaner. That's what is nice about this forum,ya can always learn something. opps about the vacume leak search, that was on anouther thread.

 

[69jeepcj]

If you just pull back on the throttle and look down the carb for fuel, that will not tell you if the feul pump is working. That will let you know the accelerator pump is working but not the fuel pump. This is a mechanical pump on the side of the engine block?? Take the fuel line apart, either on top of your pump or where it go,s into the carb and crank the engine over, fuel will pump out of the line when you do this if the pump is working. If not its dead, or the filter is clogged.