Clicking from distributor? HELP

98 4.0... When i turn the jeep on it runs and idles great. after about 3 minutes from cold start, there is an audible clicking noise coming from the distributor (still runs great). If i touch the top of the distributor cap i can feel it, if i push on the top of the cap it seems to quiet it a little bit, the cap isn't loose or anything though. you can't feel it at all on the block or the valve cover so I'm guessing its not a rocker, slider, guide or valve... the fact it takes a few minutes before it makes the sound leads to me believe its not piston slap... But I'm curious. Any ideas as to what it could be and what i should look for when i pull the cap off? i also can't feel the knocking on the bottom of the distributor either...

Ive done a little research online but I'm still left a little empty... Ive heard of spark knock but I'm not sure if this could be it? the jeep idles fine and theres no lights on the dash or anything. The clicking gets faster as the rpm goes up... its not a super fast click either.

Any help is appreciated. I'm sure i can't be the only person to encounter this issue...


As a side issue... What would cause my front seal in the trans to puke up about 3 oz of tranny fluid then completely stop leaking? it did this this morning, i turned it off an on about 5 times today letting it cool down, revving it, going from D, P and R and its only dropped maybe a drip or two since... I put some lucas tranny honey in just in case... The fluid isn't burn at all and its been maintained regularly..

Thanks!

BUMP

Pull the cap off and see if the cam position sensor
is still intact. I've had the magnet come loose in
mine and it'll eventually trigger a code and stop
running.

Fall and cold weather is sweeping the country. Could be similar to all the radiators that are going to start leaking...

The distributor in my 96 has been making a clicking sound for around 8 years now. I've given up trying to figure out why and am waiting for it to fail completely. Who knows it may last for another 8 years.

As far as the tranny leak, the fluid tends to collect a little in the bell housing, the drain slot isn't necessarily the lowest spot. It may be a tiny leak and what you saw was a slosh or maybe because you were parked nose down that caused it to puddle.

The first thing I check when I get a tranny seal leak is the vent. I've never had one plug up on the AW4, but have on other trannys.

They all leak a little right? I'd imagine some of that Lucas stuff should help. I'm not gunn pull the tranny off until it's so bad I need to tape a bucket to the bell housing.

As for the distributor, in the pitch black Florida night, I grew too impstient and wound up using my iphone as a flashlight to start pulling the distributor apart. Before doing so I decided to turn it on... It took about 7 minutes from cold start until I heard the noise... What I also found was that while it was ticking, if I grabbed one of the distributor wire plugs and used it as leverage to push or pull it would alter the sound... At one point I had pushed it hard and the noise was extremely faint. But as soon as I let go the noise returned.

Now I'm not too familiar with distributors, I kinda get how they work but I've never screwed with one before realy. I took the rotor off, looked inside the cap, from what I can tell it looks good. The rotor too. So I took off the crank sensor (could this cause a noise?) and it didn't seem scored or anything. Then I unbolted the fork and pulled the whole thing out and what I found was this: (and what I really need to have someone explain)

The shaft spins fine in the distributor but it has side to side play. Is this what's causing my issue? It also has up and down movement an the shaft has more resistance if I pull up on the distributor. Everything else seems ok but I'm not totally sure what to look for and I wanna learn as much as I can before I go and buy a new one.

Oh and any theories as to why it needs to warm up before making noise? I pulled the distributor when it was hot so I don't think the bearings are getting thermal seizure... Could the rotor be comming out of the slot and hitting the inside of the cap? Or the metal ring have something to do with it? I'm not sure how to test different theories but if u guys give me ur theories and ask me to test something a certain way we can probably figure this out. Then the next guy who runs into this and uses google like me will have an answer lol

Where is the magnet on the CPS? All I see is 3 wires that are soldered onto a metal piece encased in the flat plastic disk that is essentially the entire sensor. There's no CEL and it runs good too... All maybe not right now as it's distributor has been taken out �� lol

I had a bad distributer years ago, it caused an awful squeaking noise and clicking.

Once pulled I noticed a lot of play as your describing. I would assume that since it has the play and you can press the cap and feel it and quiet the sound that the play is allowing the rotor to move and hit the cap. A new distributor isn't too pricey.

Agreed. The rotor is hitting one of the terminals
in the cap. There's a small air gap when the distributor
is turning normally, but the worn distributor bushings
are allowing the shaft and rotor to wobble.

Take a close look at the cap terminals and see if one
has contact marks on it, or looks different than the
other 5.

I took apart the dist this morning and played with it. The shaft was pretty dirty so i cleaned everything and relubed it all. I replaced the shim that goes from the plate to the bushing housing with a spark plug indexing washer that was a few thousandths bigger, which in turn limited the side to side action a lot as it had about 3mm of vertical play prior. When i looked inside the distributor cap i found one of the terminals to be rotated slightly and in direct contact with the rotor tip before i reshimmed it. How it got like this i have now clue as it was not freely rotating at all, i carefully punched it out and reseated it correctly and applied some super glue to keep it where it needs to be. I put it all back together, cleaned all the electrical contacts with steel wool and reinstalled it. I ran it 3 times today for more than 30 minutes each time and it hasn't made a single noise... i noticed there is almost no side to side movement either.

My theory is that the worn washer caused the shaft to have more side to side play and the #3 terminal to get smacked by the rotor as it was slightly angled just enough to make contact. This slight angling was just enough so that when the shaft heated up it had enough play to reach the crooked terminal...

Problem solved.

On another side note, the transmission hasn't leaked a single drop since the lucas tranny honey has been added. Maybe my jeep just helped itself to a pinch of skoal and puked in front of me as a sign of distaste for my bad habit.