gogmorgo

Other advantages to the KJ axle is if you're looking for deeper gears, they're pretty easy to find in a 4:10 ratio. There's just more stuff to cut off than the XJ axle. I picked one up a couple years ago to put under my MJ, but the build hasn't really started yet, and I also picked up a 4:10 AMC 20 that I'm probably going to use cause it'll bolt straight in.

Well I made it home early this morning. Slept for about 10 minutes before a park warden knocked on the window to discuss illegal camping, which is funny cause I've spent the night in that parking lot a whole bunch. Just not at peak season I guess. Made it all the way home in half-hour legs with breaks between. In a way it was better to be driving at night cause I had the road pretty well to myself. The ZJ needs deeper gears to be a mountain tow-pig for sure. A lot of the hills had me going between 2nd and 3rd, and I was down to first coming up out of the toilet bowl to the top of Sunwapta pass. I also need new springs in the back of the ZJ real bad. Lesson learned though, not gonna do that to the ZJ again, even though it took it like a champ. A slow, underpowered (for towing 150% of its own weight) champ, but a champ none the less. Didn't even manage to high-centre the unit anywhere, although there were a couple hill starts that I'm pretty sure the clutch hates me for. The limit for manual trans towing being 2000lbs sorta makes sense after that. Tomorrow is going to be a continuation of the saga of make-the-Saint-go-away so it'll be a few days before I'll get a chance to give the MJ a thorough look over.

The DRL module lives on the right inner fender in the back corner of the engine bay. You might be able to figure out which wire is the output from the module, and just tap in there. My thoughts though are that the modules aren't hugely reliable, so you may be better off just wiring it in separately if you want to use it. But to do that you'd also need to disable the factory DRL's, otherwise you'd just have your lights on.

Okay so as a testament to how much I shouldn't be driving, I just moved some stuff in the back of the ZJ and discovered I forgot to forget the battery. Couldn't resist slapping it in. There's some belt squeal on startup, and it shook quite a bit initially but settled out not too badly. its still on the trailer and I don't want to crawl under to unhook so I didn't drive it. I added some extra straps because UHaul doesn't really provide much to secure the vehicle other than the two basket straps over the wheels. Safety chains are just hook through and there's no real way to tighten. When I brought the ZJ home the highway was under construction and rough enough I was concerned the Jeep was going to bounce itself off the trailer. It just wouldn't stay put, there were a couple times I watched it skip left/right in the mirror. The MJ's clamped down good though. crusty rad is crusty... But still not as bad as the ZJ's... This one still has fins!

I just put a new radiator in it a few weeks ago, driving the same route, just at a lower temperature. The cooling system got a thorough flush, too, considering the rad was leaking so bad I think we went through six or seven gallons of water in 70 miles. So the fact that the temp gauge has mostly been rock steady even when pulling up hills at 3500rpm in 3rd, is definitely a good thing. But yeah, I've got a few gallons of distilled water too. But we had some smoke roll in, and the sun's dropped a fair bit too nor, so I parked in a shady spot to try to nap for a bit. On a good day it's 2.5 hours from here back home, but I'll be going slow with the trailer. It's also why I drove a few hours out of the way to get the trailer instead of a dolly. The trailers at least have surge brakes. Although now I'm sorta questioning the brakes being worth the extra 1500 lbs or so the trailer weighs over the dolly... but then I haven't gone down a winding 10% grade yet, haha. Theres rust in the floor pans (of course) and it's starting in the rocker/cab corner area, and some bubbling over the fenders. Most of its not at the point of holes yet, just bubbling. Supposesly it runs and drives, but it overheats badly, so the guy didn't want me to start it to avoid damaging it (suspicious I know) so we winched it onto the trailer. His dad had it towed home six months ago after it overheated and it hasn't been touched since. No cross contamination of fluids that I can tell. The rad's crusty as all get out and looked to be bone dryso it would surprise me if that's the issue, like he said. I didn't bring a battery (I left home at midnight and forgot a ton of stuff I intended to bring) and it didn't have one in it so I didn't bother trying to fire it up. The clutch works and it goes into all gears though. He seemed like a pretty trustworthy guy though. And it came with the original set of wheels, the d-window kind, that still have the centre caps in them. That right there is almost worth $700 ;) I'll definitely be digging into it more when I get home. Should be able to have plates on it by Tuesday though. I'll have to start a build thread. I've come up with a legit reason to have bought it though, errand running around town that a truck is just better for, while my truck is down, and also saving gas money on the 400 mile commute to school I'll be making every couple weeks this fall. I might also end up giving it to my dad at some point, for yard work, etc. He's been half looking for a small truck like that for a while. Stopped at Dead man's flats. The ZJ was doing awesome but me not so much. Really felt like a dead man myself there. I've made it almost another hour down the road now, but I'm exhausted, either from heat, lack of sleep, or some combo. I've driven almost 700 miles today...

Picked myself up... Well I'm not sure why to be honest. '91 2.5L ax5 2wd Short bed. The body's pretty strait. Not much rust on it by local standards. It does need a couple things, but at $750 what MJ doesn't? The ZJ is... Well it's pulling it alright so far (knock on wood) But not something I would recommend doing on a regular basis. But I shouldn't speak too soon, cause I'm at 3000' of altitude, and home is at 3000', and there's not one but two 6500' passes between me and home. Good thing the ZJ doesn't have a/c or I'm guessing it would be overheating at 100°F, but it's been sitting between 205 and 215°F the whole trip so far. Don't really know how you lot down south put up with this BS. I just stopped more to cool myself down than to rest the Jeep.

My understanding is the factory DRL module is basically a fancy relay that sends a reduced voltage to the high beam circuit, and disables the dash high-beam indicator. I don't know that even if I had functioning DRL's that I'd want to try tapping into that. If it were me I'd put them on a relay triggered either by parking lights or an ignition-switched 12V source, depending on how I wanted them to work. Or possibly two relays and turn signals...

I try to keep the ZJ between 1500-2000 rpm around town. I might see 4500rpm or so if I'm really giving it the boot merging from a stop sign, but that's it. 3000rpm was about what my MJ shifted itself at unless I was more than half-way into the pedal, but I don't think it would ever hit 4000. Generally it was only 2500rpm IIRC.

If you go with a more agressive 235/75/15, like an AT with side lugs à la Grabber AT2 or BFG KO2, you might find they run the lower control arms at full lock, but it's not really a huge deal. I ran Grabber AT2's on my stock height MJ, in that size. Not a bad year-round tire for Manitoba. Have 'em on my Lada now, in a smaller size.

Yeah I'd definitely want trailer brakes set up before pulling that much. But I've pulled 4500 unbraked with my non-metric-tonne or tow-package MJ and it was okay, couple decent hills too... I live 15 miles from the east-west continental divide, and 70 miles north of Arctic/Atlantic. There are hills here.

I just thought it was kinda funny that instead of calling it "upgraded" or "heavy duty" or whatever, they went with "special".

You'll have to forgive autocorrect's typo there. "Deals" shoulda been "seals". I knew there's a fast-ratio box, but it was my understanding they all had it. The owner's manual makes no note of the steering ratio, just the "high temperature seals". This kinda stuck out to me cause I wouldn't have expected the steering system to be affected all that much by trailer weight. An interesting thing to note, apparently the AX15 is only good for 2000lbs towing in a ZJ... but there's no mention of needing a better axle than the D35 for 6500lbs, just make sure you've got 3.73's and synthetic oil in it.

Yup. If you hit all the grease zerks every oil change with the correct grease, and keep the boots in good shape so they keep grease in and everything else out, all the ball joints (including tie-rod ends, etc) should last indefinitely.

After a couple months I've been pretty happy with my ZJ so far. There's enough of the XJ in it still with a bit more comfort, space, and towing capacity if properly equipped... My owners manual says there's a "special steering gearbox" for towing, apparently with deals that withstand higher temps, among other things. Don't know if I could've gone for anything other than the base model though... creature comforts seem to take away from the Jeepish utilitarianism of the thing, although I can appreciate them on the odd occasion. Looks good, and I hope it treats you well!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Can't take credit, its been floating around the 'net for over a decade.

With the wheels on the ground, get a helper to turn the wheel back and forth, just far enough to take up the slack in either direction, just far rough the wheels barely start turning. Crawl under and watch each connection between steering components, or put your hand on them to feel how they're moving compared to each other. Ideally you want zero play anywhere, but if you're on a budget you'll get away with a small amount for a while... just be aware that if there is play it'll accelerate the wear on the component as you develop more play, and if something fails you will lose steering control. One other common source of slop is the GM Saginaw reciprocating-ball steering box. They're notorious for developing slop. There's some degree of adjustability but if it's a ton of slop you may be best just replacing the gearbox. Fortunately it a pretty common gearbox so you can grab one from a junkyard if you find one with less slop. Any XJ or MJ with power steering, ZJ boxes will bolt in and have a quicker ratio, Rockauto lists S10's and Blazers as using the same one as well.

Have you tried leaving a front bleeder open while you bleed the rear? From factory there's two lines going to the back, one is the line going through the load valve, the other is the emergency bypass being talked about. Factory bleed procedure is to initially bleed the rears with a front bleeder open to simulate a failure so you can bleed the bypass, then close it and bleed rears again, then the fronts.

In Manitoba the sale frequently isn't all that effective because it's that cold. I lived in Oshawa for a couple years, and it always bugged the hell out of me that we'd get two inches of snow and the plow trucks would go out with their blades up, blowing salt out the @$$ end. The sidewalks were like walking on crushed glass. It was ridiculous! And the locals all defended the salt use, with all kinds of excuses. But what it really broils down to is that the economic health of Oshawa is pretty directly tied to the health of the GM plant. As far as ESS is concerned, yeah, we've had a couple complaints about it. Most of our fleet is barebones work truck trim, but there's the odd one with it and yeah, it catches people out. Oh God, the boss's truck stalled! Most of our driving is on the highway so it's not super noticeable, but I can imagine it not being great for colder urban climates. Especially since it's starting to get less common for new cars to ship with block heaters... we've even had a couple diesels show up without, despite having specifically specced it. That's definitely not a good sign.

Just my $0.02 here, You know, I grew up and have spent most of my driving career driving highways in Bortle scale twos and ones. One is as dark as the scale goes, in case you were wondering. It doesn't get darker than that, and I'm far enough north that at the end of December, night lasts a solid 18 hours, if not longer. Suffice it to say, I know what driving in the dark is like, on winding gravel roads along river valleys and through mountains, in prime whitetail, elk, and moose habitat. I have never found my MJ's headlights to be inadequate. As Dirty pointed out, the only reason I did the relay harness upgrade was because my headlight switch caught fire. I even made the harness extra stout to better handle extra wattage if I ever felt o needed it. But after doing the upgrade I kicked myself for surfing extra on heavy gauge wires because I knew they were completely unnecessary, and even stopped using the brights as often, because they seemed almost too bright to me sometimes, just with stock h6054's or whatever they are. Why is this? Could be any reason I guess, but two things stand out to me: 1. I haven't "upgraded" my dash lights to something brighter or with a spectrum that kills my night vision. My dash still dims to the edge of visibility, just how it should be in the dark. 2. I haven't installed some garish stereo with ridiculous lighting that doesn't dim and causes all the problems of #1. A while back I was riding in my roommate's Fucus at night, and he asked me if I knew about any sort of upgraded headlights that would be good for his car. I gave him a funny look, which he could see because it was so bright in his interior, then stuck my hands over his crazy double-din deck. The interior went dark, and he just sorta sat there dumbfounded for a bit, because suddenly he could see out about a million times better. Now he drives around with a sheet of cardboard taped over it at night. My advice is to make sure you're not blinding yourself. Keep interior light to a bare minimum, keep your windows clean inside and out to reduce reflections, Keep your headlights clean as well, replace them if the lenses are chipped and scratched. Make sure they're aimed correctly too. Newer vehicles are pretty awful to drive at night I find, cause there's waaaay too much light in the cab with backlit LCD screens and LED lights for a bajillion buttons and switches for features I don't want. Then the headlights are so bright to compensate they're almost blinding on their own, not to mention killing the vision of oncoming traffic. I dunno. Maybe it's just me, but it's definitely something to think about.

I used to just always drive with my headlights on, no matter the weather. The main advantage to this was that turning them off again at the end of the trip was just part of my normal shut-down sequence, and I was rarely caught out, but it also meant I didn't get caught out by sudden decreases in visibility, and also when my headlight switch set itself on fire it was during the day and with fairly reasonable weather, so I had no issues pulling the instrument cluster to blow it out. For me it's also more about being seen than it is to see. Because DRL's are required here, I've caught myself a couple times assuming a car with no lights on isn't moving, and the little orange parking lights many manufacturers aren't always enough.

That's normally the way it works here too. Parts move across the country pretty regularly. Even big things like transmissions can be overnighted without added shipping costs. It's just when it needs pulled up from down south. I suspect a lot of it could be waiting for bulk parts shipments to clear customs.

Mopar parts not being available in Canada doesn't necessarily reflect US availability. The odd time I've been into a dealer and they've mentioned having to bring the part from the States, it seems like it inflates the price quite a bit, and frequently it could take almost a month to get it. It wouldn't surprise me if some parts guys have just stopped suggesting that option. Seems like most people don't want to wait that long.

I've been pulling the buzzers on my Jeeps cause they're so obnoxious. It doesn't cause any problems to have them missing, so I imagine I'm not the only one who can't stand it. Plus having the buzzer never stopped me from leaving lights on, or keys in the ignition, or anything. When the same alarm means a ton of things, half of which I do deliberately on a regular basis, you really just start ignoring it, until you're trying to diagnose issues with a hack wiring job on the door speakers which means you need to have the door open with the key on, and the buzzer just makes your head want to explode.

These might help you out. There are two separate circuits for the fuel pump, the primary one that goes through the ballast resistor while the engine's running; and one that bypasses the resistor to deliver full power during cranking. The primary one takes over after a couple seconds running. I'm not sure offhand what mechanism swaps out the circuits though.

With wheels and tires, and all the suspension components, the front axle is going to be getting pretty close to the same weight as the engine, so you're correct as far as there's a large mass moving around. Banging sound definitely means something's loose; although it could just be exhaust or something else trivial. But I'd be looking really close at control arm bushings, track bar/mount, and all steering linkage. Get a helper to wiggle the steering wheel back and forth while you check each joint for play. Also make sure the springs are in the right place, I've seen more than one case of the bottom coil snapping off at the retainer, and having the spring kick out and jam itself against the C on the axle. Do you only hear the bang, or can you feel it in your feet? Can a passenger? Might help track it down.