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WOOO ITS RUNNING... wait... wtf is that noise... oh shi, shut it down, SHUT IT DOWN!

2K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  DILLIGAF 
#1 ·
right so, I got the 89 wrangler with the amc 258 running just so again today. I mean I was hootin and holloering cause it was pulling strong, running like a champ after a timing chain replacement, then, all of a sudden I get a loose metal noise. you know that noise that instantly makes your eyes get about two times as wide and your stomach drops cause you know something broke? yeah, that noise. metal on metal clunking. a light clunking not a heavy knock or anything but that noise that tells you that something, somewhere that shouldn't be loose, is loose, somewhere it shouldn't be. well, I got back home ok kind of babying it. pop the hood and try to listen for the noise, it wasn't presenting so i revved it a little, and I get that metal flying around almost a grinding this time sound from the front of the engine.

Now, my water pump has quite a bit of play in it. I'm going to be replacing it tomorrow when I get paid. what I want to know before I take this thing apart is this, if the water pump had a serious failure, could something have broken off and caused any serious damage? also, any possibility that something isnt right with the timing chain I just replaced? I did it all by the book, everything got tightened down damn tight. I can't think of anything that would be causing this noise from that department. I am running an awful lot of timing advance (about 15 degrees) for having installed the chain to the T though. 15 links between marks with camshaft sprocket at 1 o clock and everything. I'm scratching my head here. any advice would be helpful. any questions, just ask.
 
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#2 ·
First thing i would do is take the belts off the water pump and then start it back up.

If you get no noise, then you know where the problem is.

As fas as the 15 degrees advanced, that is quite high, sounds almost like the dizzy is a tooth or two off.
 
#3 ·
water pump let loose

The water pump absolutely should not have anything "loose'. However, if something inside the water pump lets loose it really shouldn't hurt anything except the water pump itself. If a part of an impeller lets loose it will be pushed into the engine cavity until it lodges. If it lodges in a manner that blocks a port then there could be an internal hot spot. But not likely. Mostly the impeller will slip on the shaft. If it got too loose it could wobble and cause the sound you are expressing.

Best to pull the water pump and see what you find. If nothing, then it sounds like at least popping the timing chain cover to see what's what inside.
 
#5 ·
if the dizzy was 1 or 2 or 8 teeth off the timeing whould be the same advance just the dizzy whould be turned cock eyed are have to move the wires to match, the timing liight would look the same on the crank. drop the belts as said before and run it and go from there.
 
#6 ·
this is a WALL of text. just be warned.

I replaced the water pump today. It ran awesome... for all of a mile. :banghead: it was the waterpump that was causing the weird noise... whats causing this, idk.

what happened was this. I was bleeding air out of the system after refilling the radiator so I was running it around the neighborhood, coming back, topping off again, running around, rinse repeat three times. ok, so I come back after all that and it's running insanely awesome. I figure I'm done working on it for awhile so I rinse off the grease I had gotten all over it while working on it. I was VERY careful not to get any in the engine bay, it might have gotten a few drops here and there; not enough, I would think, for a jeep to have a fit about it. I take it around the block once more as a sort of celebratory lap for fixing it... get back and 5 feet before I'm in my parking spot it starts running funny, like its not firing right/at all on half the cylinders. then it cuts out. I tried to restart it and it catches a few times, stalls out and then lets out a HUGE backfire.

I hooked a timing light to it and I'm not getting anything. now this timing light has been patched together after the fan ate it and I wasn't able to check the timing light on anything else as my jeep is the only car at the house that actually has plug wires. It is a possibility in my mind that my timing light isnt working... though it was working before. if, however, it is working then I'm going to rule out the ignition module as my understanding is that if that is going bad it'll more mess up the firing rather than not fire at all. that leaves the coil and the distributor. I already took the distributor apart... its pretty much new... so the coil... idk, I guess I'll check that tomorrow. aside from that, there's only wiring... which a lot of has been replaced for the ignition system because it fried itself about a month back... damn Im tired of doing all this work for this thing to run for all of a couple miles before it breaks again... :9lame:
 
#7 ·
The ICM can cause a no fire situation. When mine was going bad, it would sometimes run well, sometimes run like crap, and then sometimes not allow firing at all. When mine would not fire at all, it was always after a period of it running well, and I believe getting warm. I tested it with the hammer method...if it won't start...hit it with a BFH and try to turn it over. It worked and that is how I figured it was bad.
 
#8 ·
So another way to check for spark you could just pull a plug and wire off and lay it across something to ground it and have someone turn the key, while you are watching the electrode. This will tell ya for sure,
 
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