Alexia

About four hours of work in: The interior is stripped, engine harness is 95% removed dangling out of the engine bay, replacement 2001 XJ dash harness is on the dash frame, and now it is basically reassemble everything. I tore apart everything that is not mechanical in half a day of work. I might need to buy a new carpet or temporarily leave it out for a while. It stinks badly and I am not sure if I can get it deep cleaned right now. And, yeah, my girlfriend came over last night and we got ice cream with lots of chocolate.

Hormones suck and I have bills to pay. I can't afford this anymore. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Oh yeah, the fuel pump assembly o-ring is leaking, again. I will have to pull it a third time to "fix it".

-_- I got right side of the engine wiring harness off. I went into the driver foot well to unhook the wiring harness under the dash so I can pull it through the firewall. It is a swamp. There is a leak some where, the carpet is soaked, and the floor underneath is rusted through the rust coating I put on the metal. I almost finished writing a classified post to sell this thing off for parts. That is how much trouble this build has been for me. I am crying in my office because either I ignore the water issue or I add even more time stripping the interior down to fix it.

If someone messages you asking for you to email them off site to conduct business about your classified posting, especially new users without any posts, report them. They are in most cases a scammer conducting the same tactics found on Craigslist and Facebook. WahooSteeler alerted us to suspicious users and it was very easy to confirm that they are scammers. The email address they provide come back with search hits of scams on many other forums and the IP addresses resolve to two internet service providers in Nigeria.

I had to put the video on Twitter to post it here, but doing a virtual dyno pull on my Jeep's PCI bus controlled instrument cluster. I have alpha levels of GMLAN, Haltech, AEMnet, Chrysler PCI, and CCD protocols/interfaces implemented. The prototype PCB panels have been fabricated and partial assembly is underway. I will do the final assembly of through hole parts when they arrive. I ordered 5/10 of them assembled so I will have prototypes to distribute to people for research and development.

I was in the hospital for a bit, but I have been at home for a bit resting and working. The PCB design was approved by the fabrication company this morning and I should have prototypes in hand around the end of May!

You can't tempt me! I'm going back to stock... Uh, stock like! *Sticks fingers in ears.*

Working on myself while I am holed up! I am able to work remotely for my job, but I forgot to turn on remote screen sharing, again, on the work computer before I got stuck in quarantine out in Houston. So I have to install all of my work's development environment on my personal laptop.

I had to move the USB and JTAG connectors around since three sides with connectors makes manufacturing an enclosure much more annoying and expensive. The mounting holes were also too close to the edges of the PCB to be able to use self clinching fasteners due to clearance needed for the installation tool. There is a ton more that has been corrected and fixed on the PCB as well.

I did manage to reduce the size of the PCB somewhat. Now I need to get a lot of sleep and do more rounds of checks before sending it off for manufacturing. The SD card slot was rotated 180º the wrong way and I almost did not notice.

Imagine going to extreme depths to have a factory like engine swap down to the last detail. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have a PCB design rough draft in hand for the Translator Gateway Module.

O_O There is a wrecker 1.5 miles from my old house that claims to have a 100,000-ish mile AW4 for $275 and already pulled.

Doing some late night dumb stuff. I just bought the underhood, engine, dash accessory, and dash power wiring harnesses off eBay for $275.34. This is stage one of unscrewing up all of my mistakes and will get it into a stock wiring state. This way I can sell the Haltech Elite 2500 for money towards a replacement transmission. Also, this will fix the air conditioning and cruise control.

The PA Jeeps show being in a different location will be weird!

Who is planning to attend this year? http://pajeeps.org/ July 18 and 19 I will attempt to be there this time and I do have a working Jeep.(Assuming I don't get laid off by then!)

I believe the strength progression goes Built AW4 > Stock AX15 > Stock AW4.

It looks like a remanufactured AX15 plus the additional parts I would need are around $1,000.(Not including driveshafts.) That is much better than $2,000+ for rebuilding an AW4 to take the abuse.

This is the second one and third torque converter. I keep breaking them. Also, the 1997 AW4 is an oddly specific transmission year. I can get an earlier transmission, but I would also need to make wiring harness modifications.

It has done maybe twenty miles in the past two years. :(

Poll, sort of: I am super frustrated with the AW4, it will cost way too much to rebuild it, and I am close to just parting out this truck over a transmission issue. So, time for a manual transmission swap? I would have to collect a clutch pedal again since I believe I sold that. New/modified driveshafts. Relocate the wiring harness that is using the clutch hole in the firewall.

The TJ Rubicon front axle is a hybrid of a D44 and D30, but it is better than the stock D30.

There is a dedicated button on the center stack to turn off overdrive. I frequently had to use it even in stock form. The Toyota AW4 in the XJ had a high amount(~30%) of transmission loss, but the Chrysler 42RLE in the LJ is terrible. I basically drove it with the throttle pedal smashed down. Oh, I also had to replace it with another one because the 2-4 clutch pack shredded itself just from towing a trailer around and I had even installed an auxiliary transmission cooler to bring the temperatures down. Bring the temperatures down was very relative since it still ran incredibly hot since the transmission cooler lines run in between the hot side of the engine and the two smaller catalytic converters that come right off the exhaust manifold. Also, the rearward catalytic converted is hot box between the floor, frame, and skid plate next to the transmission so the right side of the transmission gets cooked too. A poor transmission that had no hoping of surviving in the conditions it was given to run under. My LJ is technically the most unreliable vehicle I have ever owned and a reasonable person would have ditched it years ago. If you take the time to add the auxiliary cooler, sleeve the transmission lines with heat shield, and heat shield the transmission from the catalytic converter on the right it will probably last significantly longer than mine.

I need it for tracking my 0-60 MPH times!