gogmorgo

Wouldn’t surprise me if there was a vacuum leak, but it doesn’t have other vacuum leak symptoms like vents going to defrost. I also don’t really see a vacuum leak pulling the throttle wide open. After some reading online I’m leaning towards the servo unit. I’ll have to find some diagnostic procedures first though. Not many available online.

On my ‘91 4.0. About a week ago on a long drive I noticed it wasn’t holding the set speed, sometimes it gradually lost speed, but if I barely poked the throttle it would accelerate back up to speed on its own. It did it sporadically over the course of a 600+km drive, stopping and shutting the truck off a few times through the day. Doesn’t seem to have anything to do with hills or anything. After sitting overnight it was fine for a week and over 1000km of driving. Today it did it again a couple times early on but then was fine for 400km or so, but then it started gaining speed. Sometimes gently, just picking up 5-10 km/h then and slowing back down to set speed, sometimes wide open throttle right up to ~145km/h when it shuts off the cruise. Anyone have any insight? Things to check? I thought the cable might have been sticking but that shouldn’t pull the throttle open. I don’t think it’s a sensitivity adjustment either because it works fine most of the time, including through the mountains. Doesn’t seem like the buttons are sticking either. I’m not sure what I like less, having it sneakily scrub off speed so it takes longer to cross Saskatchewan, or having it randomly put the hammer down with no warning.

I lucked out when I did mine, the cheap puller I had used the same thread for its centre portion, so I was able to use that to push the pulley on.

Brake calipers seizing is VERY common. On the fleet at work and personal vehicles I make a habit of checking the callipers every oil change. You should be able to wiggle the calliper a bit. If it doesn’t want to budge I pull everything and lube the glide pins. I’m generous with the brake grease, not everyone is but my attitude is that the more grease there is the less space there is for water. Speaking of which you also want to make sure there’s no damage to the pin bushings, the little dust boots. Badly seized callipers as a rule have holes in the pin rubbers. This also goes for new or reman callipers. You don’t know how long that thing’s been on the shelf or what cheap grease they used. I just installed two reman callipers on the back of a 2011 F250 today and both of them had stuck pins right out of the box, the grease was just about solidified. The other thing to watch for is that the pads don’t stick in their grooves. When you’re changing pads it’s important to clean any dirt or corrosion off the surfaces the pads slide along, even if there’s shims for them. I also put a thin coat of grease where the shims sit before I clip them into the calliper to delay them rust jacking the shim in place and binding the pad in the calliper. It also can sometimes be necessary to take some material off the tabs on the brake pads so they actually move in their grooves. Either with a file or a grinder. Usually just the coating on the pad but sometimes even the steel itself if I’ve been stuck using the cheapest pads.

Gotcha. And no I’m not giving any YouTube videos a try. Been there, done that. It takes 30 seconds to scan a write-up. It’s ten minutes of scrolling, getting bored losing focus to watch a video. 0/10 not worth it ever.

Here’s another decent write up that I followed this fall. http://www.buickperformanceclub.com/tiltsteeringcolumnwobble.htm YouTube makes for decent entertainment but repair videos have always been useless to me for actual repairs. Too much info I don’t need obscuring the couple bits I do. I’d much rather have all of it presented at once so I can scan through it and pick out the bits I need without having to sit mindlessly waiting for something.

Yeah if +30°F is cold for you, you may be shocked to find out what temperatures my 2.5 has seen. Cold conditions do tend to make the truck run richer while it’s warming up, which can lead to carbon buildup and dieseling. There’s a chance the thermostat is getting weak and opening early, which would lead to slow warmup times. However, the one spark plug that looked super gross probably isn’t the only thing inside that cylinder that does. Have you had it out on the highway for a nice good long run? Get it good and warm, like an hour at 60+mph? It might take some time to burn off all the buildup in there.

Yeah welding the two together doesn't really work... I tried doing it once by mistake, the aluminum pretty much evaporates if you get it hot enough to melt steel. The biggest problem attaching the two together is galvanic corrosion. Even if you bolt or rivet it the two metals tend to eat each other when they get wet. So you basically need to sandwich something else between them so the two don't come in contact. Even just steel bolts through aluminum parts can be dicey.

Street signs are usually aluminum. Nothing specifically wrong with aluminum floor pans but attaching them to a steel body adds complexity that steel sheet metal doesn’t.

It would kinda depend on your budget I guess. For me personally I know screwing around making panels I’ll be happy with is going to be more time and effort than what price of Key Parts floor panels is worth, even if I’m cutting sections out instead of doing the full pan. But there’s definitely money to be saved by building them yourself. Some people even enjoy building them, acquiring the tools and skills to build them, etc.

2000 Grand Cherokee for the WJ arms. Engine doesn’t matter the control arms are the same. There’s write ups on making them fit in the suspension section here: ZJ tie rod, tie rod ends, drag link. If you’re replacing all the suspension components and wanting to lift it, I’d just lift it now. No sense wasting money on new suspension parts only to rip them off. Any front XJ lift will work. If you’d be happy with a 2” lift, spacers are cheap and 2” is about as high as you want to go on stock length control arms, track bar, and shocks. For 3” you’ll want longer control arms, track bar, and shocks. There’s lots of options for a 3” XJ front kit, just make sure you read reviews. There’s a lot of cheap junk out there. You might be able to save money or get better performance out of piecemealing your own kit together, but if you’re not sure what you want the kits are a great way to go to make sure you’re not forgetting anything. There’s also some decent info in that thread I linked, stuff to give you inspiration, maybe answer some questions.

Forgive me if we already went over this, but you’re not running eight year old gas, are you?

The ZJ pitman arm is the wrong drop for the XJ/MJ. You don’t want to run it unless you’re adjusting your track bar mount by the same amount. The steering linkage is marginally sturdier, and the springs will net you a bit of lift because they’re stiffer. Otherwise it’s all the same components. I guess the ZJ steering box is a quicker ratio as well but that’s not really a strength upgrade. No need to change the power steering pump, unless yours is shot, in which case I would get the correct pump for your engine, probably not a concern but there were mounting changes over the years. If stock length is fine I would go with WJ control arms over the ZJ. The ZJ arms are the same as what you already have. You need to do a touch of grinding to make them fit but they’re the same length but sturdier, give better tire clearance, and have nicer bushings.

I would leave both front wheels on the ground in 2wd and wiggle the driveshaft. Or put it in 4x4 and leave all the wheels on the ground except the passenger front. You want to spin one side and not the other. Rotate the thing back and forth while you’re sliding the collar. Its also possible if you’re only pushing on one side of the collar you might be getting it out of parallel with the splines and binding it up. If the splines are dry it might also help to shoot some penetrating oil in there to lube them.

True, although I was mostly referring to having to reach around stuff with a spot welder.

Not sure if they’re commercially available. There’s a few options on Amazon and eBay but they’re mostly for long reaches, not a long and deep one like you’d need to get around the frame rail. Various tool forums discuss custom making them out of appropriately sized rods with the ends drilled and tapped to screw in standard sized replacement tips. I wonder what an auto body shop would do. Hard to imagine a quick turnaround collision shop would be drilling and plug welding panels in or fully butt welding everything. But I guess you never know.

Creating a vacuum leak allows the engine to run, stopping the leak kills the engine. That’s what you’re suggesting? The solenoid on the passenger side is for cruise control? Maybe? I’m not sure it’s relevant though. Because the engine running with the vacuum leak happening and the dying without the vacuum leak happening seems irrelevant to whether the solenoid is connected to a vacuum source or not. If you hook everything back up and crack the throttle slightly (slight pressure on the gas pedal) when you try to start it, does it stay running until you let go of the gas? If yes, you may need to adjust the ISA. It shouldn’t have been touched, but someone may have done something trying to solve some other issue. There’s a procedure linked a couple times in another active 2.5 thread right now. I’d also be curious what your air filter looks like. Its probably not the case but if its caked up and blocking all air flow it’ll also cause running issues. You’d likely see a collapsed intake tube. Mud, dust, snow, ice, or even heavy or prolonged smoke could plug it easily enough. Adding air via either gas pedal or vacuum leak can also correct for a severe over-fueling problem. Pulling a spark plug and checking for rich operation or raw gas on the plugs would be the diagnostic technique there.

Spot welding isn’t too difficult. Much easier than conventional arc welding. You just have a couple big electrode tongs to stick on either side of your stack and then pull the trigger to fuse everything between the electrodes. But you do need the spot welder, and electrodes big enough to go around everything. You need to reach pretty deep for those inner welds and it’s a weird angle going up the trans tunnel.

What kit did you purchase? Shouldn’t need any new parts to lock it in, but some legit lockout parts might be nice. You may need to rotate the axle shafts to get the splines to line back up. With the transfer case in 2wd you should be able to just rotate the front driveshaft while putting a little pressure on the collar to nudge it back over. If you’ve got the wheel off the ground you can also rotate that end of things if it’s easier than turning the driveshaft.

If you did this with the map sensor line off and a major vacuum leak you’re going to need to do it again after fixing the vacuum leak, no?

You likely need to readjust the idle after putting that line back on. That would’ve been a pretty big vacuum leak getting around the throttle.