My engine died today

My wife was out driving today when the jeep just died on her. It started again, and the died once more. When I got to it, it started again, and I could drive it home. There I tried to stop and start a couple of times, and every once i a while it would not start. Checked the distributor, cleaned the contacts and rotor. After that the car ran perfectly, but after a little running time the idle got rough. I stepped on the gas, and got home. Then the idle was fine, and everything was working just fine. What is going on?
Almost forgot, after the first stop I checked the CEL, and it shows 11. Bad CPS? Can a cracked flexplate cause problems with the CPS? And how the #%&# can anyone reach the CPS? Help me, please. I need to trust my car again.
-94 ltd 4l HO

This post should be in oem.... but yeah it sounds like a bad cps. Other possibility is a bad or dirty iac.

try bypassing the ballast resistor...mine was giving me some of those symptoms and that took care of it

Muddy-93 said:

My wife was out driving today when the jeep... haha famous last words... dont let your wife drive your jeep
-94 ltd 4l HO

Click to expand...

haha famous last words... dont let your wife drive your jeep

My jeep did that exact thing and i replaced the cps and it ran just fine

wingnut3k said:

try bypassing the ballast resistor...mine was giving me some of those symptoms and that took care of it

Click to expand...

...and this is located where?

Another piece of information... It seems like the road condition has some influence. It dies on bumby roads. Could it just be a loose connector?

The ballast resistor is on the driver's side inner fender beside the brake booster.

My Jeep has been running fine now for a few days, but today it died again. And this time it didn't start anymore. So I started to look for the reason, and finally pulled the CPS. When I got it out, it had some metalshavings stuck to it, and there was some scratch-marks on it too. I cleaned the CPS and put it back in place. Then I tried to start, and to my surprise it started right away! How sensitive are these sensors? Can a few metalshavings really make my car stop?

They are surprisingly sensitive to getting gunked up, usually giving starting problems or backup light problems.