gogmorgo

There's a chance something could have come loose, but if it's at low rpm when this happens, that really does point to a power-steering problem. How does it behave when it "locks"? Does it feel like you're running into something (as in the steering wheel stops when you hit a certain point and won't go past it easily but will turn backwards), or can you push through the lock, it's just extremely difficult, as though you were trying to turn the wheel with the engine off?

Sounds like your power steering's on the way out. Probably the pump. Does it happen more often when you're on the brakes or at low rpm? You could just be low on power steering fluid as well.

There should be one vent line each for the trans and t-case?

Nearest Leer dealer is over 200 miles away. I shot them an email about it, I'll see what they come back with. Probably give them a call if I don't hear back within the week. Doing a search for Comanche on custompickups yields only one (well, two, same dimensions but one with one lock, one with two) doors. There's just no guarantee it's for a Leer. The wrecking yard it's at is 60 miles away, and I didn't think to grab the serial number off the cap itself. Might be a couple weeks before I can make it back there.

Never really thought you were particularly north, myself... But Hornbrod can call you as he wishes.

That could work, although with no hinges or frame it could be tricky keeping it in place. Looking on the bright side, custom pickup seems to take CAD$ at par, so it could be much worse I guess. No idea what shipping would be though...

It could easily have crossed their minds, but high-compression engines were probably a longevity (and reputation) issue they didn't want to have to deal with when the typical consumer may not appreciate the need for premium fuel in what they see as a regular old workhorse.

Tsk tsk, making it look like I'm talking to myself...

Pretty sure the entire door is gone, there aren't any hinges or anything on it as far as I can tell. Too bad, $450 is a little bit out of my budget right now. Especially after the exchange rate and the other Canada factors. I was quoted $75 for the cap as is so I might just pick it up next time I'm down there anyhow... Honestly I should probably just buy that MJ outright for all the parts I've pulled off it over the years... Wouldn't surprise me if I'm back for the bed in a year or two either. Would you know if the door is the same as another truck's? There was a Dakota and a couple S10's with caps on them, and a few half-tons I could likely pull from at that yard. Or really anywhere, really.

Does anyone know if replacement parts are available? Specifically there's a Leer cap on a lwb MJ at a local yard that I've been eyeing for the last few years, and they'd sell it to me at a decent price. Trouble is it's missing the rear glass. Looks like someone pulled it, hinges and all. What are the chances it's all universal parts and I could still get a window that fits? I've contacted Leer but with no response yet, although it hasn't been very long.

I pulled it from another MJ, so yes it just dropped in. I don't think there is another that would work in modified. Sorry I can't be much more helpful than that. As far as the light assemblies themselves, the only ones that will fit unmodified are the MJ tails. Completely removing just the one splice shouldn't be too monumental a task. You might need to add a small section of wire in the middle depending on how butchered things got, but really it's just matching and splicing maybe five wires together. In my case the rodent damage was a bigger problem than the hacked-up trailer wiring, and I kinda lucked out finding that harness. There wasn't enough of the corroded wire left at a couple sockets on mine and I was really only trying to find the components. There's a great yard nearby that has a few fairly complete MJ's that haven't really been touched much in the last few years, so I knew I'd be able to find at least something.

The trailer wiring is not a bad place to start, especially if the connection point is wrapped in old nasty electrical tape and the wiring around the sockets and other connections is in decent shape. If all four bulbs are blinking, you've got power to the tail light circuit. Beyond the sockets themselves in the back, the other point where the taillight and turn signal lights come together is at the front turn signal/parking light (the rectangular one below the headlight), which should also have a 2057 bulb in them. Are any of the lights on the front of the truck coming on as well? If not then the issue is most likely isolated to the taillight harness. Another way to check would be to see if you've got power at the connector wire to the tail lights when the turn signal is activated. I believe the tail light wire on your '89 is a blue wire. The super slow blink speed you were noticing before is definitely down to having all the tail lights blinking. If you still have the old flasher it's probably still good if you want to keep it as a spare for once you've sorted out the problem.

Why is it shocking? The base oils are the same, the adaptive package is just formulated for higher wear protection and combustion by-product contamination.

Yeah, I've seen both of those. As a bit of an update I cleaned up the ecu connector and toughened up the bolt. I'm not sure about the coil, but the cap and rotor looked okay. Spark plugs are all good. As a curiosity I hooked up the fuel pressure gauge and it seems to be reading mostly properly, but the needle is all over the place, like an old Chevy mechanical speedometer. Not sure if it's just the gauge (it's three weeks old and I only used it twice before!) or if my pressure is actually jumping up and down by 10psi several times per second... Does that mean anything to anyone? I dug out the '93 ECU but I'm nervous to try it because the part number's different, not sure if it means anything though? I also got underneath and it's hard to say but I think I hear the faint rattle of a broken flex plate. I'll have to pop off the inspection cover when I get a chance. Really don't want to do that one again though...

Is that for just the springs, or a whole kit?

Mine has a small amount of slack in the line and still works great. If it's too tight I imagine it could cause issues with the throttle sticking open.

The three I own have 165, 220, and 310,000 miles on them ('93, '92, and '91 respectively). Might have something to do with it? The one with 310 is sitting on the garage floor because it makes an incredibly loud CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP sound, spontaneously generates glitter in the crankcase, and also had zero oil pressure. Which has a lot to do with it sitting on the garage floor. It's either main bearings or crank walk... when I grab the flex plate and pull it has noticeable movement. Too slight to really tell what direction it's in, but still, no bueno.

Lifter tick? What lifter tick? All of my 4.0's have ticket a bit, probably because of reduced ZDDP oils, but I can't confirm that. But apparently running veg oil in your engine is a thing. According to this, Canola oil has about the same weight as 10W30, although I'm not convinced it comes in multi-viscosity straight out of the seed.

Wow, that was a long rambling post... I be bad at that. Mostly thinking aloud I guess... I hate not being able to do anything about it when it's such a slow night at work.

So for the last thousand or so miles my MJ has been having trouble starting. It cranks over, but it sometimes takes 10-15 seconds of cranking to actually fire, especially when hot. No trouble codes presented themselves, and beyond an inspection of ignition components, I couldn't think of anything except maybe that my 2-week-old (but 5,000 mile) fuel pump is dying and/or the janky hose-clamping to make the stupid Delphi pump fit properly was having problems. I haven't had time yet to go over the ignition components, but the spark plugs are new... although my buddy installed them while I was changing the fuel pumps and while I trust he's competent I never checked his work, but they're just spark plugs after all... On my way to work today, it's starting stumbling under acceleration. My thoughts immediately jumped to the fuel pump again, but I checked codes again and this time pulled up a code 53, PCM fault. So I work until 11:30 pm tonight, so tomorrow morning I'll be checking some stuff out. First is a hard look at the ignition system, which is all unknown because I just left it on the engine when I swapped it in last fall. It's run alright until now. Then I'll make sure the connector for the ECU is clean and tight. Then I'll check the O2 sensor wires (because I did use google just now, but not much came up). Is there anything else I should do? Any other connections I should be looking at? Beyond the fuel pump and spark plugs (and two oil changes in the last month) the only new parts are a JY taillight harness yesterday, which I don't imagine would cause those kinds of problems. The only thread on here I found specifically mentioning code 53 was my own... which brought back a whole wave of memories I'd rather not go through again, but the issue back then was the cracked flexplate, so I'll also be making sure all the bellhousing bolts are tight and taking a peak under the inspection cover. The newer flexplate is still sitting on the old engine in my garage so I can always put that in but really would rather not. That thread also mentions a connection between the CPS and fuel gauge, and my fuel gauge has definitely been acting weird for the last few months. I didn't see anything visually wrong with my sending unit either when I did the pump, but I didn't take the time to put the voltmeter on it and check it out. Basically per the gauge it only fills to 3/4 (this was normal) and then it runs empty very quickly, with the gauge reading zero and the low-fuel light on after about 70-100 miles on the highway. So I'll also test the CPS as well. I've got at least one used one kicking around somewhere I think... Actually thinking about it, I'm pretty sure I pulled the ECU out of the donor XJ before I scrapped it, so it's probably in a box in the basement. Before it comes to flexplates, I'll be giving that one a shot, assuming there are no issues running the '93 ECU in the '91.

Yeah I'm joking. I've always been curious to try it though, just to see what would happen. Also I'm told Lada's engineers didn't actually intend for the oil to also lubricate the exhaust. There are even those who think the oil that ends up there is undesirable... imagine that? For those curious minds, both the Niva and MJ (and probably my XJ too once it gets back on the road) get Rotella 15w40 in the summer and 5w40 in the winter. They conveniently also both will accept the same oil filters, so I've been buying in bulk. Usually it means one change in spring and fall, although I might just go to 5w40 now in the MJ... it's overdue for a change, despite the fact that I've changed it twice in the last month. Something about driving to California and back...

As an FYI about diesel oils, the reason we use them is because they still have high ZDDP (zinc) content which was standard for gasoline oils when our engines were built, but has slowly but significantly been reduced in most gasoline oils. The reason it was phased out is because the small amount that gets into your exhaust will coat the catalytic converter causing premature failure. If that's a problem for you, using regular gasoline oils won't be a huge problem, although you might get 300,000 miles out of your engine instead of 500,000. I personally just go to the local fast food joint and siphon a bit out of the used veg oil container in the back. It's cheap, much more environmentally friendly than either conventional or synthetic oils and makes my truck smell like french fries instead of dead things. :chillin:

I'm sure you already know it, but the dash lights can be dimmed and, uh, brightened, by turning the headlight knob. The rheostats get old and flickery, so that could be why it needs replaced. Take a good look at the connector while you're in there for meltiness.

http://comancheclub.com/topic/11875-renix-factory-service-manual/ That should help you out a fair bit then. I've even found some of the wiring diagrams useful on my '91.

Coolant spill shouldn't affect your lights First thing to check is make sure you've got a good ground. The taillight harness ground is the hex screw behind the driver's side tail light. I wanna say it's an 8mm but don't quote me on that. Second thing to check is to make sure that there's a proper double-filament bulb (either 1157 or 2057) in both the upper and middle taillight sockets. One filament on each is for your tail lights and the other filament on one bulb (can't remember which) is your brake/hazard and the other filament on the other bulb is your turn signal. Also check the front turn signal/parking lamp bulbs. One other thing to check is the condition of your headlight switch and wiring. I'm guessing they're a little melty, which while probably unrelated is still something you should address before it becomes a huge (and I mean set-your-truck-on-fire huge) problem. It's best to upgrade to a relay headlight harness. The old style flashers rely on the load going through them to determine blink speed, which is why they always blink faster when a bulb's out. Blinking slowly means there's a much bigger load, either a short or corroded wires/connections somewhere. An electronic flasher isn't affected by the load, which is why yours "fixed" the blink speed problem... but it only addressed a symptom. You've probably still got some super dim lights somewhere. One other common problem is if you've had trailer wiring added. Trailer lights were not a factory option and usually they were crudely hacked in, which can cause problems. Also just general taillight harness issues. Yesterday I replaced my entire harness with one from a wrecking yard because it was falling apart (trailer wires crudely added then removed! in addition to rodent damage) and it was beyond salvage.