Won't start (yep, another one of those)

Okay, here's the deal: I was driving my jeep down the road, went over a series of speed bumps, and it died. It wouldn't start back up. Before I went over the speed bumps, I had two bars of gas left. Now, with the key on, it shows completely empty (this happened right after it died), and the volt meter does not go up at all, it stays down at around 9 volts.

It cranks just fine, but won't start due to no spark. I figured ASD relay or CPS sensor. I ohms checked the CPS, and it is open through all of the pins on the connector. I have seen some conflicting information concerning this, as some people say it should have low resistance between pins b and c while some say that it should be open. Anybody know for sure?

I already swapped the asd relay with the fan relay, and no change.

I will look further into the CPS sensor tomorrow, but I wonder why the gauges are now acting kind of screwy at the same time. (coincidence? I don't know.)

Is the guage thing a common thing, and does anybody see a different direction I should be going?

Thanks.

Background: it is a 98 XJ 4.0, automatic 4wd.

cps should show resistance during an ohms test(something like 180ohms IIRC.) if it is showing open then the cps is bad....

Check your ballast resistor (ceramic looking thing with a couple wires on it.)on the front driver-side fender by the hood hinge. Make sure it's not busted or disconnected.

Rocketman said:

Check your ballast resistor (ceramic looking thing with a couple wires on it.)on the front driver-side fender by the hood hinge. Make sure it's not busted or disconnected.

Click to expand...

its a 98

Yup, it was definitely open. I had my dvm set to the 2000 ohm range, and it showed open, so here we go!

I'll post the results of replacing the cps.

Well, it actually isn't open. I set my dvm to the 20000 ohm range, and it is showing resistence, just a LOT of it. Much more than the new sensor that I got. But before I just start replacing parts, I would like to check some things out.

Does anybody have any idea why my gauges would go weird at the same time?

I don't want to replace sensors when my ecm just went bad, so does anybody know how to check the ecm?

Okay, fixed the problem. It was a fuse! I found that the cps and tps were not getting five volt reference signal, so I looked at a wiring diagram and that all runs off a fuse. Checked the fuse, and voila! it was bad, swapped in another 15 amp fuse, and bingo! fired right up! I checked the wires trying to find a bare wire or something that could have grounded out to pop the fuse, but nothing, so I'll just keep some spares in the glove box.