Oyaji

Anytime something isn't working right, it's a good thing to consider any recent changes. I agree that just because a part is new doesn't mean it is working as it should - quality control has slipped worldwide nowadays (I blame China). Easy way to get a good idea of whether the thermostat is working without pulling it and tossing it into a pot of boiling water is to simply measure temperature of the cooling system. A thermometer in the radiator filler neck will give you a good idea of the operating temperature. I don't have one yet but the IR (InfraRed) thermometers have gotten cheap, I hear. Next time I need one I think I'll get a cheap one from Harbor Freight and try it out.

Throttle plate not seating consistently? Dirty throttle body? Dirty/sticking idle air control valve? These are easy to check and remedy - I'd start there. By the way, that engine won't idle that slowly ("100-300 rpms") - the tachometer must be off, too.

There is "adequate" and there is "more than adequate". I can see the arguments for each. Ultimately I suppose the application must fit the severity of duty. I'm certain the astonishment of the designers is boundless when they see to what extreme usage some owners put their Jeeps. :)

I'm shocked that Motion Industries couldn't help you out. I suggest going back and talking to someone else there who has more experience. If they can't hook you up with a bearing that matches the part number, see if you cannot talk them into cross-referencing by inner and outer diameters, thickness, and bearing type - they *should* have multiple bearings from multiple manufacturers to choose from. Back in the day when we were still farming commercially and running worn-out equipment, the folks at Motion Industries were able to keep us going. Recent years have brought changes for the worse, however: they have been unable to be as helpful than they were in the past.

A design suggestion about the hex-bar you used - it is way heavier than it needs to be. Though there is no need for it other than saving weight, switching to some stainless tube stock would give you similar stiffness without the weight. It would take away some of the stress encountered from suspension bounce (and thus ease load on the bung base and the welds there)... though the weight of the fuel pump out there on the end will be most significant. You'd be limited by the radius of the bends you could use in the tubing, though, and maybe you'd run into issues with welds too. You could get by with less heavy solid stock though, couldn't you? It might be better to weld the ring to the base from the inner side, so as to not interfere with the O-ring as there is potential for welds on the outer perimeter to do. You might also consider a weld of the rod support for the sender and fuel pump on the perimeter of the ring to add a bit of support and stiffness. Anyway, just a couple thoughts. I like what you made, and would gladly buy one from you if they were available and I could meet your price. Good luck getting your jigs set up, and I hope you start making these soon - I know others are waiting to buy from you too. :)

PVC? The thing I know PVC is short for is polyvinyl chloride. lol Aka the pipe they use in plumping your home. ^ exactly what Eagle said, IF that's white stuff in your oil. Not white stuff in your coolant. I could be wrong with this- but he's dealing with his coolant system- so why I would think he has white stuff in his coolant not oil. But I could be wrong. Not PVC - PCV - Positive Crankcase Ventilation. That means he's dealing with engine oil, and the cooling system is not involved... unless he has a blown head gasket, or cracked head or block.

$13 as advertised at Sears: You'll need a decent air compressor to provide sufficient air flow to use it. Or just put in a new set of plugs for the running test of your old injectors.

How long have you owned your truck? If you haven't had it long, it could be that the previous owner acted on the hoopla that started in California about 13 years ago about the safety benefits of DRLs (Daytime Running Lights), and had some sort of modified circuit installed. If so, maybe whoever did the work did a less-than-perfect job... Incidentally, the powers that be thought that DRLs were such a good idea that new cars come so equipped - I hear it is a requirement nowadays.

Could just be condensation from water in blow-by in the crankcase. If you mostly drive short trips, your engine oil may not get hot enough to boil out all the water that accumulates. If the above is your situation, you might not have a problem at all. The cure would be to take an hour-long (or longer) drive once or more per week... more frequent oil changes might be a good idea too. Since you have noticed a potential problem, you should definitely follow Eagle's advice and run a compression check. For that matter, it's a good idea to run one every time you have the spark plugs out, in my opinion. The small added effort is a cheap enough price to pay for peace of mind and having an ongoing good general idea of your engine condition, right?

Yeah, but you are thinking, tying in related things you know to use logic to find a solution, and that is no small thing. Just have to challenge your assumptions sometimes to make sure your foundation is correct. :thumbsup:

Ummmmmm... longer antenna means longer wavelength which means lower frequency, not higher: Makes me think the spring is not the problem, unless it is an issue of the quality of the connection. The added length contributed by the spring would be a bonus for the lower channels, not the upper, but that is the opposite of what he is reporting.

Hope to see you back someday soon. Meantime, know that you will be missed. :waving:

"Billionaire"? Dayum - you'd be like the man who invented everything ever invented, from the taming of fire and the wheel to everything else ever conceived... combined! :D Such a thing would change everything we thought we knew about the universe.

Yeeeeee-ow! Had you added any damping to the steering to help prevent the towed vehicle from whipping? In years past I used a doubled bungee cord looped around the bottom spoke of the steering wheel and hooked it under the driver's seat, limiting the travel to about 3/16ths turn each left and right... then made sure to never make any but wide turns. Never went over 55, and never had the slightest tendency to whip at all.. except once when an idiot merging onto the Interstate an hour outside Louisville, Kentucky jumped 2 lanes into mine from an on-ramp and forced me off the pavement into the snowy median. Though it was a bit sketchy for a second there, I was able to gather it up and continue under control back onto the pavement.

*shudders* Thank God I don't live at your latitude! Anything worth doing is worth doing right (or right enough for the intended purpose), so if no one chimes in I'll have to go dig up a book. Barring that, past experience prompts me to use a staggered double row 1.5" apart with rivets also spaced 1.5" apart, and I am reasonably certain that the 3/16" diameter stainless blind rivets I have on hand are overkill. If I have a tube of NP4 on hand, I'll use it to seal the lap joint, otherwise I'll come up with something else that should do the job well and still be removable without too much difficulty. If I don't like it and would like to change it to a repair indistinguishable from factory original sometime in the future, I can always drill out the rivets and start over with a more cosmetically pleasing repair at that time - removing the adhesive will be the hard part about that.

It's also important to deburr the holes with a slight chamfer before driving the rivets to achieve best strength and avoid subsequent problems (at least for planes, as doubtless Jim can attest). I don't imagine it is an issue here, but it is part of good craftsmanship and is worth mentioning. Another craftsmanship tip is the use of Cleco temporary fasteners, desirable but not essential here. I s'pose one could always work the perimeter having first marked out the pattern, staggering rivet placement as one would spread initial tack welds to limit heat distortion. I know we have some students here who have doubtless covered rivet pattern and size requirements for a given base material in a design of machine elements class - will any of you make such recommendation, or do I need to go look it up?

Good stuff to think about - thanks for the comments, they are thought-provoking. Down here in the winter when all the "snow birds" come driving their motorhomes south fleeing the frozen north, they often have an XJ in tow using a towbar. I never thought of the negatives until you guys brought them up... but I do have one to relate that was not yet mentioned. Funny story (but doubtless not so funny to the owner): I pulled in to a gas station one winter's day and saw a big class A motorhome with an XJ in tow, parked across the lot. Walked over to talk to the driver, who was not happy - no, not one bit! He was trying to source a new tire, fancy aluminum rim, brake disc, and mechanic - all of which he needed, since when his tire blew sometime in the previous 500 miles, he never noticed until the rim and brake disc wore down to the point that the lower ball joint was dragging on the pavement! Best wishes for a safe and uneventful trip, Pete.

On a side note, one of the reasons, if not the main reason, rivets became so popular was during the war. You have heard about that haven't you? It's in all the history books.Skilled labor was hard to come by. You could take a newbie off the street and in 10 minutes, with adequate instruction. have them setting rivets. You're certainly not going to train a welder in 10 minutes. Another reason was that the quality of the base metal of that time was not consistent, particularly in steel for ships. In such cases riveting is superior to welding in ultimate strength. Riveting is also superior in that there is no residual stress from the local application of heat and subsequent cooling as there is in welding. Not that this is applicable to the main subject of this thread - but it is interesting stuff about the subject in general.

Noted. But considering that you live deep in the rust belt and I live 700 miles south of it, your issue is not my issue. However, you are quite correct to bring it up for others who, like you, are not as fortunate.

Thanks for the advice, but I started welding 20 years before you were born. Though I don't claim to be a master craftsman, I can even lay a decent bead in aluminum with TIG when I need to. But my eyes are getting bad enough now that I don't need to be staring through a welding mask any more than I have to when there is a perfectly good alternative.

I would respectfully disagree. You are talking stainless on dirty steel riveting. You cannot get all impurities out of 20+ year old metal, especially since it has corroded. Even if you get it as clean as possible, you are combining un-like metals when you rivet instead of weld. The rivets open up more chance of leakage and corrosion as you have opened more surface area to water penetration with every hole drilled, regardless of sealant used or not. It can't possibly last as long as the factory spot welds. I was talking about stainless rivets joining mild steel panels, but I take your point. When joining panels, it is proper to cut out the rusted material and join good metal to good metal, same as for welding. I suppose plain steel rivets could be used in place of stainless - they are certainly cheaper. I just happen to have a few pounds of 3/16" stainless rivets on hand from boat work, where they offer good results with aluminum in a salt water environment. I can't imagine their use with steel would be any worse even on salted winter roads (on which many of us would never drive), but to be safer and avoid any potential electrolysis issues I guess it would be better to go with plain old cheap steel rivets. That said, since I have plenty on hand already I will use stainless. If I run into any problems years down the road, I'll be sure to report back, but I am pretty sure they will outlast the truck.

You don't need insurance on a vehicle that is on a trailer. In MN, you need insurance even if the vehicle is on a tow dolly. If any axle is on the ground, insurance is needed. (This is what I was told by the u-haul place a few years ago. Never researched past that.) Wow - I checked with my insurance company, and they told me I was covered for both the tow vehicle and anything being towed. Now I am a little scared. I understand the reason you gave... but consider that the source in your case is not a disinterested party since they stand to gain by renting you a trailer! :D I guess it is worth double-checking.

And you don't have to add seam sealant when finished - I like that. The factories used to use a plastic solder to seal critical seams; I don't know if they still do. A fine illustration of the strength of adhesives was their use to join frame members in the Plymouth Prowler. I am curious, Jim - can you recommend a good adhesive?

Doable for sure. I did the rusted-out floor of my first 914 with 'glass... a full quarter-inch thick! It turned out far more rigid than the perfectly good passenger side. I was worried about the 'glass patch separating from the metal, but it never did for the 10 years I drove it thereafter. In retrospect, I probably should have added some rivets or bolts once the patch cured, just to add a mechanical means of fastening for security.

Since spot welding is used for assembly of unibodies at the factory and rivets are essentially the same principle (only stronger), the rivets should last as long as the spot welds.