Hard restart condition fixed, but did I? - LONG

Hey buds,

Last week, I started the jeep & it fired right up, waiting for my wife to come out of the house. Shut it off cause it was running 5 minutes. She finally came out and I went to start it. Crank, crank, crank and no start. She says "Oh, that did it to me 2 or 3 times lately - it'll start if you push the gas pedal down." I said "this ****er isn't going to start" but low and behold, I push the pedal down and she catches after a half dozen or so of cranks. Same thing happens to me again the same day. Car starts right up at home, I go into town, shut the car off for a few minutes, get into the car and ditto to the 1st incident.

Plugs were put in 2 years ago and have less than 15K miles - Champion 4412's and at the same time, I put in new plug wires. Car has 80K miles and I put a new in-line fuel filter in about 4 months ago. I never replaced the distributor cap or rotor and the cap shows it. Lots of buildup on the inside terminals - which I clean up. I buy a new cap (with brass terminals) and rotor - put them in. Same thing happens - starts up right away, ride around the block, shut it off, go to restart and crank, crank until you push the pedal down. It doesn't go "right off" when you put the pedal down, you have to crank it 5-6 times.

Now I think it's the CPS and I'm fussing under the car trying to find this MFker. In the process, I take the CPS connector in the engine compartment off and clean it with electric cleaner spray. Do the same with the (?) connector controling the throttle body (I think it is the Idle Air Controller connector). Checked the spark plugs and 4 of them are "sooty" looking. I now think maybe they weren't getting enough juice cause of the bad distributor contacts. I pull all the plugs out, verify .035 gap (a few need a slight adjustment), spray the tips with Gumout and wipe, and reinstall them. I will buy new ones today - but not Champions.

Ok , it seems to start all the time now and more importantly, restart after a shutdown. I tested it about half a dozen times but kinda afraid to venture too far from home in the event it won't start. Did I fix it between the :
1. new cap and rotor
2. cleaning the plugs
3. cleaning the 2 sensor connectors

Also, even though the battery is only 2 years old, I disconnected the cables and cleaned up the positive and negative posts along with the cable ends. I guess this reset any computer error codes ( if any).

or is all of this coinsidental - and will it krap out again?

Thanks, Fred

Basics like year/engine, etc.?

Sorry - thought it was in my signature. duh - which I don't have.

1996 4.0

greenlawnjeeper said:

Sorry - thought it was in my signature.

1996 4.0

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Ok, had to ask. The very late models have an issue due to lack of a fuel return line and changes to the manifolds, problem is called "heat soak".

That should not be your problem. How did the other two plugs look?

Anyway, it sounds like you had a consistent problem and have eliminated it. If the problem had been intermittent, then I would be a bit cautious, but sounds like you nailed it.

joe_peters said:

How did the other two plugs look?

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I wouldn't have expected any "soot" on any of the plugs. I'm use to seeing a gray conductor indicating a clean burn - well, unless I'm looking on one of my old Chevys that I know could probably use new valve seals. This (2 years ago) was my first plug replacement. I left the originals in for 50K miles and replaced them as a matter of course - the Jeep was running fine. Answer to your original question, the other 2 were slightly better than the other 4. I'm not a big fan of Champion's but put the 4412 Truck plug in because many recommended it. I normally use Autolights in my vehicles. IIRC, when I changed out the originals, other than the gap increasing, they burned clean. Thanks.