gogmorgo

What components are heat soaking? And do you know for sure heat soak is the problem? Just wouldn’t want to recommend more unnecessary repairs. If it’s an issue with fuel rail/injectors there were heat shields for ‘97+ XJs, although I don’t know if they’ll work for Renix. The low-buck proof of concept solution would just be wrapping the affected components in aluminum foil. You might also find some level of success with an exhaust wrap or coating to help keep infrared radiation down in the engine bay directly under the fuel rail. Adding vents to the hood is also popular. Should we assume that thousands of dollars in “unnecessary” repairs means your cooling system is in perfect working order too?

I’m also not really on the made-in-X-countries-only band wagon. I put parts on from all over the place at work and would agree it generally has no bearing on what lasts and what doesn’t. I wouldn’t even always put one brand of part over another. I’ve even seen OEM parts last no longer than cheap aftermarket. Usually we just end up with whatever will be there first and we rarely have problems. But I will say I do have a preference for Dana u-joints. They are noticeably beefier than almost everything else, the seals look better, etc. But I also can’t say I’ve had issues with any other brand of u-joint unless it comes out of the box with a weedy looking cross. I would prefer greasable joints but the axle shaft u-joints are barely accessible for a cross-mounted nipple if they’re even big enough to put one in there, and the grease nipples on the caps rarely have clearance and just either get damaged or else they’re some weird low-clearance design that you won’t have the correct adapter to get grease into. So not really much point in getting greasable u-joints for the axle shafts. But I would absolutely pop the caps off and add some extra grease before installing. The number one cause of a bearing failing is contamination getting in, and the more grease there is the less room there is for contaminants. I also usually will go with Timken bearings because I have had good experience with them, but I can’t really say I’ve had problems with any other brand of wheel bearing either. Usually if I see a bearing failed there’s clear signs either the grease escaped or there was some contaminant inside.

Prior to MTS building fuel sending units there were a few people who used the parts off an XJ sending unit to refurbish their MJ assembly. I also recall a thread where someone simply modified the XJ unit to point the correct direction/depth. The ‘91-‘96 clusters are interchangeable so if you got an MTS sending unit for a ‘91/‘92 MJ and modified it the same way as the one you have it should read the fuel level correctly on the ‘96 fuel gauge. From experience if you start having fuel delivery issues shortly after installing a new fuel pump and you can hear the pump running, if it’s not out of gas it usually means something came apart inside the tank and either it’s not sucking fuel from the bottom of the tank anymore or else it’s just pumping it straight back into the tank. If your modifications included using some fuel line in the tank, make sure it’s submersible fuel line. The regular fuel injection line is only fuel safe on the inside and the outer layers start breaking down when submerged.

The symptoms you described are definitely consistent with low transmission fluid. And you’re correct that it would be tough to miss a two-quart leak. Hopefully it solves it with no further issues.

Good stuff. But keep an eye on the level, and keep an eye out for spotting underneath it. If a shop had left it two quarts low I think you would have started noticing problems on the drive home.

https://comancheclub.com/profile/5513-johnx/ Hasn’t been online since 2017… good luck!

It’s upsetting, yeah. In their defence it can be tricky to get it right, because there’s a pretty big difference in level between cold and hold, and it has to be checked running and hot. And for someone getting paid flat rate it’s not necessarily profitable to go and drive it until it gets hot. This is unfortunately getting pretty common, with techs not wanting to spend time on a job that isn’t going to pay much. Which, I mean, hard to blame them if they’re not taking home a ton of money as it is. Some shops don’t pay well at all. And you also had the capacity to pull the dipstick out and check at any point between now and then. Its not a “sealed for life” transmission that doesn’t have a user-verifiable level indication. But it also doesn’t take a huge leak. Its very common to get sweating from cooler lines which can be enough to cause a problem given enough driving time.

That may be more concerning. If there’s no leak it means you’ve been driving in the danger zone for a while now. Fingers crossed though.

I was wondering a while back about using XJ centre console and rear heater ducting to run air up and back towards the window, or just warm up the space behind the seats. But I don’t often find a need for defrosting the rear window. Seems like the front defrost is good enough blowing air up and over the seats, and I’ve got my side vents (that normally blow on your face) aimed at the side windows if I need a little more air to keep them clear to use the mirrors. The heater is excellent considering it’s intended to heat 3x the space in an XJ. I just wish it had a combo floor and windshield position.

I used to follow r/justrolledintotheshop. crazy stuff sometimes. https://www.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/

I was actually going to suggest that. If the fluid level is low the transmission may not build enough pressure to engage the clutches at low engine speed, but when you rev it up the increased pressure will make them grab, the “thump” is essentially a neutral drop. Having the intermittent pressure loss isn’t great, slipping clutches can burn out quickly, plus the potential for shock loading the drivetrain, and if the level is low enough you may also have issues with cooling and lubrication. Top it up, and double check for leaks, on the trans itself and the cooler lines. Keep an eye on the fluid level. The AW4 is a tough transmission and will take some abuse, so hopefully it’s okay once the level is corrected.

In case you missed it, it's pronounce Ma-LEEN. The french would be Ma-LEEÑ. That trip was one of the sketchier things I've done in a canoe. It was the first week of June so the ice had only been off the lake for about a week, and the water was still pretty frigid. The lake is also a couple hundred feet deep with the bottom dropping off pretty quickly from shoreline in a lot of spots. Steep slopes above the lake usually continue below the surface as well. But you still need to keep an eye out because there are some 99-foot tall boulders sitting in 100-foot deep water. I can't imagine they come down often, but I wouldn't want to be on the water if it ever happened. I was on the water when the storm hit, with a strong north wind pushing me down the lake through the snow, getting close to three foot swells, which is uncomfortable sailing in a canoe. Then a vertical cliff face emerged from the storm directly in my line of travel, approaching at a speed I can only describe as way faster than a canoe should ever be moving. Fortunately there was a bit of a canyon cutting through the cliff with a sandy spit coming out of the bottom, so when I hammered into the shore it was onto a gentle beach and not rocks and crashing waves. I waited there for an hour or so for the wind to die down and then once it was calmer I was able to continue on to my camp site. I had just enough time to set up my tent before it started snowing again. There were a couple other guys there who already had a fire going so that was good. This is how the campground looked when I got there. It's pretty nice. The next morning I was woken up by the sound of a massive avalanche, big rocks smashing together, echoing up and down the lake. I was pretty nervous because I had no idea what the mountains around me looked like due to the snow, and just sat in camp with the wet heavy snow coming down listening to small avalanches all around. Then in the evening a bunch of kayakers showed up with the most miserable looking housecat I've ever seen. Apparently it fell into the lake a few hours earlier. It was so soggy I didn't even recognize it as a cat at first when it came crawling up the path behind everyone. Pro tip: don't take your cat kayaking in a snow storm. Poor thing. The snow quit overnight, and the next day it was bright and sunny with a glassy smooth lake. I think it got up to around 25°C... mountain weather is crazy. I got one of the worst sunburns of my life that day but it was super easy paddling. I stopped for lunch at the beach I crashed into on the way down. I think that's rye bread I baked myself. Probably salami with the cheese on the sandwich. And I'm pretty sure this is the cliff next to the beach I thought for sure I was going to crash into. It's pretty crazy how quick the snow melted off in the sun. And a loon from much later in the day when the snow had melted. It actually swam under the canoe, which was cool. All in all it was an excellent trip and I highly recommend. Just maybe don't go as early in the season as I did, although I can't guarantee it won't snow on you any other month either. Mountain weather is a little nuts, and the surface of the lake is around 5500' elevation so it's up there.

Just to be clear the XJ sending unit is not a drop-in replacement for the MJ unit. They might sorta work in some circumstances but as a rule they do need modification.

This thread was a big influence for my decision. I talked to a local spring shop and had a pair of leaves built. It wasn’t necessarily the cheapest option but shipping would’ve been brutal.

This is for the tapered stud on the ball joint, yeah? Check the threaded portion for any necking or stretching. If you can spin the nuts up and down smoothly it’s probably fine. The tapered stud might stretch out the hole a little bit, but that shouldn’t be too big a deal, the taper will make up for that the next time it gets changed. All you’re doing is mashing that taper into its hole. No components other than the stud and the hole will be affected.

I dug into this a while back thinking I might try adding intermittent wipers to my short bed. The GM part numbers are different than the Jeep ones even in the aftermarket. What that means I can’t really say. DS812 is a non-tilt intermittent switch used in square body chevs from ‘84 on. It has the same connector and number of pins as the DS570. A Saginaw column being a Saginaw column it should fit in the Jeep column too. But does it do the same thing as the DS570 just with different wire colours? Is the pin out different? I can’t really say. And it’s not cheap either to gamble on. I basically came to the conclusion it would be better to swap to a tilt column at the same time and then not have to deal with the non-tilt intermittent problem. But then again I’ve got a manual trans/floor shifter in that truck.

Because the 2wd sits ~1” lower you might find more lift than you expect. I looked at the Rusty’s springs briefly but reviews are pretty hit or miss. For everyone who says they don’t have problems there’s someone who had major problems, and getting any sort of fix from Rusty’s doesn’t seem easy. Seemed like too much of a risk especially considering I’d be shipping it internationally.

I’ve always translated it as “don’t teach animals that humans are a food source”

No this is good enough for me. Thanks!

Maligne Lake, Jasper national park. It’s a pretty popular tourist destination although 99% of visitors don’t make it very far down the lake from the northern end. This was taken from pretty well the southernmost point of the lake.

Yeah I was wondering about adjustability. I was sure it’s just an ECU function on a ‘91+ Haven’t had a chance to do much digging yet after getting home. Its setting up to be a busy week, and neither my brain or body are at 100% right now. But about 440 of the 450km I had left were done with no cruise. Brutal driving across Saskatchewan without it. It progressed from the ocasional random acceleration to being pretty well all it does. Within 5-10 seconds of setting the speed now it just pulls the throttle wide open. Sometimes it lets go and coasts back down to the set speed but it usually starts pulling again before it gets there. It cuts out if I touch the brake pedal and then won’t resume on its own which makes me think it’s not an issue with the resume/accel switch being stuck or damaged wires in the column. Although I was in there this fall changing the wiper switch so I did wonder about that. And just, general age and usage of components. No codes beyond 12 and 55 any time I checked, although I haven’t checked since it’s started only accelerating. I was wondering more for throttle position sensor possibilities and that wasn’t it but I see now there’s also a cruise circuit code on the list. I’ll have to check in the morning. From the limited info I found online I’m also leaning heavily towards the servo. Test procedures for it would be helpful, yes. I noticed a couple NOS servos on eBay so I’ll probably swing for one of those if I need to replace it. We had a decent junk yard here but they quit letting us plebes pull our own parts a few years back and they have no interest in pulling small stuff for anyone. Frustrating.

The snow cover’s pretty scarce in our mountains too this year. I think I hit more rocks in that one day of resort skiing than I have the rest of my life. I’m glad I was warned ahead of time and took my old dumpster skis to the resort instead of the $$$ backcountry setup like I’d been initially planning. Its definitely picturesque, and always powder for days, but you have put in the work to earn your turns skiing in the backcountry. Every time I go out it astonishes me how much climbing hills takes out of me. But it’s such a good time I still keep doing it.

Are we still doing this? Just got back from a road trip back to the mountains. Labrador tea poking through the snow A bunch of random pullouts along the Icefields Parkway Some from Marmot Basin Even managed to get a small amount of backcountry skiing in. There’s an ant-sized Comanche down there by the road. Skied all the way up here. We went further up but I suck at remembering to take pictures. At some point I’ll have to go back and fix the upside down pictures, just too lazy this time.

I don’t think this is the problem. 99% of the time it works just fine and holds speed without an issue, so I’d rather not mess with the adjustment. And considering it just rolled over 540,000km this morning it doesn’t make sense to me that it would suddenly need adjusting after all that mileage. I don’t see a centre adjustment problem making it randomly accelerate wildly beyond where it’s set at either. In case the metric is confusing, I’ve had it set around 70mph and when I let it run up on its own it was pretty near full throttle up to 90mph where it disengaged the cruise on its own. If memory serves that’s around the fastest it would let me set the cruise so that at least seems consistent. There was nothing obviously wrong under the hood this morning, and it’s done almost two hours of highway driving over rolling terrain without the speed wavering. I pulled onto the highway behind a Lincoln Corsair and it stayed locked on it for 175km, over 100miles. I’ve got another 450km this afternoon before I get home, and can give it a more thorough look.