HaydukeLV

1998 zj, 4.0, 140k miles. The jeep will randomly stall when coming to a stop, or when parked. It will happen in gear or in park. Sometimes it will just stutter and I can catch it with a tap on the gas. When driving at higher speed, the engine cuts out for a second and starts on its own. It happens cold or hot. On my 30 minute drive to work it may happen only 1 time or a dozen.

My first thought was fuel. It wasn't holding fuel pressure when shut off and would have slow starts. Also, the fuel gauge was wonky. It would stay on full for a long time, 5 gallons would show as a half tank, and sometimes when it got down to a quarter tank it would just drop to empty until I restarted it.

I replaced the fuel pump module, but it still stalls or stutters. The fuel gauge is more accurate but now i noticed when it is low, and the engine stutters, is when the fuel gauge drops to empty. It comes back after restarting.

Then I check ignition, the tip of the rotor was burned up. I was surprised it still ran. Replaced plugs, wires, cap and rotor. Still stalling and stuttering. There is a little vertical play in distributor shaft, not sure what the acceptable tolerance is there.

I replaced the cps and tps about 10k miles ago, with mopar replacements. This seems different then when those went bad.

I'm still leaning towards a fuel issue because of the way the fuel gauge will drop to empty when it has a stutter. Is it possible there is a short or bad relay?
Thank you in advance for any help.

Cherryokee

Got trouble codes?

HaydukeLV

No codes. I did a visual inspection of the wires to the fuel pump and they look good. Swapped relay and no change.

Cherryokee

Fuel gauge drops when stuttering/stalling? There's a common thread, as-if the ignition system power has cut-out. Perhaps your ignition switch is intermittent. Is your key ring heavy, it may be a "stretch" but I had a problem years ago on my 99 XJ that was caused by my heavy key ring. Believe it or not, the weight would cause the switch to jiggle and my cluster would go dark with engine-stutter, ultimately led to replacement. Have you any other electrical issues that might seem inconsequential, overlooked in the grand scheme of things?

Last Pants

Hi! I don't want to hijack your thread but I'm having the same issue. My fuel pressure is good and stays good after the key is off. Last night I replaced the IAC (which was filthy, by the way) and that didn't help. I'll definitely be listening in!

Last Pants

I would check your pcm. Start by running zip ties around the pcm to hold those wires tight. If that doesn't get it, take the PCM out and pop the cover off. There is a header with a common solder failure point in there. Solder that up and you might be good to go. It worked for me and that was the first thing I have ever soldered! I can't take all the credit though. YouTube taught me how. There's several videos on this subject.