defmornahan
New member
Yet another new Jeep owner. Bought this thing from the lady around the corner as my wife's wedding present in April. It's a Laredo and was pretty much stock with a few exceptions:
Most of the pulse air stuff was removed, including the vacuum switches, the little reservoir, both solenoids (the four-wire connector is hanging off the firewall), and the upstream reed valve and vacuum valve. The downstream reed valve is still in place; I just took the vacuum valve off since it had no line, no solenoid, etc. and ducted the reed valve straight to the air cleaner. The upstream pulse air pipe is still mostly there, with the end bent over and not real well pinched off. No vacuum lines were still hooked up to the CTO. The beast has not been Nuttered to my observation.
It's my wife's present, so it's got a column shift automatic and a cruise control (completely nonfunctional). Allegedly a rebuilt engine was put in it around 75,000 ago. It's got just over 200,000 now.
We took it down from Indy to northeast Tennessee to get a hard top and doors off eBay, and it overheated the whole way down and we had to run the heater the whole way back to keep it alive. It started getting very hard to start over the summer and would intermittently die when cold, sometimes three or four times in a 15 minute drive. It also was overheating, and I think the radiator was getting pretty much rusted shut. After taking it a couple of places, I took the dealership's suggestion that a Weber carburetor would do it good, as well as a new intake manifold gasket. As long as I was taking the Jeep apart, I also replaced the radiator at the same time. I also redid the vacuum routing; the only hoses that aren't new or have new plastic ties are the ones to the cruise control, which is teed into the port at the back of the intake manifold along with the 4WD red line (that last according to the tech's advice at the dealership). I unclipped the TVS (?) vacuum switch from the old air cleaner and left it hanging around at the back of the engine (cf. www saragossa net/weber_conv php ) , and I re-added the hoses to the CTO and EGR more or less as he did. I also replaced the old plugs, which looked grateful to retire; they had lots of white to tan deposits on them.
Anyway, last night I finally had Frankenstein put back together and tried to crank it. Turned over, ground it for a while several times, wouldn't start. I had poured about a film bottle's worth of gas into the space between the barrels and the fuel intake on the carburetor. I poured two in, and I think I probably flooded it. I'm not real smart with carburetors; I haven't driven one since I was about 14 or 15 on the farm, I expect. I ground the starter for a while, checked spark at the distributor and at the #2 plug and both wires were sparking. I checked the fuel pump and it was definitely pumping gas, and when I had my wife pump the pedal I could see gas squirting into the primary barrel below the choke. The choke was standing open after she'd popped the pedal, and I think at that point it actually started and ran for ten or twenty seconds at real low RPMs (400 or less, IIRC), then died and wouldn't start again. At some point around that time some smoke also emerged from the air cleaner, so I knew something fun was going on.
I had read mixed reviews about the effectiveness of a fuel pressure regulator, so I hadn't had it in up to that point. I put the fuel regulator back in, but I didn't try starting it again.
Today I took the plugs out and saw that #1 to #3 were black as night with soot, #4 is almost as dark, a little lighter on one side, #5 is dark on one side and kind of bronzy on the other, and #6 is pretty bronzy. All smell like gas. I've got the plugs out and I've stuck a length of virgin vacuum hose down the primary barrel to hold the throttle and the choke open, and I've got a fan blowing on the engine right now and the garage open.
Anyway, hoping that's enough background (!), I'm not sure what to do next.
- Should I pony up for new plugs, or be cheap and scrub the contacts off? I assume I should put some kind of cleaner in the gas to clean the soot out of the cylinders anyway--assuming she ever starts again?
- This differential condition of the plugs has me concerned. Is there maybe a leak on one side or the other of the intake manifold? Which end? I know I had trouble putting the bolts back in on the back end (toward the firewall) and had to use a drill to edge maybe 1/16" off the exhaust manifold to get those bolts in. I tried my best to torque them down but it's fairly absurd trying to get a torque wrench on these beasts, and I think some of them I had to use a U-joint and hope that if I torqued them up a little extra it would be all right (dredging up some vague memories of torque vectors from physics class). I also used this copper gasket spray on the whole affair, intake and exhaust manifold both, whereas the can says exhaust manifold explicitly. Should I take the manifold back off and use some other kind of gasket sealer on the intake manifold?
- Is there anything else obvious I'm missing? Forget Jeeps, I've never worked on anything before this year. I've just got my Chiltons and you guys and the guy at the dealership if I call during the work day...
- If worse happens and this ( www jeepz com/forum/cj-yj-tj-jk/22700-jeep-wont-start html )
is what's wrong (timing chain tore off a couple of sprockets...just shoot me), I assume you need to drain the oil before you take off the timing chain cover? The Chilton's doesn't mention that step, but surely...
Most of the pulse air stuff was removed, including the vacuum switches, the little reservoir, both solenoids (the four-wire connector is hanging off the firewall), and the upstream reed valve and vacuum valve. The downstream reed valve is still in place; I just took the vacuum valve off since it had no line, no solenoid, etc. and ducted the reed valve straight to the air cleaner. The upstream pulse air pipe is still mostly there, with the end bent over and not real well pinched off. No vacuum lines were still hooked up to the CTO. The beast has not been Nuttered to my observation.
It's my wife's present, so it's got a column shift automatic and a cruise control (completely nonfunctional). Allegedly a rebuilt engine was put in it around 75,000 ago. It's got just over 200,000 now.
We took it down from Indy to northeast Tennessee to get a hard top and doors off eBay, and it overheated the whole way down and we had to run the heater the whole way back to keep it alive. It started getting very hard to start over the summer and would intermittently die when cold, sometimes three or four times in a 15 minute drive. It also was overheating, and I think the radiator was getting pretty much rusted shut. After taking it a couple of places, I took the dealership's suggestion that a Weber carburetor would do it good, as well as a new intake manifold gasket. As long as I was taking the Jeep apart, I also replaced the radiator at the same time. I also redid the vacuum routing; the only hoses that aren't new or have new plastic ties are the ones to the cruise control, which is teed into the port at the back of the intake manifold along with the 4WD red line (that last according to the tech's advice at the dealership). I unclipped the TVS (?) vacuum switch from the old air cleaner and left it hanging around at the back of the engine (cf. www saragossa net/weber_conv php ) , and I re-added the hoses to the CTO and EGR more or less as he did. I also replaced the old plugs, which looked grateful to retire; they had lots of white to tan deposits on them.
Anyway, last night I finally had Frankenstein put back together and tried to crank it. Turned over, ground it for a while several times, wouldn't start. I had poured about a film bottle's worth of gas into the space between the barrels and the fuel intake on the carburetor. I poured two in, and I think I probably flooded it. I'm not real smart with carburetors; I haven't driven one since I was about 14 or 15 on the farm, I expect. I ground the starter for a while, checked spark at the distributor and at the #2 plug and both wires were sparking. I checked the fuel pump and it was definitely pumping gas, and when I had my wife pump the pedal I could see gas squirting into the primary barrel below the choke. The choke was standing open after she'd popped the pedal, and I think at that point it actually started and ran for ten or twenty seconds at real low RPMs (400 or less, IIRC), then died and wouldn't start again. At some point around that time some smoke also emerged from the air cleaner, so I knew something fun was going on.
I had read mixed reviews about the effectiveness of a fuel pressure regulator, so I hadn't had it in up to that point. I put the fuel regulator back in, but I didn't try starting it again.
Today I took the plugs out and saw that #1 to #3 were black as night with soot, #4 is almost as dark, a little lighter on one side, #5 is dark on one side and kind of bronzy on the other, and #6 is pretty bronzy. All smell like gas. I've got the plugs out and I've stuck a length of virgin vacuum hose down the primary barrel to hold the throttle and the choke open, and I've got a fan blowing on the engine right now and the garage open.
Anyway, hoping that's enough background (!), I'm not sure what to do next.
- Should I pony up for new plugs, or be cheap and scrub the contacts off? I assume I should put some kind of cleaner in the gas to clean the soot out of the cylinders anyway--assuming she ever starts again?
- This differential condition of the plugs has me concerned. Is there maybe a leak on one side or the other of the intake manifold? Which end? I know I had trouble putting the bolts back in on the back end (toward the firewall) and had to use a drill to edge maybe 1/16" off the exhaust manifold to get those bolts in. I tried my best to torque them down but it's fairly absurd trying to get a torque wrench on these beasts, and I think some of them I had to use a U-joint and hope that if I torqued them up a little extra it would be all right (dredging up some vague memories of torque vectors from physics class). I also used this copper gasket spray on the whole affair, intake and exhaust manifold both, whereas the can says exhaust manifold explicitly. Should I take the manifold back off and use some other kind of gasket sealer on the intake manifold?
- Is there anything else obvious I'm missing? Forget Jeeps, I've never worked on anything before this year. I've just got my Chiltons and you guys and the guy at the dealership if I call during the work day...
- If worse happens and this ( www jeepz com/forum/cj-yj-tj-jk/22700-jeep-wont-start html )
is what's wrong (timing chain tore off a couple of sprockets...just shoot me), I assume you need to drain the oil before you take off the timing chain cover? The Chilton's doesn't mention that step, but surely...
. I'd be taking someone else's advice and trading up for a 94 or 95 YJ, if not TJ...
