Need some OPDA help

Dryfly

Dryfly

New Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2022
Messages
14
Location
Georgia
Hello,

So I needed to replace my ODPA and my camshaft position sensor this morning on my 2004 Wrangler TJ 4.0 (manual tranny). I had some lateral play in the pulse ring and decided to go ahead and do some preventative maintenance. I also did my spark plugs (replaced with Autolite APP95) since they had not been replaced in a long time. I followed instructions on this forum for RMETeeJay and everything went fine. I started up the jeep when the work was done and everything was great. A little while later I needed to run an errand and decided to take the jeep. Everything started and ran fine up to the store. When I was leaving... the Jeep wouldn't start. I turned it over a couple times and pumped the gas and finally got the jeep to start. Again... jeep ran fine all the way home, sounded great, shifted great no sputtering no nothing.

So, I got home and parked it and now I cannot get it to start at all. The battery is fine... tested it on my multi-meter and I am getting 12.5 volts. All electricals are working fine. Now... let me say... I have been noticing my jeep struggling a bit to start PRIOR to the work I did this morning and have a gut feeling my starter might be going bad. Could it be my starter? Could it be from the work I did on it this morning? I tried testing my starter and I don't seem to be getting any constant power to it. Any advice on what to troubleshoot would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
Measure the battery voltage while a helper has the ignition switch in the Start position. That'll tell you if the battery is good or not, it should not drop much when the ignition switch is in the Start position.
 
I was hoping to hear back from you Jerry and learn a lot from your posts. I just tried what you suggested and the voltage on the batter prior to ignition is running around 12.6. When my son tried to start it, the voltage barely dropped... only down to about 12.40.
 
So... I have tested the ignition switch to the starter. It is getting 12.6 volts when you start the jeep. I also tested the power to the starter and it is also getting 12.6 volts. I tried "hotwiring" straight from the starter (spade terminal) to the batter to start the Jeep and .... Nothing. I think I have a bad starter? I can't imagine any of the work I did this morning would have caused this, especially, since I had been having some sluggish starts lately anyway? Please someone make me feel better and say... "Nah... your work this morning was fine... just throw on a new starter :) !"
 
Oh yeah... JKP... my son and I just tried hitting it with a hammer. Not a ton of room under there so I didn't necessarily whack on it, but I gave it a couple good hits and NADA.
 
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Remy and AC Delco are decent. When starters die it's normally about $5 in parts to fix them. Some little bits of copper in the solenoid burn out. If you buy Mopar generally you can't find parts so it's only good as a core. Personally I don't want disposable, I want serviceable so I'd look for a brand that has rebuild parts available. Rockauto has a decent selection including Mopar if that's where you want to go.
 
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Thanks for everyone's help. I managed to get my hands on a starter last night just to check and see if that was indeed it. Since it's a simple removal / install I put one on and it cranked right up and drove perfectly. I will look around and try and get a Mopar.
 
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