GAcherokee

I’ve had electrical issues regarding grounds since I bought my Jeep two years ago. Every part that could be broken from a ground, has. It would cut off idling, and sometimes stall and then jolt forward with my foot on the break still.
I need a new motor and plan on rebuilding it.
What I am wondering is, can corroded grounds make an engine wear out faster from all the intermittent electrical problems? Every shop I took it to said I do not have electrical issues, but I have every symptom and had every broken part that grounds can cause.
I think I need a new wiring harness so when I rebuild the engine, it won’t cause this again, but I want to be sure if that is what made my engine go out. There were zero symptoms before it happened. I have a worn out rod bearing.

superj

i guess it depends on how the electricity is passing to and from, and through, stuff.

welding on stuff with a bad ground can burn the ball bearings inside stuff. the electricity arcing leaves little burns which cause stress points in the bearings and then the bearings fail prematurely.

but that is not something you will have. worn bearings are just from wear of use, or bad upkeep. sometimes it just happens but it would be rare on this old school I6.

you can drop your oil pan put a new bearing for the one that is knocking or worn to hold you over for a while. i have done that on a few vehicles and ended up not rebuilding the engine at all. i am talking about the bearing at the rod/crank point

GAcherokee

thank you! I will try doing that soon. I maintained it more than I really should have. Always changed oil at 3k, did preventative maintenance. Upsetting it just went out but yeah, I guess it’s just wear. I’m the first owner to make this Jeep a daily driver.

BlueRidgeMark

More likely it was just a bad bearing from the get-go, and wore out prematurely. It's rare, but it happens.

But bad grounds can do lots of bad stuff. You need to get after them. See my sig, #1, for a link to some pictures of all of your grounds.

97grand4.0

Invest in a volt ohm meter and see if you have bad grounds by checking for any voltage drop across them. Kind of totally removes the guess work. Then you can check for proper voltages at your sensors and a ton of other uses too. Firing the parts cannon with a wiring harness sounds like folly to me.

cruiser54

What if it's a loose or cracked flexplate?

Have you SEEN this worn out rod bearing?

GAcherokee

No I haven’t seen a worn out rod bearing, I just had three opinions on the sound. I haven’t gotten around to looking at it at all since the sound, the jeeps sitting in a field. It’s a metallic ticking that gets faster and louder when accelerating and it doesn’t go away. Comes on when you turn the Jeep on.
All I know currently. this is my first Jeep and I’m only 19, first car I’ve ever spent this much time on honestly.
For rebuilding I meant we’re gonna tear it apart rather than put a new motor in, since I don’t think the whole thing is shot.it was only ticking/knocking for two days and maybe 40 miles put on it before I let it go sit.
it’s had intermittent issues for two years straight, every other month it was broken down.
Really just came here for another opinion, if tearing apart is a good idea, as well as changing all the grounds, as in could that be a reason it wore out prematurely? It used to shut off at 70mph and not turn back on, replacing the ecu fixed that one after 10 people told me ecu’s “don’t go out.” It will still shut off but always come back on, just at complete stops. Sometimes I’d turn the car on and it’ll turn right back off, and when it is about to cut off sometimes it’ll push forward with the breaks on, emergency break too, to keep itself on. When it does that janky stuff it always sounds like chains breaking, but it hasn’t, it’s just the sound it’ll make. I know the cutting on and off is an electrical issue, and while I’ve changed about 4 grounds to the battery and engine, it hasn’t fixed it yet. I was thinking maybe the grounds making the car cutting on and off wore the engine faster than it should have. It’s only at 182k, I bought it at 155k, exactly two years ago.

GAcherokee

While I’m still here , we do have an volt ohm meter and we’re only going to start with grounds after the ticking is fixed. Don’t see the point in fixing everything around what’s already broken, but then again I don’t really know, otherwise I wouldn’t be in the position that I am lol

cruiser54

do yourself a huge favor and check the flexplate first.

How-to Fix Flexplate Knocking - Jeep Cherokee Forum

GAcherokee

Okay, will do. Thank you