so i was on my way in to work yesterday and had just gotten on the highway. someone cut me off and then slammed on the brakes. not sure if that was coincidence on not but when i braked hard the oil pressure gauge dropped to 0 and the motor quit. luckily i coasted to the shoulder and i work for a towing company. got her to the shop and found the distributor shaft seized up and busted 3 teeth. im waiting for the part to come in today but what im wonderin is where might those 3 teeth have gone cuz i cant find them. i dont want to have to tear the motor apart to find them. but lord knows metal floating around inside the block is bad for business
that sucks, i’ve never head that one before. i’m not even sure what those teeth mesh with or where. maybe put a small magnet down there to maybe grab anything that might be loose. i might know someone with replacement xj parts if your looking for anything.
did you drop the oil pan?
Man, that sucks!
Years ago I had a Scout with the 258 six which I think is similar to the 4.0. If I remember correctly the gears on the distributor mesh with the cam shaft and the distributor shaft also drives the oil pump.
Yeah, definitely drop the pan, hopefully you can “rebuild” the gear with the pieces to see if they’re all there. I doubt you can get a magnet down the distributor shaft effectively though. And I would flush the oil through a time or two, fill and drain, fill and drain.
yeah eric you are exactly right. im planning to drop the pan and hoping to find all the pieces in the pan. or at least the oil filter screen. jay when i fill it should i run it and then drain or just drain it right away? i cant seem to find the damn part. action auto has one but its 3 days away. would crown catty something like that?
I wouldn’t run it until you get everything out. IMO, I’d fill it and drain it a couple times before I’d consider starting it. Check the oil after you drain it and see if you pick up any metal flakes etc… Until you’re sure where the metal went, the last thing ya want to do is run it.
I doubt Crown has “electrical” parts, they’re more hard parts if you will…
ok cool… thanks jay
I picked up the latest Crown catalog when I was up there last week and was surprised at the number of electrical and engine parts they carry. Whether or not he has them in stock is another question. I scanned the page with the distributor part numbers (attached).
Its kind of hard to believe that a distributor gear would break like that. I wonder if the oil pressure dropped because the gear broke or the oil pump seized and caused the gear to break? I think its worth checking out.
hmmm…Thanks Eric. Seems like I learned something today…nice. 
thanks eric. thats good to know. the distributor shaft is most definitely seized. we were going to change the gear but no go. everyone i showed it to had never seen it before either. i hope its not more serious than i think. i was gonna order my lift this week but i think i will have to hold off a bit and see what happens with the engine
let me check with the guy i know. i know for sure he had a couple Grand Cherokees (engine and all) to part out, i don’t know if that helps you.
If you gotta drop the pan, it might be worth changing the oil pump too. It would suck if you get it all back together just to find out the pump is bad. Plus it would be a good time to get a high volume pump in there to keep everything lubricated better.
yeah that would be a big help. im almot positive ts the same part. do u know what year grands?
Yes drop pan, if you find the teeth then look at the breaking point where they broke off at dist. maybe they didn’t shatter too much, but in any case i would at least change oil and filter at least twice, also at this point since you have pan off Y not change oil pump too like Vic said.
Good luck
Any news?
yeah actually. i got a distributor, changed the oil and cleaned the oil pan. so far so good. i didnt end up changing the pump since my oil pressure was always right where it should be. on a side note i was really enjoying driving the buckin bronco in the down time but im real glad to have the jeep back