Distributor noise

Hey
ok on my 97 it sounds like the distributor is squealing. It comes and gos.
Meaning when I rev the engine up it will go away and come back at idle.
Any ideas? Can I oil it some how? Or do I have to replace it?
I changed the cap and rotor and its still there.
Thanks for any input.

Are you sure it's not the belt? Or power steering pump?

I've seen that before. You might be able to get some lube down there, but if you really want to fix it, you'll probably have to pull the distributor, take the roll pin off the gear on the bottom, and pull the shaft. You can then make sure it's lubed, though I'm afraid I don't know just what lube is recommended.

My daughter had this intermittently on her 93, but it went away when it warmed up. Before she could get around to fixing it she totaled the thing, so it's a done deal now anyway.

I had this happen on my 93 as well as a matter of fact, it was a awful squeal, after it warmed up though it would go away intermittently. i figured it was the rotor and cap, so i pulled them found some carbon scoring, cleaned it and lubed it and popped it back on. however, when i turned it on, it still squealed something awful. researched it some more and it was the distributor itself, and if you don't replace it relatively soon, it can chew up the drive gear it's connected to.

i was able to firm my diagnosis by actually feeling the disty cap when i first turned it on. the entire assembly was vibrating like crazy along with the squeal.

i got a refurb'd one from AA for ~60$ if i remember correctly, set TDC and pulled the old one out. i can give you some more details from my FSM, which was VERY helpful with the adjustment so that i didn't BONE my timing (long flat-head screw driver to re-align the distributor 'hole' back to 11 o'clock)

this is still pretty fresh in my mind since i only did it about 2 month's ago, feel free to PM me!

Good luck!

If it is the distributor, you don't want it to overload the drive gear which also runs the oil pump. The good news is that they will both go out at the same time, so it won't run either.

It is easy to pull the distributor. Remove the cap and mark the dist body both at the rotor and also at the base where it goes in to the block. Then you can turn the rotor shaft and see what it feels like. Then you can decide to pull the shaft out of the distributor to clean and lube, or if that scares you, flush the shaft/bushing area with brake cleaner and them a light amount of your normal motor oil.

Reassemble to the same locations as you marked for the base positon and rotor position.

Up until 94 or 95 you had to pull the distributor shaft to replace the cam sensor. It's not that big a deal, and the gear is designed so that there's only one way to put it back on. If you mark the rotor position, make sure the engine isn't budged while you're working, and match it when putting it back, it's actually a very quick job.

hightime81 said:

I had this happen on my 93 as well as a matter of fact, it was a awful squeal, after it warmed up though it would go away intermittently. i figured it was the rotor and cap, so i pulled them found some carbon scoring, cleaned it and lubed it and popped it back on. however, when i turned it on, it still squealed something awful. researched it some more and it was the distributor itself, and if you don't replace it relatively soon, it can chew up the drive gear it's connected to.

i was able to firm my diagnosis by actually feeling the disty cap when i first turned it on. the entire assembly was vibrating like crazy along with the squeal.

Click to expand...

I had the same thing happen. I replaced mine and when I had the old one out I noticed it had a bit of play in it also. No problems since replacing the dist.

I replaced it today and its all good.
Thanks

Steve,

About 2 years ago my '98 was making a noise and a day or so later the engine just stopped and would not start. Found out the distributor shaft bushings had gone out and the Cam Position Sensor was intermittantly rubbing against the trigger shield and shorting to ground.
A friend that is a Jeep dealership mechanic said it was the worst catastrophic failure of the distributor he had ever seen.
Must be something with the >97 distributors.