Jeep not starting. Cranking and cranking

[HeavyMetal]

i have a starting problem that has made me miss 3 important classes in 2 days.

cliff notes

get in car yesterday, turn key nothing happens, get a click. must be the starter. spend half the night in the rain tryin to swap a new starter in, finally do..now the jeep just cranks and cranks and cranks endlessly. meaning 2 things failed at the exact same moment when the starter went.

CPS is a few months new
old starter was a few months brand new
Distributor/sync sensor is 1 season old
NSS still functions

i have fuel going to the rail. the jeep will crank and seem to come very close to firing only sometimes but never gets there, itll crank as long as you have the key turned to ignition.

please help.

 

[peterjford]

What year is your XJ, the Mopar and Renix systems are slightly different. Whenever this happened on my '89 (Renix) I would unplug the CPS connector, clean it and reconnect and it would start.

Other things to consider are the ignition switch and the alarm (if it has one). Whenever the battery dies on my '91 (Mopar) I have to make sure that the alarm is turned off or it will crank and just about start and then die.

Peter J. Ford

 

[89CherokeePioneer]

Any spark? Fuel injector tick?

 

[Krazors001]

His Jeep is a 97

 

[HeavyMetal]

yes my fault

97/4.0/aw4

no alarm on it..

ignition switch? explain

i have yet to have time to check for spark.

 

[nick86]

97 OBD II , the puter needs to see a crank sensor signal to fire, start with troubleshooting the crank sensor.

 

[nick86]

one other thing, do you hear the fuel pump when you key up, for 2 or 3 seconds?

 

[HeavyMetal]

well guys, i finally go out there to fool with the thing

i go in, turn the key, and it starts like nothing was ever an issue, after leaving me stranded for 2 days not starting...WTF.

How is this possible?????????????

 

[clunk]

it's a jeep thing...

 

[Jeepm@n]

it's a jeep thing...

WE ALL WOULD LIKE TO UNDERSTAND LOL sorry too many barley shakes

 

[MGrobe]

well guys, i finally go out there to fool with the thing

i go in, turn the key, and it starts like nothing was ever an issue, after leaving me stranded for 2 days not starting...WTF.

How is this possible?????????????

Not that I would bet my life upon it as I have yet to have this problem. But it is my understanding that it is very common crank position sensor to work intermittently before buying the farm. Do a search on CPS or CKS and I'm sure someone else has experienced similiar symptoms.

Another point to mention is that on occasion the wire/connector to the CPS/CKS was the issue.

 

[HeavyMetal]

ok so my issue is back again randomly

i went to go get a haircut, and i turned the key, and the jeep gave me a realllly slow crank, maybe like 1.5 of em, and it fired up sputtering until i got on the gas a little with a low rev, it evened out after that. then after that i didnt feel like i could trust it starting again away from home, so luckily i turned it off to try aagain, low and behold no start identical to how it was before (few days ago)

heres a small video of it so you can tell exactly how it is behaving:
http://heavymetal.arlojeep.com/MVI_2727.wmv

i figure while i go check for the basics i could get some suggestions here, id really like to avoid just throwing parts at it because im low on money to an extreme, so i figured the more opinions i can get the better in the meantime, video is always good

when i had a CPS issue in the past that was indeed the issue at the time, the engine would just crank endlessly like this, but with absolutely no variation or anything...this time around it isnt like that so i am not sure..the engine sounds so close to firing at times

right before this cranking issue occurred, and before i swapped starters a friend of mine accidentally crossed the terminals on the old starter, resulting in a good sparking..that starter has since been changed out, but could that have fried/shorted something related to this?? it didnt have a crank issue before that...