Hamilton Felix
Inactive
I helped a friend work on a lady friend's 1989 Jeep Cherokee. It had suffered a light front impact when she rear ended another vehicle. Damaged bumper, grill, nose piece, right fender, and pushed radiator into fan.
We put in a new radiator, then went in search of body parts. It happened that a 1986 Cherokee of the right color was coming in to a local wrecking yard just then. We bought the front body parts, including both fenders. Overall, it was an upgrade. The damaged rig was base trim, black grill, pretty plain. Now it has chrome grill and bumper, nice Marchal fog lights, a good antenna where she had a bad one, and we even scored a replacement for one of her missing horns.
We didn't try to run the vehicle until after the repair job was done. It seemed hard starting, where the owner assured us it had been recently tuned up and started fine before. We also noted the "part time 4WD" light (akin to the "4Hi" indicator on most rigs) lit up right after the engine started. However, when we drove the vehicle a short distance to put it back on my trailer for return to its owner, we could tell it was not in 4WD.
We are suspecting a vacuum problem, since there appears to be a vacuum servo that engages the front axles (similar to "putting the hubs in," with an older 4x4). The transfer case uses a lever, and we had not moved that. Vacuum is the only thing we can think of that is common to both observed problems.
We did relocate the spherical vacuum reservoir that was behind the right end of the front bumper, but we see no leaks there.
Our theory is that something got pulled off or cracked during the body repairs. But we cannot find it. On passenger side of the engine compartment, not far from the heater fan motor on the firewall, we can see one blue vacuum line that has what appears to be a small filter on its end (looks like the inline fuel filters you see on a portable generator). The line appears to be open at this point. We can't find anything else to connect to it.
Does anyone know if the vacuum line in question is supposed to be open to atmosphere? We don't really know if that's a filter or checkvalve that we see on the end of the hose. Does anyone have thoghts as to where we may find our vacuum leak? Any thoughts on other causes for both hard starting and the "part time 4WD" light? This is a fuel injected 4.0L inline six.
We put in a new radiator, then went in search of body parts. It happened that a 1986 Cherokee of the right color was coming in to a local wrecking yard just then. We bought the front body parts, including both fenders. Overall, it was an upgrade. The damaged rig was base trim, black grill, pretty plain. Now it has chrome grill and bumper, nice Marchal fog lights, a good antenna where she had a bad one, and we even scored a replacement for one of her missing horns.
We didn't try to run the vehicle until after the repair job was done. It seemed hard starting, where the owner assured us it had been recently tuned up and started fine before. We also noted the "part time 4WD" light (akin to the "4Hi" indicator on most rigs) lit up right after the engine started. However, when we drove the vehicle a short distance to put it back on my trailer for return to its owner, we could tell it was not in 4WD.
We are suspecting a vacuum problem, since there appears to be a vacuum servo that engages the front axles (similar to "putting the hubs in," with an older 4x4). The transfer case uses a lever, and we had not moved that. Vacuum is the only thing we can think of that is common to both observed problems.
We did relocate the spherical vacuum reservoir that was behind the right end of the front bumper, but we see no leaks there.
Our theory is that something got pulled off or cracked during the body repairs. But we cannot find it. On passenger side of the engine compartment, not far from the heater fan motor on the firewall, we can see one blue vacuum line that has what appears to be a small filter on its end (looks like the inline fuel filters you see on a portable generator). The line appears to be open at this point. We can't find anything else to connect to it.
Does anyone know if the vacuum line in question is supposed to be open to atmosphere? We don't really know if that's a filter or checkvalve that we see on the end of the hose. Does anyone have thoghts as to where we may find our vacuum leak? Any thoughts on other causes for both hard starting and the "part time 4WD" light? This is a fuel injected 4.0L inline six.
