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Bad crank?

Shock357

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Springfield, MO
I got a offer to trade my 93 eclipse GSX for a lifted, stroked 97 xj, just one hitch...

"honestly it is the cat that is keeping it from running right now. It has so much torque that in 2 wheel drive you have to leave slow in the rain or she just sits and spins. We bored, stroked, and rebuilt the engine, and I have a feeling that my father in law left the distributer loose, and it wobbled when the motor was running. Eventually we discovered this and tried a new distributer, the Jeep ran fine but the new distributer wobbles when she runs. I am fairly sure that a new crank and distributer combo would fix that. I say another new distributer because the gears on this one might get chewed up before a new crank gets put in."
The clogged cat doesn't concern me, the other issue is a major one tho.

Does this sound about right? Every car I've ever worked on the dizzy ran off the camshaft. I've never had to work on my 92 xj's motor so I'm not too keen on the 4.0 design.

Its a really clean looking 4 door, 4.5 RE lift, dick cepek rims wrapped in MT ATZ's.

So naxja, should I go for it, or run away like a frightened shool girl?
 
the dizzy runs off the cam in this truck too.

Is the Dizzy actually bolted down, did they use the right one? I am pretty confidant that I could go take the retaining strap off mine and it would not wobble. Makes me think that they somehow managed to screw up the hole it goes into.
 
Or the teeth on the cam that drive the distributor have been damaged from the loose distributor and now any distributor installed into the engine will wobble............
 
Or the teeth on the cam that drive the distributor have been damaged from the loose distributor and now any distributor installed into the engine will wobble............

This is what I was thinking.
But I didn't want to say anything to the owner, because with my luck this would be the one engine in the world that ran the dizzy off the crank, and that would make me look like a arse..
 
Classic oil pump issue. One of the drive tangs on the pump shaft breaks off, wobble wobble distributor.

And.. they bored and stroked the engine? Good thing they rebuilt it too! Hopefully the guy that thinks the crankshaft has something to do with a wobbly distributor had no part in the build.

Be cautious.
 
Classic oil pump issue. One of the drive tangs on the pump shaft breaks off, wobble wobble distributor.

And.. they bored and stroked the engine? Good thing they rebuilt it too! Hopefully the guy that thinks the crankshaft has something to do with a wobbly distributor had no part in the build.

Be cautious.

Thanks fir the info! The guy is a car guy, I mean he drives a 12 second WRX.

What all would be involved in the repair? Replacing the dizzy and oil-pump? any other possible damage to the cam or block? Sorry, I've never delt with this kind of setup, every car I've ever worked on has had the oil pump driven off the timing belt.

How would u pin point this is the problem, without major work, like in this guys driveway.
 
The whole story doesn't make any sense. Just because he drives a WRX doesn't mean that he knows s**t about car mechanics. People drive Ferrari's and don't know s**t. Dude, my STOCK XJ will spin the tires in the wet so hard that you have to back off to get traction.

And to buy a home rebuilt motor vehicle without carefully test driving it is just plain foolish. Hell, how do you know the transmission even works? Or the brakes? Unless this person is a personal friend whom you totally trust, you can't believe anything he says. To test it, it sounds like you would have to cut off the catalytic converter and then pull and examine the distributor drive gear.

I don't really understand how a distributor would "wobble" unless the distributor bushings were wore out or the distributor shaft was bent. Does the dist rotor hit hard on the inside of the cap?

Find a good stock XJ that hasn't been f**cked with!
 
I def won't buy it without test driving it. My eclipse just has a lot of little problems, and me and the wife are expecting our second kid and our 92 isn't very family/DD friendly, no ac, no radio, vibrations like s masage chair...

Would the problem with the oilpump also cause oil starvation issues?
 
Worn/spun bearing, scored piston walls, scored journals.


I'm guess what I'm asking is does the broken off drive tang effect the oil pump doing its main job?
 
Worn/spun bearing, scored piston walls, scored journals.


I'm guess what I'm asking is does the broken off drive tang effect the oil pump doing its main job?

I hope you aren't asking this because you want to avoid installing a new oil pump.

You can test the oil pressure at idle and see if it's affecting anything. Definitely get specs on the motor, like who built it, the machine work, etc, etc. Maybe the didn't put the spring and pin back on when they installed the timing cover. Without the tension the cam isn't forced in place, and it might move back and forth. Certainly you would notice some other problems with it, but it's a possibility.

If the owner had ANYTHING to do with the motor I would run away. Considering your circumstances I would run away regardless. It's not running right and you need a family/DD friendly vehicle...
 
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