Help!!! 1998 Jimmy Moisture Issue

[quidditchfan]

I'm having a HUGE issue with my 1998 Jimmy. Every time I wash the truck and spray up inside the wheel wells, both front and back, the truck will not start afterwards. Sometimes it will fire right away and run for a few seconds but then will die right away. Other times it will crank but will not start. I have checked all the obvious places and cannot figure out what the problem is. The fuel pump and filter are new, as is the rad, engine block, battery, tranny, and the rear diff. The computer isn't throwing any codes ever and no lights are coming on. You can hear the fuel pump engage and when it starts and stalls the fuel pressure remains steady at 60 - 62psi.

I'm hoping someone has had the same problem with their Jimmy or Blazer and can point me in the right direction. I'm thinking that something within the area of the wheel wells is getting damp and causing the engine not to crank or to spark and stall but cannot for the life of me figure out what could be the problem. I have checked the distributor, plugs and wires for moisture and nothing. I'm not the most sophisticated mechanic so outside of the obvious I can't seem to narrow this down. Thanks in advance for the help!

Oh ya...its a 4 Door 4x4 4.3L V6

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by quidditchfan

I'm having a HUGE issue with my 1998 Jimmy. Every time I wash the truck and spray up inside the wheel wells, both front and back, the truck will not start afterwards. Sometimes it will fire right away and run for a few seconds but then will die right away. Other times it will crank but will not start. I have checked all the obvious places and cannot figure out what the problem is. The fuel pump and filter are new, as is the rad, engine block, battery, tranny, and the rear diff. The computer isn't throwing any codes ever and no lights are coming on. You can hear the fuel pump engage and when it starts and stalls the fuel pressure remains steady at 60 - 62psi.

I'm hoping someone has had the same problem with their Jimmy or Blazer and can point me in the right direction. I'm thinking that something within the area of the wheel wells is getting damp and causing the engine not to crank or to spark and stall but cannot for the life of me figure out what could be the problem. I have checked the distributor, plugs and wires for moisture and nothing. I'm not the most sophisticated mechanic so outside of the obvious I can't seem to narrow this down. Thanks in advance for the help!

Oh ya...its a 4 Door 4x4 4.3L V6

Have you checked the dist cap for drawing moisture?

[quidditchfan]

Yes I've checked the distributor cap and the spark plugs that I could locate to see if any of them had moisture in or around them and nothing that I could see.

[DAB77]

if the Jimmy will start now, while it is running, spray water onto the distributor cap. if you develop a miss or can hear spark snap replace the cap

[quidditchfan]

So the issue was not in the distributor or with spark but with a ground wire in the rear end conected to the fuel pump. Wire was cracked and would short out whenever pressurized water was being sprayed directly on it through the wheel well or was submerged completely in water. Changed out the ground wire and connected a 2nd one just to be on the safe side and so far no further issues. Thanks for the help!

[viggy58]

glad it was an easy fix!! thanks for posting the solution.