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1997 Grand Cherokee Laredo 4.0 Intermittent Stalling

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Old 09-12-2023, 01:03 PM
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Default 1997 Grand Cherokee Laredo 4.0 Intermittent Stalling

First off, sorry for the long post - it's my first one and I'm just trying to provide as much detail as possible! So my Jeep has been intermittently stalling for the past few weeks and I'm at a loss for how to fix it. It's been stalling at slow speeds, mostly when coming to a stop or when I'm just starting to accelerate from a stop. It happens when the engine is cold, but I haven't had the chance to see if it happens after driving it for a long period of time.
I recently noticed it was stalling every time I started to accelerate either in park or in drive, and it would die quickly not sputtering too much. Each time this happened, I was able to start it up again after ~5 minutes and disconnecting/reconnecting the TPS. So, I changed the TPS yesterday and I was able to drive it around without any problem - the idle also felt smoother.
But, this morning the same sort of thing happened -- but this time not consistently after accelerating although sometimes. It would die when coming to a stop (esp when stopped on an uphill but that could have been a coincidence), in idle, or when picking up speed after being at a stop. It stalled 3 times on my way to work today all in those different situations :/ . Also, sometimes when it dies I've seen the rpm's jump all over the place and sometimes go all the way up to ~6,000 however, the engine was about to stall, I didn't feel it trying to rev up that high. The car has turned back on every time after a few tries. It doesn't usually come back on immediately, but always works after ~5 minutes -- although during that 5 minutes I'm usually in the hood playing with some of the throttle body sensors (unplugging, reconnecting, playing with wire harnesses). I've tried moving all the wire harnesses around while it's running and that hasn't caused it to stall. It doesn't usually sputter too much when stalling, although it does a little bit and I have been able to 'save' it before by revving it up. Usually it'll sputter for ~2-3 seconds then die.

I've seen recommendations for looking into the following things: crank position sensor (CPS), vacuum leaks, thermostat sensor on t'stat housing - anyone here agree with those and are there easy ways to test those sensors before buying a new one? I also need to test the TPS I bought the other day to make sure it isn't defective.
Does my description more sound like a fuel issue? What sort of thing can I test/ look into first if it is a fuel problem?


Finally, here's some of the things I've changed in the past months (I had some rough idling before which prompted me to change these things but the idle feels smooth now):
IAC, MAP sensor on throttle body, cleaned throttle body housing, all spark plugs, distributor cap.

Thanks for any input y'all have! Much appreciated.
Old 09-12-2023, 08:39 PM
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Can you run any diagnostics and look up the codes?
Old 09-13-2023, 09:44 AM
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Originally Posted by Cherryokee
Can you run any diagnostics and look up the codes?
I ran my OBDII scanner on it and it didn't return any codes. The check engine light also doesn't come on.
Old 09-14-2023, 11:10 AM
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Quick update, tried again this morning but sure enough it stalled (actually in the same spot where it stalled the last time going up a hill, while slowing down). Again, the rpms were jumping all over the place before it stalled.
Worst part is this time it wouldn't crank back on. It started once while I kept the pedal down, making sure not to let it idle. Whenever I would let off, it would try to die and not stay in idle. I was able to keep it on for long enough to park it. After that, it couldn't stay in idle and died. Then wouldn't crank back on. Still no check engine light.

This was similar to a problem I had before with the IAC valve, even though I changed it not too long ago. Is there a good way to test the IAC? Any other leads on what the problem could be? As I said, now it's not cranking on at all and no check engine light...
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