Hi:

Update on my troubles...

I finally got around to taking the truck into the dealer today. The Dealer
ran all possible sensor tests and checked the fuel pressure and spark and
couldn't find anything wrong. The problem is still there (as far as I
know). The problem seems to happen when the engine is thoroughly warmed up;
on the drive over this morning, I guess it didn't warm up enough as the
problem wasn't there - but it was there on the weekend when I was out on the
highway. The dealer assured me that they warmed the engine up thoroughly
and still couldn't find any problems.

Not sure what to try next. I'm a little leery about starting to replace
sensors and the like when the analyzer showed nothing wrong. The Dealer
suggested that it could be the CPS (which has never been replaced) but when
checked it seemed to be working fine. If the CPS is being flakey - why
wouldn't it have been apparent when the dealer warmed the engine up for the
test? - Maybe it's a vibration thing?

I've discovered a little more about the symptoms.......

The engine idles fine and runs well at all speeds and acceleration rates
when cold.

Once warm (either that or it's a distance thing), there is significant
stumbling (feels like all cylinders are cutting out not just one or two) on
mild acceleration, although, if I hammer it down, there will only be slight
stumbling and it will accelerate like normal. Even though slight
accelerating will cause it to stumble heavily, I can very slowly bring it up
to highway cruising speed and it will cruise just fine - but hit a slight
hill and it starts to choke!

Once this problem starts happening, the idle becomes very rough as well, but
it doesn't stall (at least not yet), but it does sound as if it's not
running on all cylinders.

I wondered if it could be some moisture in the gas. I was low on gas so I
added a half tank and poured in some injector cleaner that is also supposed
to take moisture out of the gas and that didn't seem to make any difference.

Anyone else have any comments or suggestions?

Thanks.
--

"NT" > wrote in message
...
>
> Hi:
>
>
>
> I'm hoping some of you XJ fans can offer some suggestions on a problem
> that just happened to me today for the first time.
>
>
>
> First of all, the specs: 1989 Cherokee LTD (XJ), inline 6 cylinder, 4
> litre, with 150k Km's (ie: relatively low mileage, or more accurately
> 'kilometerage' for the year).
>
>
>
> I drove to Costco this morning, about a 15 km drive. Everything was fine
> on the drive there but when I started the truck up to come home (1/2 hour
> later), it was idling roughly and would stumble quite a bit while driving
> (but it didn't stall) - it felt like it wasn't running on all cylinders.
> I did make it home where I did a thorough once over of under hood wires
> and hoses and couldn't see any obvious problems.
>
>
>
> The last time I drove the jeep was about 3 weeks ago. It's rained a lot
> since the so it could be that some water has got into the gas tank, but
> I've lived here in Vancouver for over 20 years and the constant rain we
> get for 9 months of the year has never been a problem before.
>
>
>
> My XJ has never failed to start since I purchased in new in 89, however
> after it was a year old, it began to take a bit of cranking (say 20
> seconds) to get it going. It's been that way ever since. I took it to
> several dealers all of who said that a bit of cranking was normal. Since
> it wasn't normal when the jeep was new, I've often wondered if the CPS was
> faulty, but in all the reading that I've done, a faulty CPS seems to
> manifest itself in intermittent start failures and I've never had a start
> failure.
>
>
>
> Anyone have any suggestions on likely candidate for the source of my
> trouble? Thanks for any advice.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Dave
>
>
> --
>
>
>