Running Rough, CEL after plugs/wires/cap/rotor

Hey everyone - I've been lurking the forums here since I bought my first XJ back in October - '99 Classic with ~194k miles.

I found a set of 31s on Craigslist, ordered a RC 3" full leaf/coil kit, and a few other upgrades and tuneup items...

Anyway - among those items were plugs, wires, cap, and rotor. Copper plugs, Accel cap, rotor and 8mm Accel wires. Pretty standard.

Installed everything and it started right up, no 3-5 second start, but under acceleration it was lurching a bit, almost dying a couple of times. Idle seemed ok from what I could tell.

Tried everything - ensured the cap was seated properly, added dielectric grease to all connections, re-routed wires. Nothing worked. On the third test drive, the CEL came on.

Got it around the block, put the old dist. cap on, and now it seems to run fine like it did before the change, but still has the CEL. I suppose I can clear the CEL, but what gives? Bad dist. cap? Gonna try another one this week and see if that's the problem.

I should also mention I changed the air filter at the same time:

http://www.amazon.com/Spectre-Perfo...8-2-1766-14-3-0&sr=1-1&ymm=1999:jeep:cherokee

If the Check Engine Light is ON, your Jeep is trying to tell you what is wrong. Download the trouble codes numbers and research them. Since the symptoms appeared after you worked on the Jeep, it is logical to suspect that the cause of the symptoms is related to the work most recently done.

nwatters said:

Copper plugs, Accel cap, rotor and 8mm Accel wires.

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Accel is your problem. Their stuff is crap. Please don't tell me you used Accel plugs too?

Tim_MN said:

If the Check Engine Light is ON, your Jeep is trying to tell you what is wrong. Download the trouble codes numbers and research them. Since the symptoms appeared after you worked on the Jeep, it is logical to suspect that the cause of the symptoms is related to the work most recently done.

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Definitely! Just wanted to see if anyone had similar experiences.

DieselSJ said:

Accel is your problem. Their stuff is crap. Please don't tell me you used Accel plugs too?

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Haha, why yes I did. All Accel everthing What's my best bet? MSD? OEM? Which plugs would you recommend? Thanks!

nwatters said:

Haha, why yes I did. All Accel everthing What's my best bet? MSD? OEM? Which plugs would you recommend? Thanks!

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Champion copper plugs. Nothing else. Ever.

As for cap/rotor, get the premium house brand stuff from Autozone/OReilly/NAPA. Just make sure the cap has brass terminals and the rotor has a brass tip.

DieselSJ said:

Champion copper plugs. Nothing else. Ever.

As for cap/rotor, get the premium house brand stuff from Autozone/OReilly/NAPA. Just make sure the cap has brass terminals and the rotor has a brass tip.

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Cool, will do - thanks! Interestingly, the Accel cap had brass posts, but the rotor was not brass. Hmm. I'll try another cap/rotor and the Champion plugs and see what happens.