96 XJ. Was driving just fine, ran through a water puddle then went to Sonic. While sitting at Sonic with it idling for about 5 minutes, all of the sudden it just died. Would not restart. Turns over and over and over. Fuel pump primes and I even tried just jumpering it and leaving it running and still no start. Got pulled home and still nothing. While I'm turning it over if i floor the pedal on occasion I can get it to try to start but just kinda coughs at me. Will sputter for a second and die again. Finally gave up and came in. Any ideas? Got to go to work tomorrow night! Thanks

 

check for water in your distributor cap. If so, dry that out and try again.

 

how deep was the puddle?

 

Not deep. Cars drive through it as well. A foot at the deepest. Guess I should say I didn't drive through, I floored it through and covered the Jeep with water. Nothing I haven't done before, along with everyone else there to include my wife in her car.

 

it is possible you got water in the intake. not likely, but it is possible.
do you have the stock air box or cold air intake? if stock box, pull the cover and filter to see if it is wet or there is water in the bottom of the box.

that or you got something wet. as mentioned, pull the distributor cap and see if it got wet in there. dry it out with wd40 or a hair dryer.
spray wd40 on the spark plug wires.

also spray wd40 on the tps and cps sensors.

 

Cold air intake, took off cap and didn't see water but sprayed with wd-40 and wiped dry. Have tried using starting fluid and nothing still.

 

Just a recap to everything. Drove around, splashed through small water puddle and went to eat. While idling at Sonic Jeep died and would not restart. Got neighbor to pull me home. Jeep sat overnight. This morning tried to restart and nothing still. Fuel pump comes on and primes and fuel is getting to rail. I pushed the relief valve on rail and fuel comes out and continues to come out if key is on. Removed cap and cleaned and wiped out that with WD40. Have tried to use starting fluid as well and nothing. You can see from the video above what it is doing and that is all I can get it to do. Cap, rotor, plugs, and wires are about 2 years old. IAC and TPS are about a year old. Fuel pump is about 2 years old as well as fuel filter. Fuse box under hood was not wet. Don't know what else to try and do. Daily driver so I need to get it fixed ASAP. Wife not happy I have her car because that means she will be late to work in the morning. I work nights! Thanks for any and all help.

 

Ok, have you checked for spark? Pull a plug wire and check for spark. If you don't have a spark tool then use a screwdriver. If you have spark then re check that you have fuel.

 

Climb underneath and check all electrical components like the starter, solenoid, downstream o2 sensor, transmission electronics, etc. Also check exhaust system for water.

Does the car throw any codes?

 

also, when it's dark out, you can see if the spark plug wires are arcing out when you crank it over.

 

Will have to check all of that tomorrow. I work nights and am at work now.

 

Maybe it's unrelated to the water like you think. Crankshaft position sensor maybe? The symptoms sure sounds like that. Cranking forever, can barely get it to start, fuel pump and everything seems to work fine... all symptoms I had before replacing it.

 

I've got a new one somewhere in the garage. Will try to find it and go ahead and change it out. Who knows maybe that is the issue!!

 

Ok so I found the CPS in the garage. Finally got the old one off and am in the process of putting the new one on. I got the bottom bolt in and am working on the top one. After dropping the bolt many times I drop it one last time and it goes into the hole that drops into the transmission bell housing. How do I get that out?

 

There's an inspection plate at the bottom of the bellhousing you can remove.