I have an 87 Wrangler, and the engine has, for some time, felt like it is running against itself. By that I mean that whle I am accelerating (and the car is getting faster when I do it) it feels like there is something holding it back so that it doesn't run smoothly. It also idles rough, very rough. About 4 months ago I replaced the distributor cap, the plugs, the plug wires. The cap (the old one) had some white build up under it on the contacts that caused it to die or suddenly miss during acceleration, which was fixed when I replaced the cap.

Can these cars be timed? I know (I think) that everything is controlled by a computer, and the distributor cap is anchored down by a bolt, and there is no slot to allow for advancing/retarding the spark by playing with the distributor. I almost feel that this (timing it the traditional way) would fix the problem, but I can't.

Any suggestions?