Ok so here goes, had the jeep for about a week...previous owner had it for 15 years. ******* me decided to clean the engine bay, I made sure to cover electrical, sensors, wires etc as best I could, before using engine cleaning solvent and then watering it down. Then I cranked her up and let it idle for 10-15 minutes.....followed the instructions to the tee.

This was on Tuesday, Wednesday I drive short commute, I noticed after putting gas she had a hard time starting up, hard to explain but I can tell it was not because of a lack of voltage or fuel.

Now Thursday morning I go to start her up and she doesn't crank up. Starter motor spins, plenty of voltage, and I checked the fuel rail/it has fuel.

I started to check the wiring and found the solenoid is not getting power, not with the key in the on position or cranking it. I checked all the fuses and they are good to go.

Need some help here guys.

 

I'm having a hard time deciphering a few things. Set aside the "I can tell" stuff, and explain what it was doing this morning.

You said the "starter motor spins", but then you said "the solenoid is not getting power" which would keep the starter from spinning.... unless you jumped it at the starter, but you didn't indicate that you did that.

So, I'm confused. Is it a Crank/no start issue? Or is it a No Crank/No Start issue?
(FYI- "Crank" means the starter is spinning the engine)

 

It cranks, the starter is trying. And there is fuel......there is no spark at the solenoid. Sorry I should say no power going to the solenoid. I used a test light on the wires that lead to the solenoid.

 

When people refer to "the solenoid" they are, 9 times out of ten, referring to the solenoid that is on the starter, and is basically the switch that tells the starter when to spin.

Do you mean the ignition coil?

 

I know what its called in spanish lmao but not in english. It has one spark plug cable running to the distributor cap. It might be the ignition coil.

 

Yes that would be the ignition coil.

 

I'm a little rusty on my Spanish, but yes, I believe you are referring to the ignition coil.

Okay, now we can start to narrow it down. One of the first suspects when you're not getting a spark at the coil is the CPS. There is a testing procedure you can do with your DMM, but I'm at work and can't explain in detail right this second. Maybe someone else can chime in, you can google it, or I will have time later this afternoon to explain it all. Its not complicated though.

 

Thanks heap for chiming in. What is DMM acronym for? And would that be the crankshaft sensor or the camshaft one? These are two separate sensors right?

 

DMM is a digital Multimeter, or sometimes called a volt meter. The CPS is for Crankshaft Position Sensor, the one on the back of the bell housing.

 

If I don't have a multi meter am I SOL? How else can I check the CPS?

 

I'm not real sure how you could do it without a multimeter. You can usually find cheap ones for just a few bucks, and it really is an important tool to have when working on vehicles, so you might want to think about picking one up.

Maybe someone else will chime in with some other ideas on how or what to test when a meter isn't available. I'm not a mechanic... just backyard diy guy so my knowledge is somewhat limited.

 

heap thanks for your responses. I really hate electrical issues, a new harness probably costs more than the jeep is worth. Would a CPS just go bad like a light switch without any prior hints that its about to go FUBAR on you? I did get a hint as it hesitated to fire, but she fired up and got me home and once she got going there was no indication that anything was wrong.

 

A CPS can go bad in different ways... sometimes it gets difficult to start, like what happened to yours, sometimes they can just quit while you're driving, but after things cool down, they might work enough to fire the engine back up, and sometimes they just give up and stop working altogether with no warning at all.

The test with the multimeter is a resistance test, and is not 100% accurate at diagnosing a bad CPS, but its far better than nothing. When you don't have spark, at the coil, it is one of the first suspects. Since you recently cleaned the engine, maybe start with pulling the connector to the CPS, make sure it is dry, clean it up and connect it back up. Maybe you got some moisture in the plug. Worth a shot, I would think.

 

Yes, I took the cps plug and visually looked to make sure it looked normal. I am going to get a multi meter and take a stab at checking the CPS itself and the plug that goes to the ecm's fuse box from the fuse panel. I have noticed the previous owner took the jeep somewhere to have something in the factory wire harness by passed. I really hope this thing is fixable.

 

Every Jeep is fixable... just depends on how much time and effort you want to put in to it. I'm a firm believer that there are already to many XJ's sitting in Junk Yards, because so many people have given up on them.