1988 XJ - I6 - AT - Waking up after a 4 year sleep in a field.

OKAY

So

I bought this rig offline, It was in storage for about 4 years in a field.

trailored it home, put a tow bar on it and pulled it down the the hotel I'm staying at for work.

The wiring was eaten by rats - I spliced and cobbled, and heat shrunk it all back together.

I changed the spark plugs and set gap to .035 as per spec on the sticker

put about an ounce of pb blaster down the shoot to work over the rings in case they froze up when I tried to crank it

waited about 6 hours,

put the old 540 cca battery in it which was dead, jumpered over to a pickup, and tried to start.

no spark as far as i can tell,

voltage at the coil is 12.5 and drops to 4.5-6 during ignition cycle

tried to measure ohms from coil to distributor but it doesn't ohm? I cut a spare open and there's no wire in it... just what looks like carbon fiber mesh. The one I have on now is a MOPAR part I'll take a picture in a while of the one I cut up.

SO - Doing a spark plug test I get no spark when trying to turn it over.

Now, This is the choose your own adventure book type question I have,

Is my next step to walk down the alley and buy a new battery

or should I climb the tree and start with a cap and rotor and new wires?

what else should be checked that I might have missed?

First off, if the battery voltage is dropping that far, there is no way the computer will trigger a spark. If you are serious about getting this thing running, go ahead and get a battery first.

I would drain the gas tank and refill. Change out the fuel filter because it is most likely going to get a ton of gunk from the tank. While you are at it, buy a spare filter, as you will want to replace it after the first tank if you make it that far.

If it cranks over, do a wet/dry compression test.

Yeah... I should have just bought one that was running but now I have something to do when I'm not working, reloading, or shooting.

I thought about just disconnecting the power supply to the pump, and jumping it over to an external 12v pump pulling from a gas can with a small in line filter.

starting with a battery, then if I can establish spark I'll move on to fuel and vacuum lines.

I'd take a close look at the CPS wire (pigtail) a lot of extra wire there and most times it is rolled up on top of the bell housing and hard to see. Could be a varmint chewed it up or maybe it cooked on the exhaust manifold.

Replaced the battery with a brand new one, 580 CCA, most they had at oreally.

With a new battery It showed spark after a couple tries.

With spark I tried to start it, pushed in the pin on the fuel rail to see if i had fuel pressure, no luck.

had a buddy turn the key while I listened for the pump to cycle, no sound.

I unplugged the fuel pump wires and checked them with my fluke as the engine was cycled.

read 11.8v so I knew that the pump was bad

dropped the gas tank and pulled the pump, sure enough It was heavily corroded and the plastic and rubber bits were fragile to the touch.

bought a new fuel pump full assembly at oreilly brought it home and plugged it in

forgot to turn the key off and blew junk fuel all over the ground after the black caps blew off.

threw down some pigmat, attached all the hoses and replaced the fuel filter, disconnected the Stainless line at the fuel rail to bleed the fuel system.

cycled the pump until the regulator blew fuel and hooked the stainless line back up

started the engine with a bit of starting fluid

drove it to the gas station and filled it up with 91

drove it to the car wash and cleaned out the engine compartment as best I could and washed it all

Whats left to do?

The wiring needs cleaned up, its a working harness, but its ugly.

one fuel injector leaks so I want to check the rubbers

the dash lights, shift lights, and running lights in the rear don't work so theres probably a fuse or two blown.

the turn signals are sketchy

the automatic transmission is over filled and leaks from the dip stick neck

the engine revs well, but the transmission seems sluggish so I will have to check that, any suggestions?

anyway, thanks for the help all, I'll be trying to figure out what to do about the transmission and greasing, changing oil, and cleaning tomorrow.

solenoids in the transmission are gummy and sticking. Trans shifts smooth through manual shifting.

added half a bottle of seafoam trans tune to try to break up the solenoids

changed the oil, it was probably the darkest I've seen in a long long time.

It could probably use a good pan off cleaning but it doesn't look like it leaks so I am hesitant

on a side note, the engine sounds better than my '89 and the oil pan is painted metallic blue - with a hundred thousand miles more than mine (242k) and knowing that it was set out to pasture when the fuel pump went bad, I'm wondering if the engine was rebuilt some time - not the last owner but maybe the one before. That amount of miles, relatively no/low leaks, and sounds smooth for an '88 - some work was done to it at some point. - It's from Colorado if anyone recognizes it. but then again the metallic blue oil pan is about the only unique feature of it besides the cut front fenders.

Oh I topped off the brake fluid - real nice and clear - not murky like my 89

topped up the power steering pump, no visible leaks

the transmission dipstick leaks and im not sure how to fix it

went and spun the tires on a dirt road - that felt good =)

Sounds like you got a smoking deal!

Congrats. Keep an eye on the fuel filter getting plugged. I would run a can of BG44K though the fuel, and if you can get that go with Chevron Techron.

couldn't find BG44K - I put two bottles of seafoam in the tank blew some black dust all over the curb behind the jeep while it was idling and i was working over the throttle.

I've been spraying down the throttle with deep creep but has anyone had a sticky throttle before? seems like its corroded in place, it's slow to return to the idle position also.

Cleaned up all the wiring yesterday, except the passenger side, I'm still trying to figure out where a couple wires go and I can't find the wire to the oil pressure sender.