97 XJ help.

[97V10MN]

Well gentleman as you may know I have been working on my "new" XJ, I replaced the TCU and it seems to be shifting OK now, but another problem has arouse. Last night I went to take it out for a little ride up the trail behind my house and the gauges wouldn't work, so my buddy popped the connectors off the ecu, resetting it, the gauges did work but it wouldn't idle, figuring the computer needed to readjust we drove it for about ten minutes, it did stall once and you had to use the throttle to keep it running, fast forward to today, after reading on internet I pulled connectors, put die electric grease on them and it fired up and idle but it was very rough, sounded like a massive camed up diesel, shut if off, cleaned IAC, put die electric on connector and sprayed brake clean into housing, didn't have the tamper proof torx to remove housing bolts, the TPS is new from two weeks ago IIRC, replaced when working with transmission gremlins, Now it will run for about a minute with a horrible miss, blowing black soot out exhaust pipe, then shut off, it does rev but the miss stays with it. I've been looking on the internet but no one seems to have sound advice, the ECU was replaced a year or two ago when my brother had it, IIRC it came out of a junk yard. Could it have went bad? The jeep ran fine before last night, started up nicely, ran good, good power, and great throttle response, Now I'm at my wits end. The Crank sensor (one on the bell housing?) was replaced a month or two ago with one from auto zone. I had my TJ hooked up to in case it was battery related but it didn't help. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[97V10MN]

Also, I was getting a code for ASD short and AC short? I swapped the asd relays and its still having an issue but it does start and run so I don't believe the asd is bad, as I don't think it would run at all?

[DixieJeeper]

pop the gauge cluster out- the two connectors get grimmed and filthed up and make the IP/gauges go wacky. Clean with qtip and a dab of electric parts cleaner, reassemble with dielectric grease and check from there.

[justin'sbig7]

check your chassis grounds, all of them. the relays in the fuse relay center, and the seemingly wandering array of issues would lead me to this

[97V10MN]

Ok this thing must be haunted, I went down a little bit ago and she fired right up it did have a high idle but is was with out a miss, it did shut off after about ten minutes tho, I still don't have any guages, I pulled the cluster out and checked the two connectors, they had die electric greast still on them so it may have been done before. Also the interior lights were dim with the jeep running, the battery is about a month or two old, its charging at 13.91 volts at idle and its showing 12 volts with the jeep off so IDK why they're dim, Any one have any thoughts on this? All the fuses under the hood are good, I checked them with a fuse tester and swapped the relays around. IT seems to run ok after you disconnect the ecu for a minute or two resetting it then it goes hay wire, Im thinking that the ECU may be toast? Any thoughts? I can order a remanufactured one for about 225 from GOEMC.com, it comes with a life time warranty. http://www.goecm.com/index.php

[justin'sbig7]

did you check and clean your grounds?

[97V10MN]

No I forgot to, I was kind of running around mad at this point, dumb question but how many grounds does a XJ have? a few going to the block then one or two running to the body?

[meanwhitemopar]

Do u need me to come tear your crap apart shane.. Lol ill text u.

[justin'sbig7]

theres quite a few around. the engine bay. also you may want to replace the main terminal, its one of those molded ones and i have seen them corrode internally

[97V10MN]

theres quite a few around. the engine bay. also you may want to replace the main terminal, its one of those molded ones and i have seen them corrode internally I actually did that this trip home, I replaced both terminals with the ones from Advance, the red and black ones that sandwich the end of the cable, I did loosen and retighten the positive cable clamp just to make sure it wasn't loose.

[97V10MN]

OK, cleaned the ground for the battery, cleaned ground strap on the back of the head that runs to the body, the top of the strap was about ripped clean off the connector so I spliced a new ring terminal on it. On a whim I unhooked the TCM I just put in and it started up and idled fine, all gauges worked, I left it set there and run for about half hour, had a slight miss but I think it needs a tune up. I re-hooked the TCM just for a minute and the gauges stopped working, so I'm thinking that there's a short in the wiring as I tried the original TCM and it did the same thing, I shut it off and restarted it and she fired right up with all gauges working, So I'm thinking of running a separate ground wire from the TCM connector to the battery just to make sure it grounds itself. I took it for a test drive with the TCM unhooked and it ran fine except it had a miss and pop under moderate throttle, almost like what the tps did on my TJ before I replaced it, I'm going to unhook it and see how it runs. I'm going to do a tune up next time I'm home, plugs, wires, cap and rotor as I'm not sure when it was last done plus it's sat for almost a year before I got it.

[ridgerunner97]

Could be bad gas too if it's sat for a while.

[97V10MN]

I drove it to the gas station the other day and put 30 bucks in it, unless there was some water in there tanks it should be good I think