gogmorgo

Throw a new set of spark plugs in there. If you've never checked it probably needs them.

Yup. And if the drone behind the counter tells you it doesn't exist, tell them to bug the commercial guys. There will be tens if not hundreds in stock at every parts store, as they buy them in bulk for like 10¢/each if that.

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/when-your-model-t-outflexes-a-rubicon-1771545154 Well, there are the grid roads out here too, none of them are paved with anything but gravel, but they're all perfectly straight and nothing more challenging than a soft spot here or there unless the road has been completely washed away by spring flooding. Anywhere my MJ can get through woudn't be very challenging for a Neon, either.

Totally saw that model T on Oppo today. They're ridiculously backwards and I would never own one, but old junk (especially when in great shape) is so much cooler than new stuff. I wish there was a little more opportunity for overlanding up here. All the vast tracts of wilderness that aren't full-on boreal forest have been turned into crop land, and there isn't enough traffic to keep the tracks through the forest open, so for a near-stock vehicle they're pretty near impassible swamp all summer and completely impassible in the winter because of the snow.

The nature of a u-joint is that when it's at an angle, the driven end will accelerate and decelerate as it goes around, even with the driving end at a constant speed. Fortunately it also works backwards, so using a second ujoint at the opposite angle will cancel out the change in speed and produce a constant speed at the other end of the driveshaft, so long as the second joint is a perfect mirror of the first. That's "in phase", the "yes" in Hornbrod's pic. Any other position of the two joints relative to each other is "out of phase". In Hornbrod's pic, the "no" is a common error, the u-joints are identical but positioned identically, not mirrored to the other. This will amplify the accel/decel of the rotation of the end of the shaft (in this case the axle's pinion gear) producing... I'll call it sub-optimal power delivery to the wheels.

I've got the dash harness from a '93 in my basement, with labelled ends. I'll see if I can get something up tonight after work if no one else has by then.

Which engine, trans, etc? If a 4.0 auto, that's the symptoms of a bad neutral safety switch. If you also have no/intermittent reverse lights, coupled with a no-crank that's a pretty good indication of a bad NSS. Try shifting back and forth to neutral, try starting in neutral, for a bit. If that doesn't work, leave it in park, turn the key on, and short the starter solenoid. Should crank over and fire up. If that is the case, the bad news is a new NSS is going to be well over $100. The good news is it probably only needs a good cleaning. Its a super easy job, only requires basic tools, and shouldn't take more than a half-hour. When I did mine I packed it full if dielectric grease and then ran a bead of silicon around the outside to hopefully seal it up a bit better. Here's a great write-up: http://bc4x4.com/tech/2010/jeep-neutral-safety-switch-nss/

Unless your vehicle is tuned for the higher-octane fuel, if there's a noticeable difference in performance from one grade of fuel to the next, stop going to that gas station. While it is typical to have higher-quality additives in the higher-octane fuel, it's by no means a rule, and just getting the higher-octane stuff at the local no-name discount gas station is only going to have the benefit of the higher anti-knock rating. Annecdote time: I borrowed my dad's ancient Chevy van a few summers ago. He insisted on always running premium fuel in it because it ran noticeable better, even to the point of carrying around octane boosters to use when premium fuel wasn't available. When I got it, I ran a couple tanks of premium through it, decided I was using too much gas as it was to pay the extra 10% for premium, and switched back to regular. It ran like complete $#!&. I thought what the hell, it's just a 305, nothing fancy, and pulled a spark plug. Absolutely caked in carbon. The premium fuel was doing it's job and not getting ignited by all the soot left burning in the cylinders, but the regular fuel was igniting, and pinging like crazy because of if. I threw new plugs, wires, cap and rotor at it, drove it a bit harder (i.e. actually used more than the first quarter of the throttle travel... my dad drives like a grandma) and after a couple weeks the carbon had mostly burnt off, and despite driving much more aggressively than my dad, I noticed a 2-3mpg improvement, which is significant when you've only been averaging 10-12. I also noticed a decrease in backfires which might have more to do with the cleaner motor than anything else, but which I'll still attribute to more of the regular fuel igniting within the cylinder. So yeah.

I have no idea where the weights quoted by AMC/ChryCo come from, but they're all way light. Mine came in around 3800lbs completely stock. Weighed in at 4200 lbs with me and some tools and stuff in it.

10' of flex hose? Seems like a bit much... I can understand that costing quite a bit.

Huh. That's very different from the 4.0 rad mounting, but it does seem similar to what's in the bottom of it. I'll still have a look.

You can use whatever you want as a material if you do the engineering and put your own stamp on it... Any material that will support even the slightest load more than its own weight can be used for any structural element if you throw enough of it at the problem. Join them properly and you could make an effective roll cage out of logs if you wanted. Doesn't make it a great idea, but it'll work. Sure, going down to your local hardware store and picking up some water pipe can work, but it's not going to be the best choice for anything that you're relying on for structure. I've also made bushings and other stuff from sch40 water pipe... Toss it in a lathe and you just chew right through it cause it's so soft. For a bumper or a slider it may be less critical than for a roll cage, but you'll end up with a much heavier product that won't do the same job as well.

When I get home I'll see if I still have one in my parts XJ. No guarantees though, I think I stole them already for my MJ. I had to reuse them when I put the spectra in and they weren't in perfect shape after 300,000 miles in the MJ.

Sometimes Facebook can be funky. The "get link" function doesn't always seem to work out on here. I've found that just right-clicking and choosing "copy image address" is more reliable. Also you need to have the photo and any album it's in completely public or else it won't work no matter what you do.

That would be true, although unless you want to run mismatched wheels front/rear, they'll make the front stick out negating the aesthetic advantage of the offset.

Pipe is only intended to support it's own weight, the weight of the contents, and a certain amount of internal pressure. It's generally pretty soft (makes for easy threading) and while it can support some load, it's not the best for something structural.

I think I remember that now as well. I also remember that the studs for the top mounts were painted over or powder coated or something, and I had to run a tap over them before I could get a nut on. Just something to be aware of and check before you buy, in case you won't have a set of metric taps handy. I think they were metric at least. It was over two years ago so there's no way I could remember the exact size.

The ZJ box also has a quicker ratio.

Plugging them will prevent creepy-crawlers from getting in? Dust and water acclimating and corroding it? You could turn it into a motor oil or power-steering cooler? I don't think it matters much.

Yeah, specialty shops seem to be drying up. Everyone just either takes their cars back to the dealer that sold it or else the bottom-dollar mechanic of their choice when anything comes up it seems. I'm also running a Spectra rad in my '91 4.0. Plastic tanks and aluminum body. There are mixed reviews of their quality online, but I once froze mine solidly enough I blew hoses off (after grabbing the wrong bottle in the dark) and the rad was fine. Still no leaks, no overheating, almost 15,000 miles later. I have no knowledge of the Napa brand one, so I can say anything about it, although my experience is they usually only put their name on parts of reasonable quality. :dunno:

Yeah, I was ASSuming people were swapping sending units...

Get a long bit of gas hose and hook it up to the fuel pump outlet before pulling the sending unit, or else pop the fuel line off at the filter. Stick the end into a gas can or another vehicle. Then pull the fuel pump relay and jumper across to get the pump going. Stop when gas stops flowing, or you run out of gas cans.

Vans are awful on gas. Sooo much drag with that big flat rear end. Any van I've looked into has always got three-quarters to half the mpg of trucks with the same engine.

If you just put a single-piece shaft into the CAD housing, you'll end up with a lovely spray of gear oil all over your passenger-side wheel well. Unless you pop open the diff and put in the one-piece axle seal. It's not the end of the world, I've been running a one-piece shaft with two-piece seals for years, just keeping an eye on the oil level. But likely not a great idea if you do much in mud/water.

Yeah. 32x9.5 might be getting a little too pizza-cuttery for me, partly why I'm not hugely keen on the 33x10.5's. As to wheel choice, I only have the D-windows or whatever they're properly called, but I haven't seen anything I like better yet. Not even the turbines or Eliminator wheels. Maybe the ZJ snowflake wheels, but those are still a 15x7 as well.