gogmorgo

Would that be any sort of advantage or just another potential source for it?

I would just rebuild the whole thing, the seal kits are pretty cheap, you can get kits with bearings as well. Lots of how-tos online for rebuilding a Saginaw steering gearbox. They’re not too bad to do. There’s just a few fiddly bits. Don’t lose the balls out of it, count them when they come out and as they go back in. If it’s missing one it’s going to cause problems. If you can get a plastic tray or something under it to catch them when it comes to that part it’ll help you out.

I see the odd ad for a newer imported Lada. There’s a couple guys in the Lada groups on Facebook that will arrange an import as well for you, they’ll fill a few containers with cars and parts a few times per year, although I don’t know of any specific dealers that specialize or anything. I was actually kinda wondering about the process again recently, I’ve started getting interested in the Chevrolet Niva, which is a weird joint venture with GM for a second-gen Niva, a more modern body with the original mechanical bits underneath, although I doubt that I’ll have the money to do it any time soon. I’ve got a couple new cv shafts sitting around but no driveshafts. I bought them because the original cvs have boot shield things that are damaged on mine and I thought I’d need them for an inspection. Then I moved back to Manitoba and don’t need to pass an inspection anymore. But otherwise most of the parts I have are either things I need that I haven’t got around to installing or else old broken stuff that came off that I didn’t throw away because I’m a bit of a hoarder. Someone posted up this weekend in one of the Facebook groups that there’s a Niva in the Buck’s yard in Regina. Don’t know how much of it will be left, there was a fair bit missing already. Ital Motors in Edmonton carries a fair bit and has their own little salvage operation as well, I bought quite a bit of stuff from them for my Samara a few years back, including glass. They’re generally willing to ship stuff. Otherwise most of the stuff I need I’ve ordered from Ladapower.com. His inventory is a little patchy right now but it’s improving as he rebuilds his supply chain. He recently relocated his operation from Ukraine to Estonia because… well, reasons. Just be aware that you may get hit with 35% tarriffs or whatever it is now on any Russian manufactured goods you import. Plus GST and PST. There’s a handful of other online stores in Europe, Ladapower has some good parts manuals and you can find most things by googling the part number you’re looking for even if Ladapower doesn’t have it in stock. I also had a friend hook me up with a dealer in Sofia, Bulgaria, when she was there a few years back and getting parts from Ukraine was looking problematic, although I never ended up buying anything from him because Ladapower reopened in Estonia just after.

Thanks for that. I’ve been on their site a couple times but haven’t bought anything from them yet. It’s definitely nice they give you the Canada Post option, that’s by far my preference. Most courriers are finding my address by now but it’s just a pain to deal with them if there’s a hiccup when their depots are over an hour’s drive away. I ordered a bunch of Crown parts from ShopEddies.ca recently and they were decent. Other than not telling me they were shipping stuff from multiple locations which caused confusion when the first and second package showed up on the same day from different courriers missing stuff, and the third package wasn’t until a couple days later. But I ordered in the evening and the one thing they didn’t have they emailed me about the next morning, and cancelled and refunded it right away when I asked. I’m getting wary of “free shipping” now, nothing is consistent there, and it can be problematic. I’d much rather see options and be able to choose, and I’m happy to pay a little more for the convenience of going to the post office to pick stuff up instead of it getting buried in snow on my front porch.

I just put in an order with Rockauto, and was reminded of why they've been my go-to for the last, well... forever really. Order placed at 12:29pm, at 3:23pm I get an email with the shipping label. I don't know if that means the box is packed already or not, but that's under three hours on a Saturday, no less. Should be here by Friday, and their delivery estimates have always been pretty accurate. And in over ten years of buying from them I've only had to talk to customer service once, and that was nine years ago. Very refreshing. This after fighting for a month with a retailer who didn't have the things I ordered in stock, took three weeks of back and forth to actually cancel the order, another two weeks to give me any money back, and then shorted me on the refund. Got an email this morning telling me I'm basically SOL on getting the rest back. This one's going to my credit card company Monday morning, I've been waaaay too patient with them. Ironically after every interaction with customer service they invite me to leave a google review, so I did. Then I looked at some of the other recent reviews and there were far too many saying they had to go to their credit card to get any traction. So I guess... look at external reviews before you buy something from somewhere new.

The "intermittent brain box" plugs in between the switch and vehicle harness. I don't know if there's anything there on a non-intermittent truck, never really looked for it on mine. As to the motors, the aftermarket parts breakdown have one part number for '84 to '90, one for '90-'99, and then '00 and '01. Similar part numbers between different brands suggest they're the same motors regardless of the box they come in. I suppose it's possible the difference between a -'90 and '91+ is more than plug deep, but that really didn't look to be the case for my '91 vs the '01. I don't know if the aftermarket would necessarily be a perfect replica of the OE motors either. I guess what I'm saying is I'm open to the idea I'm missing some key fact that does differentiate the motor performance, but from what I've seen it really doesn't look like I am. I did pick up some '97+ wiper arms to go on the truck so I can use J-hook wiper blades instead of the side pin... thing. Not as hard to track down blades to fit the two different bayonets my Ladas use that also have been converted or will soon be, but it's nice to just be able to grab a wiper blade at a gas station if the need so arises. The '97+ wiper arm is a very definite upgrade that is very much worth doing.

I think the wire will be plugged into the same place eventually. There’s a separate little connector harness that runs along the side of the transmission down to the tcase. I spent a while tracking it down before realizing I just needed to plug stuff in that was already there. But I swapped an AW4 and 242 in together, didn’t do the swap separately. I don’t remember if the harness runs back with the vacuum lines to the tcase or if it branches off and goes direct to the spot on the firewall. But if the light’s on constant due to a short before you get to the switch, it’ll stay on constant unless you accidentally knock the shorted spot away from ground while you’re in there.

Yeah. My ‘91’s the same. I’m not 100% on when the change was, if it was with the knuckle change or not. It would be advantageous because then the 4x4 light wouldn’t work if there’s a vacuum leak and the CAD never engages. I’m not sure how the older style is set up vacuum-wise, if it would do the same if there wasn’t enough vacuum available to the CAD. When I swapped to the 242 I plugged the electrical switch that was on it into the truck’s harness, somewhere up on the passenger side firewall. I’m pretty sure it was the same place this harness runs back to. I don’t know how the switch operates internally on the tcase, I would ASSume you can just pull the vacuum valves out and put the electric switch directly in its place but I’ve never investigated to find out. Is there any way you can fix the fork in place and let the CAD shaft slide back and forth through it? Drill out the hole in the fork and stack some washers or some other spacer on the shaft to hold it in the right place? You’d need to fix the wiring and also the CAD vacuum lines to keep it operational though, which I think defeats the point of what you’re doing here.

And what monster doesn’t put the tails on the inside of the panel?

If you’re still running the closed system that’s probably fine. Keep an eye on it just to make sure it stays full, in case there’s any air in the system that works it’s way through. If you’ve had an open conversion make sure the pressurized side is still full. It’s possible to have a small leak you’d overlook and have the level drop in the system without changing the level in the overflow. It could push pressure out the leak and then suck air back in instead, and you’d never know just looking at the overflow.

Not really. Any 50/50 blend of the old fashioned toxic green ethylene glycol coolant will do the job. The universal premix is okay if you don’t want to mix it yourself. I personally will buy name brand concentrated coolant for better anticorrosion and wear properties, and spend money on deionized water, again for corrosion, and mix it roughly 2:1, to give myself extra low-temperature performance. It’s a little overkill even for around here but mixing it rich like that will give me a little extra freeze resistance, but at the cost of reduced heat capacity, which has been noticeable in warmer weather. Running deionized water is probably overkill as well. Distilled would be fine. Honestly even tap water if it’s reasonably soft. I won’t lie and pretend I’ve never topped up with river water strained through a t-shirt in a pinch, flushed and replaced at earliest opportunity of course. But I started running deionized when I had a steady free supply of it and when I changed my ZJ’s original water pump at 200,000 miles it still looked brand new. Even the inside of the block was shiney bare-metal clean. I was only changing it because the bearing was shot. So I figured I should keep doing what I had been doing.

Putting in a stock 195 thermostat will bring your heater temperature up quite a bit. Around here I’ve even known people to put in a 205 for even more heat, although I think that’s overkill. Even at -40 I’ve rarely ever had my temp slider much past half, maybe 3/4 at the most. I don’t do the old-man trick of blocking the radiator either. Other basic maintenance stuff like making sure the coolant is topped up will help. It’s also worth making sure the blend door is operating correctly, opening all the way. Also that the heater valve is working.

Poor man’s load test would need done with a heavy load on the battery, like cranking the engine. But if it’s not throwing the starter solenoid far enough due to low voltage you would see the voltage take a dive as you do that. Could this be an ignition switch issue, might just need adjustment? Push starting says manual trans so there’s no neutral safety switch in the circuit. Did you check for starter signal at the relay or solenoid? Kicking the bottom of the fuel tank change anything when the pump won’t run?

Have you load tested the battery? That is an odd one. Definitely shouldn’t be cold enough to cause problems. (Hasn’t been that warm here since September, lol) Makes me wonder if there’s maybe a humidity component or something. Maybe a loose or corroded connection or something in a shared circuit between fuel pump and starter circuits. And six years is getting up there… But even a weak battery, if it’s got enough charge to crank the engine over you’d think it would also be able to run the fuel pump.

That’s my response to most American “thanksgiving” traditions if I’m honest. Celebrating harvest a month after it’s over and just gets more confusing from there on in.

Headlight switch melting is going to be your fuse blowing issue. Make sure the pigtail hasn’t also melted. You’re lucky it only melted, mine set itself on fire. As to the original complaint, does your engine builder spec an octane rating for your fuel, and have you tried running mid grade or premium? A stroker build will generally increase your compression ratio, which often will dictate a higher octane rating. If it’s the first long trip you may be encountering some heat soak issues you wouldn’t see just doing shorter runs. Have you pulled spark plugs to see what they look like? It’ll give you some indication of how the engine’s running. Gasket is cheap and just as easy to replace as it is to look at. High probability you’ll damage it pulling the manifolds off. An exhaust leak will leave an obvious black stain and be an indication of an intake leak cause it’s the same gasket. Dribble some water over the manifold/head interface with it running, if the idle goes normal for a few seconds that’s the water plugging up a leak as it’s getting pulled through. Safer than spraying something flammable onto a running engine.

There’s an easy enough way to put a 4x4 trans into a 2wd. Leave the tcase on it, make sure it’s in 2wd and leave the tcase shifter off. It’s a little more weight to lug around, and you’ll still need a different rear driveshaft, which will almost definitely cost you more than a slave cylinder. Depending on what else is still good on the XJ you can always just keep swapping over 4x4 parts until the MJ has functional 4x4 as well. I’m real good at making small repairs turn into massive upgrade projects 😬

The light comes on with a switched ground. So if your light is on constant it’s very possible the wire rubbed through and is touching metal somewhere.

Gravel sounds a lot like a road to me. I’ve even seen it referred to as pavement. Tt’s just very small paving stones. But I appreciate the thread bump I guess. Was just wondering when it might be appropriate to do my own bump. I don’t have much info on a potential shorter link. I don’t know if there’s any sort of real database on lengths anywhere. It would be nice to be able to go walk around a junk yard and measure stuff to find something but there aren’t any yards nearby to me that’ll let a guy in to do that anymore. I’ve seen references to ZJ or TJ links being longer. But I’m not sure about that, and that won’t help you much. And for what its worth I’ve got a Napa 18162 that I got for my ZJ. Napa says it’s 8-1/4” but according to my tape measure what they’re measuring is the bottom of the bushing sleeve to the end of the threaded portion, which seems incorrect for a measurement of a suspension link. And while I was on their site anyhow, Napa quotes TJ links at 9.46”, and ‘97 ZJ links at only 7.55”. The 18162 is only listed for ‘93 to ‘95 ZJs I guess. After having driven my stock height MJ on the road with broken sway bar links I don’t think I would ever do it on purpose. Felt like a stiff crosswind was enough to tip it over. It is possible to engineer your suspension in a way that it doesn’t overly need a sway bar. Something about the relationship between roll centre and centre of mass. I don’t know enough about it but I suspect it would take more than a little work. Easier to make some custom sway bar links IMO. Which I think is what I’ll end up doing for my lift. It’s easy enough to add or remove a chunk of rod in the middle of it. But to a later link with a ball joint in it I think, not to the originals.

This is out of my ‘91. Don’t know what to call it but it looks pretty generic. I’m sure I’ve seen it in a lot of Chrysler interiors. No weatherproofing at all. I can grab photos of the male end in daylight.