My jeep almost killed me!

ok, heres what happened...

i was driving home from springfield to cincinnati (about 90 miles) and after just having fixed one problem another comes up. its raining pretty hard and yadda yadda... im about 5 minutes from hom and my jeep dies on the highway... engine just stop getting fuel, tach still is reading good RPMS.. but i have no power breaks and no power steering, and just at that time, a semi decides to merge into my line.. and in my spot!... well it was really his sense hes bigger than me. after skidding it off the rod and spending FOREVER trying to get a tow, i called the po po to come help me out. just as they got there, i got in the jeep and it fired up and ran for about 2 minuets and died. then it did it again, but just enough for me to get it to a speedway. then the 2 kind police officers drve me and all my crap home. thanks to them for the help.


well, as i was sitting on the side of e road, i noticed that i wasnt getting any whine from the fuel pump. my issue is DEF. a fuel issue. there is no squirting of the TBI injector. no, for my details. 88 XJ with a 2.5, just replaced the o2 snsor to fix a dead sport in the RPMS, worked well, but now this! any ideas? im having it towed home tomorrow then i can start looking at it. is the a FI relay maybe, or bad pump do you think?

Re: MY JEEP ALMOST KILLED ME!

WOW. I have very similar issues at the moment. I changed out the O2 sensor and then I started getting all this phantom BS with the fuel pump not wanting to run. Believe it or not, the O2 is tied into that circuit. I am trying to get a clue as to how this works myself... If anyone reads this who understands the fuel system, please answer this: does the pump cut off when it hits the pre-set pressure on the rail? What controls the cycling of the fuel pump motor?

I got the schematic off autozone.com Try this

http://www.autozone.com/images/cds/gif/large/0900823d80153eae.gif

Good luck ! Bill-93XJ

Re: MY JEEP ALMOST KILLED ME!

I just replaced 2 fuel pump and am on the third in 2 weeks. I have chnged filter, pump, screen, relay, and all rubber lines. I blew out all the fuel lines with air. I haven't changed the o2 sensor but was considering it because I don't know if has ever been changed out. I am interested in info you receive.

Re: MY JEEP ALMOST KILLED ME!

There is a ballast resistor on the drivers side of the engine compartment, right near the air box. It's a white block that has the texture of a brick, and has a wire on each end of it. Make sure the wires are solidly connected to the resistor.
That is for the fuel pump. If it disconnected, the engine will fire up and run for a minute, then die. It will then start right back up and do it again. I spent three hours chasing a no fuel problem after an engine swap before I found that the resistor had come disconnected. I also had a wire slide off the terminal once, and it just died, out of the blue.

Re: MY JEEP ALMOST KILLED ME!

yeah, for me it seems liek a ghost in the wiring or something. ill def. check that ballast resistor. and im going to just go ahead and replace the FP relay if i can find it.

higherelevation!, 3 FP's in two weeks!!? falty pumps or is youre jeep burning them up?? i do not want to run into that problem... those things are NOT cheap.

looking at that chematic, im going to replace the auto-shutdown relay as well, and the other RP relay and the BR bypass relay. where are those fuses in the diagram located at, the ones to the top near the relays? id like to check them too. are the relays the three sqaure relays on the pass side fender inside the engine compartment? i guess if non of that does it, then im going with a pump!

Re: MY JEEP ALMOST KILLED ME!

Yep. I can confirm that in my -93 the black box on the passenger side fender well contains the relays. They are little black cubes with 5 pins. Just for grins pull them and check out the marks on the metal surface of the pins. You can see which two pull the most current. You might try swapping their positions and see if it gives any improvement.

Re: MY JEEP ALMOST KILLED ME!

right on. yeah last night i rotaed them all. but the jeep would only run for a minute then die, then a little later it would run again. how many ohms is the ballast resistor? according to that diagram, it looks liek a great start because it directly goes to the fuel pump. the jeep is getting towed in on wednesday. any other ideas would be great!

thanks!

Re: MY JEEP ALMOST KILLED ME!

acousticrawk said:

yeah, for me it seems liek a ghost in the wiring or something. ill def. check that ballast resistor. and im going to just go ahead and replace the FP relay if i can find it.

higherelevation!, 3 FP's in two weeks!!? falty pumps or is youre jeep burning them up?? i do not want to run into that problem... those things are NOT cheap.

looking at that chematic, im going to replace the auto-shutdown relay as well, and the other RP relay and the BR bypass relay. where are those fuses in the diagram located at, the ones to the top near the relays? id like to check them too. are the relays the three sqaure relays on the pass side fender inside the engine compartment? i guess if non of that does it, then im going with a pump!

Click to expand...

I bought bosch pumps. Luckily car quest replaced them everytimne. I am testing it out again today. I replaced everything, including fuel lines and blew them out. The last one I changed out was intermittent. If you tap it with a hammer, it would start to spin. I will keep you posted.

My '86 with Renix TBI would suddenly shut off after driving for awhile then take 10 minutes till it would start again. It was a built in circuit breaker in the box causing the problem. I swapped the box and it runs fine again (old box had 300,000 miles on it so no shame)

where did you get the new box from? got a pick of what it looks like? im just confused as to what box youre talkign about? also, does anyone know what ohm ballast resistor to get? there 3 available with different ohm ratings.

quick check of the ballast resistor-- pull wires off and attach them together-- will not harm anything and if it's fixed, you can remove the resistor and look at the back-- it'll usually say what the resistance is on it

right on. ill do that tomorrow. thanks!

Fuel injection box is above the gas pedal

The resistor is only a few bucks and autozone stocks them. They are used on many Chrysler vehicles.

i cant find the ballast resistor. should i have to remove the air filter box to get to it? i have a fluid bottle on the inner fender and the airbox is really all i can see.

foreward- toward the headlamp. Drivers side inner fender and I believe the wires going to it are orange.

just to the right of the PS res.? i wonder... my PS fluid was overfilled, and gushed out through the lid... is there a possability that it got on the BR and messed it up?

ok, i still cant find the ballast resistor. i dont think i have one. for anyone that missed it, i have a 2.5l not a 4l. it is 88 renix, but i dont think the 2.5 has a BR. if anyone can confirm this or tell me the location of the 2.5l ballast resistor, please feel free.

on the DRIVER SIDE, i have an airbox, and 2 fluid res. one is coolant overflow, one is washer fluid. i also have the cluth MS against the fire wall, and a PS re. attached to the core support directly above the steering gear box.

It's in the wrong location, but that white block, in the back, under the loom is the ballast resistor. It should be mounted in the inner fender, drivers side, next to the air box right behind the hood latch.