Electrical issue.....I think????

Ok here's what the Cherokee is doing and I can't seem to find the source of the problem. Every time that I start up and drive down the street just after starting the jeep up a few minutes prior, I get this weird loss of power.

I start driving down the street and all of the sudden I watch my rpm's go to zero, the engine loses all power, I hear nothing under the hood, and the jeep lunges forward like it has lost all power. It only does this for a second and then it goes back to normal. Also, it only does it once when I drive, it never does it a second time.

I was guessing it might be electrical when the jeep would not turn over the other day. It has never had that problem before.....ever. I tried to start and it just wouldnt go. I popped the hood and began fiddling with various areas of the wiring harness just to see if my theory was correct. Jumped back in and turned the key, started like normal.

It seems the problem is getting a little worse, along with my gas mileage all of the sudden too. Now I have a cel on and am worried its causing other problems. Im waiting to borrow my friends code reader so I can diagnose the cel, but thats gonna take a few days.

Any ideas anyone???? Has anyone had a problem like this in the past???

Hi, I am new to the forum, have owned my '93 XJ for only 2 weeks, and am experiencing the same problem.

The first time this happened, my RPMs went to 0 (engine died) whilst I was driving along, battery was still fine because my music was still on, only lasted about 2 seconds then the engine kicked in again.

The second time this happened, the engine did not kick in again. I had to pull over to the side of the road, and the engine would not turn over when I tried starting up again. I was just on my way camping too
Upon returning from camping the next day, I gave it a shot to see if it would start up again (assuming it would take a miracle to do so). Low and behold, it actually did! I had changed nothing! So why would it not start back up the day before?


I am a complete noob to jeeps and really anything under the hood in general, but I reckon its something electronic that is causing this.

Anyone have a solution?

classic bad crank position sensor (CPS) behavior.

easy to change, with a fistful of extensions and wobbles.

Thank you 92Drip! The CPS sure was the culprit! I had it changed and so far so good. Thanks for your insight