Kaiserjeeps

Greetings, My first post here. This is long and sorry for that. But history is needed for diagnosis. There is also a little bit of an introduction here making it a little longer than it probably should be. My name is Al and I am a jeepaholic. I go by kaiserjeeps on every other forum I belong to. IFSJA, M715zone, EarlyCJ5 etc. I am a long time Jeep owner. Owned my CJ for 41 years etc. I recently got remarried to a gal with a 1998 4 door cherokee sport with 230K on the clock. It is stock and nice looking but it is a mess of issues and she wants to sell it. Me being the fix it type say not yet. I have seen some cherokee's do some crazy stuff offroad and I say we keep it for now. I am living 4 hours from her and this Jeep. Long story about covid killing my last wife here where I live in the panhandle, wanting to sell and moving closer to the jeep... er I mean her where I can get after some repairs. On the Jeep not her.. I will post more info about this jeep when I learn it. It has the inline 6 and auto trans. It has had a history of electrical issues. I had a 91 XJ in my first marriage in the late 90's. It really did not give us any trouble. It was the wife's and I still liked it. So doing a VIN search on this 1998 I found it used to be a rental car. And got retired from rental service because of electrical issues. When I first had a look under the hood I found the worst work I have ever seen a supposed professional shop do. She had the work done locally and they charged her a fortune. No wonder she wants it gone. An example: The distributor cap was tie wrapped on crooked because someone sheared a dist cap hold down screw and the post of the broken screw held the cap out of position by hitting the new screw in the new cap. It ran but not very well. What clowns. So my thinking is this rig has 230K miles. Replacing things like the distributor is not a bad idea. Those components have already had a long service life. I changed it out and it ran remarkably well with new plugs, oil, filters etc. . One of her complaints was it would blow a 30 amp fuse in the under hood fuse block at random. No rhyme or reason when. I need to see which one it was. She carried a lot of spares in the console. None of the power windows or locks worked and the master drivers door control panel had no lights etc. I bought a new master switch and opened up the flexible boot in the drivers door and found 5 broken wires. I fixed them all and now the windows work and the control panel has correct lights. The door locks do not work. But if you hit the rear defrost the doors lock. So I have yet to open the boot on the rear hatch and see if wires are broken and touching. No big deal there. Recently the new battery went dead. On my last trip there I charged it up and fired it off. This was weird but the charge gauge went from 12.8 to 13.2 ish to 9 volts. Back and forth. This did this several times charging then not. I tested the output of the alternator with a fluke meter and it put out the same volts as the gauge said. I learned the ECM controls the voltage regulation. My question... Do these ECM's voltage regulation fail completely or can they turn on and off the charge rate like I saw verses working one day and not ever again after it dies? I am aware of the voltage regulator add on for an adjustable unit bypassing the ECM and will probably do that. I then shut it off and went to restart a few minutes later and it just stumbled like I had pulled two plug wires. Revving seemed to smooth it out but it would die immediately near idle. It did this about 4 times then no start at all. I believe it might have a dead fuel pump. It did take a few cranks to start since I met the jeep from the beginning of my meeting this new wife o mine. It seemed longer than it should have been. I will check fuel pressure at the test port on my next trip. I have a new heater core and a fuel pump to go in. But that means a 4 hour trailer ride to my shop here at home to get this done. If I forget one tool while there I am hosed. I have everything here so it is best to bring it home with me and do all this here. It is weird. This jeep has no issues then acts up like crazy. No codes thrown on the last visit. But the sensors needed sampling as they were flashing on my scanner.
Are ECM's hard to find and do they need programming to the VIN? Just in case it is an ECM issue.
I will find out which 30 amp fuse has been blowing. More on that one later.
I will do the test light test on the battery and pull fuses one at a time to try and find what is killing a new interstate battery.
I will probably clean every single ground I can find while on the lift here. I have learned Chryslers really like clean power.
I will work on the rear defrost door lock issue later. Same with the dash removal and heater core. I also recently learned about the blend door being poorly built.
Oh yes. I have the complete factory manuals on CD. I need to get in there and read up some. So I am long winded. I get it. I am mainly curious about the charging shutting off and on.
I want to keep this Jeep. But it is doing some pretty strange things so far. I will update my profile with more accurate info on this rig later when I learn it. Go figure I will tow it here and it will probably work fine. Ha. I see a lot of great knowledge here. Anyway glad to be here.
Al

ijeeep

Hi Al and welcome.

You've got this.

If at some time you need the engine computer rebuilt, I hear SAI down in Florida is still doing a bang up job on them.

cruiser54

Geez Al!! Between you and some of the guys here I have a feeling you will make short work of these issues.

Kaiserjeeps

Well I sure hope so. I just hope the ECM is not going to be an issue. I don't mind the voltage regulator bypass but dead ECMs can be a headache. Being 4 hours away is really hard to pack tools for. And working on the ground in freezing weather sure reminds me of my 20's... ha I'll be 60 this year. I got a little spoiled with a heated shop and a lift. As soon as I know I can tow safely I will go bring it home. I have a feeling it will be a very busy summer. I also need to take my new wife on a 4x4 run. She has no idea...LOL