Eagle

Signing off. Steph is at 4,000 votes and the margin is back to a respectable number, so I can sleep soundly.

I'd guess the former. Doesn't mean I'm going to let anybody sneak up behind us and position themselves for a last-second surge. Drafting should only be encouraged in NASCAR, where it helps both drivers ...

Unplugging doesn't "reset" the CPS. It scrapes a bit of possible corrosion off the contacts in the plug, hopefully improving the signal strength enough to tell the ECU what the CPS is saying. That's all. It's a temporary fix at best, and may not work at all. Somebody awhile ago posted a link to a tech article put together by Eric Giordano (a.k.a. on-line as Jabbathehut) that explains how to test the sensors -- including the CPS. The method described in the FSM is useless -- it calls for testing the resistance at normal operating temperature, but how do you get to normal operating temperature if the engine won't start? And I've tested the resistance of known bad units against brand new ones, and they ALL tested within spec, and within about 5 ohms of each other.

That's what mine is doing now, except that I have to sit about 20 or 30 minutes before it'll restart. I believe the fuel pump ballast resistor is bad and faltering after it has become "heat soaked." I now have a short jumper wire with flat spade terminals on each end, to plug in as a jumper the next time it quits on me. Naturally, last weekend in the course of my usual weekend warrior tasks, it didn't quit.

Is there any scrap value to old steel rims? I hate to sell of genuine Jeep alloy rims for scrap, but I have a huge assortment of old XJ/MJ steel rims that could be thinned out without hurting anybody's feelings. Worth pursuing?

Nope. Because the radiator cap will be lower in the system than the expansion tank. And you still have the issue of how to control the auxiliary fan. Using a manual switch is easy, but it doesn't allow the system to operate as designed.

Funny you should ask. If Eagle didn't have what he thinks is a better solution, Eagle wouldn't be foaming at the mouth over what a mistake he thinks this non-upgrade "upgrade" is. The better solution: http://store.summitracing.com/partdetai ... toview=sku I installed this on my '88 XJ in August of 2000, at the same time I replaced the original factory radiator with a new GDI 3-row unit. The Moroso tank is still going strong -- the GDI radiator crapped out last year and has been replaced. This tank uses a conventional radiator cap. It provides ALL the advantages of changing to a newer-style radiator, with none of the disadvantages. Additional benefits: The radiator cap is located at the highest point in the entire cooling system. Plus the tank, being completely filled rather than half-filled like the old plastic tanks, actually ADDS coolant capacity to the system.

Heads up, guys! Rickie is catching up. Not an issue ... yet ... but let's not get complacent and have to pull a collective all-nighter at the last minute. Steph's margin had been hovering at around 1500 votes for the past 24 hours or more. It's now down to about 1400 due to a surge by Rickie's team. I just logged onto that comments web site again. A lot more comments have been added since I first saw it, and I gotta say, that Homovich gal with all her blathering about "cheating" really irritates me. She knew the rules when she entered the contest. If her friends don't care enough to man the trenches, she doesn't deserve to win. Gentlemen, your assignment is to ensure that Steph remains comfortably in the lead. I am assigning myself the mission to ensure that Cynthia Davidson ends up with more votes than Kellie Homovitch. If there's anything worse than cheating, it's calling someone else who is playing by the rules a cheater.

I don't think you'll find a 110v unit that can do 1/4" in a single pass. It's been awhile since I was doing the research, but my recollection is that 3/16" was the best anybody claimed.

Match? If you have an 89 MJ that's red, the color IS Colorado red. But the new paint won't match any old paint that has been exposed to sunlight. It gets darker with exposure. Correctly mixed Colorado Red will match your paint where it has been protected, like under the hood and on the door jambs. If you're painting just certain panels, that's a problem. If you're repainting the entire vehicle, it won't matter.

Be very careful to read EVERYTHING regarding the sensor/sender for controlling the auxiliary fan. Otherwise, you will complete the "upgrade" (which does not add any cooling capability at all) and find that you have no way to control your electric fan. Personally, I think this swap has to be THE most over-rated and incorrectly written-up modification ever devised for the XJ/MJ vehicles.

It's called Colorado Red, and I think the paint code was PE4. Check an auto paint store and ask them if that code sounds right. The code should be on a metal plate on the upper radiator cross brace, and also on a plate on the driver's door.

The interior looks great, execept that shifter handle has to go.

We just did. I think the result of the poll serves as a checklist. If we want to flesh it out even more, you could ask those who voted for "Other" what they had in mind. ... If you aren't sure you experienced death wobble -- you didn't. My description above is not just my own. The standard response from people who have experienced the real thing is, "I peed my pants and I thought I was gonna die right there!" This will sound a lot like a used car salesman, but "trust me on this" -- there is NO mistaking death wobble for anything else. I have a slight imbalance in a front tire on the XJ right now. It kicks in at 60 MPH but I'm good up to about 58, and it goes away at 65. I can drive it at 60, but I just prefer not to feel that constant shimmy. If it were real death wobble, the moment it set in I would have to slam on the brakes and slow down to about 15 MPH or the vehicle would -- literally -- be uncontrollable. You absolutely CANNOT drive while death wobble is going on. Okay, so what causes one of the front castors on a grocery cart to wobble all the time?

Sunday night, and as I sign off Stephanie is a bit more than 1500 votes in the lead. As long as we can keep the margin around there, it should be comfortable. But ... we still have about three WEEKS to go, so we can't pack up the tents and head for home just yet. I propose a secondary fire mission: I don't like whiners, and that means the contestant who posted the whining comments. It wouldn't take a lot to push Cynthia Davidson (the mom whose daughter entered her because she looks like Meg Ryan) out ahead of Ms. Whiner. Next time you're throwing some votes at Steph, toss in a few for Cynthia while you're at it.

Shimmy is a far cry from death wobble. Death wobble is called that because when it happens, your life flashes in front of your eyes and you KNOW you're gonna die in about 2.37 seconds. Death wobble is like a demented djini has grabbed hold of the front of your truck and is doing his best to fling it forcefully off the road into the nearest ditch. Basically, if you don't wet yourself -- it isn't death wobble. Death wobble is generally unlikely in a vehicle with independent front suspension because you don't have that big, SOLID axle rigidly connecting both wheels, both steering knuckles, and everything associated therewith. It's hard for the harmonic feedback to get a toehold when there's nothing solid through which it can transfer.

1997 was the first year for the "new" Cherokee body style. Still a bit of a stretch, though. It wasn't an early, mid-year introduction. The '97 models hit the showrooms around September of 1996.

Cooper Discoverer A/T

Nah, they use "disposable" vehicles for the destructive stuff. Some of you must be fans of The A Team. There was one in which Colonel Decker's MPs were hot on the heels of the Team in BJ's cherished van. Now, y'all remember, BJ's van has alloy rims. So they're roaring through some kind of southern swamp or bayou territory, and they come to a river. So in the best Joey Chitwood tradition, BJ floors it, jumps the van off the remains of a collapsed bridge, and comes down "safely" on the other side. The pursuing MP sedan, of course, attempts the same gravity-defying feat and lands squarely in the middle of the river. However ... look closely at the van, and when it lands you can clearly see HUBCAPS popping off the wheels. And if you look more closely you'll see that it comes down a bit nose-heavy, and pretty well trashes both the front bumper (which does not look like the bumper on BJ's van) and the entire front suspension. There's no question that the truck that made that jump only did it one time. They typically have one or maybe two "good" vehicles they use for the close-up and normal shots, and then they use junks painted to look like the good one(s) for the destruction scenes.

Not to worry, Steph. The raw truth is, setting up a "poll" in a way that allows people to vote every MINUTE is a pretty stupid way of getting a valid vote. The people who set it up obviously knew when they made it that people would vote multiple times. They made it that way, and every time you vote they remind you that you can vote every minute. So ... if I vote every minute because that's the way the silly thing is set up, how is that cheating? They're just jealous that they don't have a handsome, intelligent, resourceful, popular "significant other" with as many clever obsessive/compulsive friends as your SO.

Pete, IMHO there is no question that if you eliminate the CAUSE, you eliminate the death wobble. What makes it complicated is that you can "fix" things that aren't the cause and cover up the death wobble. Yes, you "fixed" it in that you can drive down the road at 55 MPH ... but something is still lurking just under the surface. Despite the poll results, I remain of the opinion that the root cause is almost always tire balance, and that insufficient caster angle can result in the tire balance showing up as death wobble. However, caster angle itself doesn't cause tires to shake. We now routinely run 6 to 8 degrees of positive caster. Back in the late 50s and early 60s, 1-1/2 degrees of caster was a LOT, and yet tires weren't jumping off the road as soon as you hit 50 MPH. I don't know what real good this poll is. Ultimately, regardless of how it's worded, I think people voted for the things they have "fixed" as being the cause. So in that sense, I guess the final standings could be viewed as a probable hierarchy of what to check first if you have death wobble.

I also agree on the "Cheromanche" in the burn shot. The rear bumper wrapping around the corner is the giveaway for me (aside from "Cherokee").

The week is up, the polls are closed, and the results are in. If I can get this to format in a somewhat legible fashion, the following are the results: Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1st # . . . 2nd # . . . 3rd # . . . Total Score ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Worn Track Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 . . . . . 15 . . . . . . 4 . . . . . . . . 79 Tire Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 . . . . . 7 . . . . . . . 6 . . . . . . . . 62 Worn Tie Rod Ends . . . . . . . . . . 6 . . . . . .2 . . . . . . 12 . . . . . . . . 34 Worn Control Arm Bushings . . . 3 . . . . . .7 . . . . . . . 8 . . . . . . . . 31 Improper Caster Angle . . . . . . .4 . . . . . .2 . . . . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . 18 Incorrect Toe-In . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . .3 . . . . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . 11 Worn Ball Joints . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 . . . . . .2 . . . . . . . 0 . . . . . . . . 10 Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 . . . . . .1 . . . . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . 7 So ... for whatever it's worth ... there's the collected wisdom of the Comanche Club. I'll leave the three piolls stickied for a few more days so y'all can refer back to them if you wish, then (if possible after the poll closed) I'll unstick them so they can disappear gracefully.

I regret that I'm not geek enough to have four machines running at once. However, every time I sit down at the 'puter now the first thing I do is fire up the voting link, then I just leave it open in a tab and jump back to it every minute or so. Not as prolific as Wade, but they add up. I guess now we know why his screen name is "Super" Wade ...

Well, a long time ago one of the original NAXJA stalwarts pronounced me older than dirt, so I take that as a kind of certification. Nobody has ever formally notified me of any "grande"-ness as yet, however ... unless an expanding waistline is what you had in mind.