swamp30439

Hi Newbie here, This is not so must a question as it is a answer I have been reading so of the stories on Jeep with rough idles and misfire, shuts down at stop light but will start backup
Will here is my story we bought a 97 Jeep Cherokee 2WD 4 door with a 4.0L 168,000 miles on it $900.00 AC works paints bad plan to repaint this Fall. Will it been running OK but a little
rough and it would shuts off at stop light but would start backup, about 2 weeks ago the crank position sensor started going out and the ck engine light came on now we know the battery
was also bad but would stay up as long as it was drove. Will I am retired so I had to wait for the first of the month to buy the parts got the part and put it on charge the battery and it started
right up and I was test driving it and it start out good but then it started back firing and would hardly run and the ck engine light was back on! Now my crank position sensor was bad and I
though the one was bad but it was not the code came but p0171 or code 51 fuel system lean a lean air/fuel mixture has been indicated by an abnormally rich correction factor so ck fuel
pump pressure 49 to 50 PSI so that was not it ck O2 sensor it was OK worked it for days read what I could find all said the same thing. Here what I found out first my battery was so bad
it was causing Low voltage to the o2 sensor and fuel pump so new battery fixed that, it run better but still had rough idle and misfire and smell of gas ext. ext. so today I said I am go to start
of small lets start with look in the distributor cap and rotor button and look at the spark plugs and guess what the cap points was all corroded and the button was also burn looking so I
cleaned the cap and the button and now the spark plugs looked good but I clean them and will the same old story they were put in right out the box with out setting the gap some were .042 some .038.
All clean and back in and now the start up and man it run great no more rough idle, misfire, no gas smell and it stayed idle at a stop even with the AC on so if you are having these problems
start small and then go big P.S. I will be getting a new cap and rotor next month Thanks for your time.

cruiser54

alot to be said for routine maintenance, especially on "new to you" vehicles.