My 89 Wrangler stalls and sometimes backfires. Any ideas?

[Boulderados]

1040849

I have an 89 Jeep Wrangler Sahara. Sometimes while driving the engine will just shut down. There is no indication beforehand, it just stops. It has been doing this for a while and recently I noticed that it would sometimes backfire when it stalled. If i let the car sit for about 10-20mins it will start up again and I will usualy not have the problem again for that day.



I have recently replaced the waterpump and the radiator. It just had a major tuneup and the ERG valve was replaced. The problem still isn't solved.



If anyone has had a simular experience or has any ideas please let me know.



pdeckers@hotmail.com[addsig]

 

[TerryMason]

1040851

My 88 did the same thing, except that it normally wouldn't run for days afterwards.



I never figured it out, and ended up parting it out.



I always though it was electrical though. Have you tried replacing the ignition coil? On mine, I replaced the plugs, wires, coil, card, fuel pump, and still didn't get it.



Terry[addsig]

 

[Boulderados]

1040854

Havn't tried the ignition coil as of yet.



I'm getting frustrated cause the Jeep is my only car and I need it for going into work. As I have to cross over a pass it scares me to think what will happen if it stalls up there and I block a full lane of trafic.



I have a Jeep specialist looking at it on the 29th but was hoping I could try somethings before that and save some money.[addsig]

 

[Quik8slvr]

1040895

Try checking your distrubor, cap, and wires, check the spark plugs, the backfire sounds like un burned fuel making it into youre exhaust. I was having trouble with backfiring and i found that my timing was off and the jeep was running to rich, might want to get that checked too, but mine never stalled from that, my only idea about the stalling other then the distributor would be to check out your cat converter, mine was so chopped up that sometimes pieces would lodge in the exhaust pipe and cause the engine to not beable to breath and it would stall out, not sure what your problem might be, could be a few small things or something more major, in anycase its probably best to have a jeep tech check it out

[addsig]

 

[sapperxl]

1040972

I've got an old CJ-5 so I don't know crap on 89 Wranglers, but I'd for sure put my money on an electrical condition. Unless something is stopping your intake/exhaust which would have to be a loose foreign item or loose part since it's an intermittent problem it'd pretty much have to be an electrical problem. Do Wranglers have ignition control modules? If they do this could be the source of your problem, Autozone tests them for free. If not invest in a good multimeter and start measuring. Also check for loose wires sometimes it's something real simple. That was a problem I had on my CJ where it'd be running great then just stop running all togather, it seems a wire had come loose on the alternator that caused the ignition circuit to close pretty much just like I had turned the key off going 55mph. It took me almost 2 months to figure it out. Ask around though before you pay some greedy mechanic $50/hour. Make sure you interrogate your mechanic too if you result to them. I've seen some mechanics do some REALLY shady stuff. Wish I could be of more help.



--Mike[addsig]