89 wagoneer

helpn a friend with his 89 wag. the PO swapped out the trans due to it slipping and now it wont run and hasnt ran since the trans swap. it cranks over twice and starts and then dies. replaced CPS and still does the same thing. i drove it when PO had it before the trans swap and it ran great other than the slippage. its been sitting for 4 or 5 years because PO lost interest and was frustrated with the it. any ideas?

Maybe the fuel pump or fuel pump ballast resistor?

mine has a fuseable link on top of the driver front wheel well, and if that gets unplugged, it does the exact same thing. i too have an 89 wagoneer.

the fuel pump is new. where is the ballast resistor?

Ballast resistor is on the driver side fender wall under the hood - it's a white block with a lead going to each end mounted right near the master cylinder. If you disconnect the wires from it (they're quarter inch quick disconnects iirc) and connect them together and it fixes the issue, either replace it (if you don't like how loud the fuel pump is with it bypassed) or just connect the two leads together and forget about it. The ballast resistor is there to run the fuel pump at a lower voltage during normal driving to keep noise down and is bypassed by one of the relays at startup to bring fuel pressure up fast, it serves no other purpose.

ha! so that's what that is.... that's the thing i was talking about. i sure feel smart now...

Yeah, fusible links look like a piece of (usually extra flexy feeling for the diameter) wire, usually with FUSE LINK or a current rating on the jacket and heatshrink tubing at each end. A power resistor on the other hand looks like a power resistor (I'm an EE nerd, so this was an easy one )

by passed resistor and its alive. idled rough for a bit and if i barely touched the go pedal it would die. after a few trys tho it did rev up ok. still have some more tinkering to do. Thanks for your help! learning alot from these forums and its greatly appreciated.