gogmorgo

For the last three summers, I've been buying coffee from the same lady every morning on my way to work. I usually walk to work, but I had a training session today that was a few miles away, so today I took the MJ. The lady was outside setting up their patio when I pulled up. She got all excited about seeing my MJ, because she used to have one just like it. Thanks to some paperwork I got from my MJ, I threw out a name of a previous owner (before the one I got it from). It's her husband. She didn't own an MJ just like mine, she owned MY MJ, Craziness. I suppose everyone wonders about their vehicle's previous owners at some point. Maybe even they want to meet them. I wonder how often it turns out that someone you already knew has owned your vehicle without you realizing it?

So an interesting thing happened today. Every morning for the last four summers, I buy coffee at a local place, so the lady who works there has kinda got to know me. This morning, she was outside setting up their patio stuff when I pulled up. Normally I walk to work, but I had to attend a training session a couple miles away so I drove. She comes in excited about my MJ. She used to have one just like it, she said, and loved it. But she and her husband had a few vehicles, and they needed to get rid of one. Neither were excited about getting rid of the MJ, but it was the oldest and hardest on fuel, so it was the one to go. They sold it to a couple in Brandon (~60 miles away) about five years ago. I bought mine from a couple in Brandon about four years ago. They bought it from someone in this area. I had paperwork with names on it from a few owners back, but no one I asked from here knew who it was. I live in a pretty touristy area, and people come and go all the time, so I hadn't really tried to hard to find them. But I threw out something close to what I remember of the name on the paper. She says "That's my husband!" She told me a couple things that she remembered her husband having done to it. A nice new coat of paint (it's cheap paint, doesn't quite match the original, and they did a piss-poor job of masking), bodywork (most of the bondo has fallen out) and some other stuff, but I was running a little late so I had to rush out. Crazy small world we live in. I've been buying coffee every day for the last three years from one of my MJ's previous owners, and never had a clue. Ridiculous.

That kit would also give you the option of using low-range in 2wd. For whatever that's worth. It's probably less work and definitely cheaper just to permanently lock the CAD, as was suggested. Should be a couple write-ups on here.

I would only use r12a to recharge an older working system. It's not the best refrigerant out there, it just happens to be inert and effective enough to behave well with whatever is already in your system. If you're changing components anyhow, might as well upgrade to a modern refrigerant.

So what you're saying is with the key turned to "accessory" everything works, but when you turn to "on" everything goes out? Or does everything work in "on", but when you start the engine and the key rocks back from "start" to "on", that's when everything loses power? Just trying to clarify.

Yeah, the cam position sensor is in the dizzy. It could also be called the sync sensor, sync pickup, pickup coil, etc. Sync as in synchronization.

Little update... This actually works while the radio is powered off (key on but push power button on radio) so that gets rid of bleeding. Cool. But I'll still have to pull it apart again... Because I still haven't quite readjusted to having over twice the horsepower of the Lada. Took off around a corner from a stop sign at likely around 3/4 throttle as I always did in the Lada. In the Lada, with a combination of <80hp and AWD, this results in comparatively rapid but not overly aggressive acceleration. In the MJ, this results in oppositelock. And with an open manifold (picking up parts to address that tomorrow) I can't hear the wheels spinning and don't realize what's happening until the back end is coming around. Oops. But to the point of the story, my phone flew out of the tray under the glove box, and despite having five feet of aux cord and less than five feet from the cassette slot to anywhere in the MJ, and that I'd dropped the tape deck bracket back in, wrapped the cord around it and taped it down to that as well, it still managed to pull the wire wraps off the pins. So that's annoying.

It's just kinda depressing, coming on here and seeing everyone else having an awesome time with their MJ's, when you know yours is sad and broken and alone under a snowdrift 300 miles away... Although looking back that just drove me harder to fix it before it spent another lonely winter out in the cold with no friends.

What he said. About a month ago I drove my MJ for the first time in sixteen months, after a motor swap that was a loooooong time coming. I'm sure you'll get things handled. Being MJ-less is difficult! Just a heads up.

Just got around to doing this. Couldn't find the female ends for those pins locally, so I just wrapped the wires as tightly as I could and taped them down. My tape deck didn't work so I pulled it to make things easier, and left it out so I can stash my chord there when not in use. It works okay, but the bleeding in of underlying stations (even just static) is super annoying, especially between songs. I think for the small investment I'm going to pick up an FM modulator. If I could find an aftermarket deck with aux-in that matches the aesthetic, I'd go for that, but all the ones I'm finding would look way out of place. Seriously, I can appreciate having a nice stereo in a car, but why the hell does it need cheesy flashing lights, or a massive screen?

I've got a couple years FSAE experience. You'd be surprised at some of the things I've done in the name of weight savings. Like pulling a couple individual cells out of the battery to use, ditching the heavy plastic case and extra cells. Or using cheap switchgear, injectors, basically anything plastic, because the lesser grades of plastic weigh less.

Just went over this is another thread. DON'T THROW OUT MJ PARTS!!!

^That's what I was thinking. Just couldn't be bothered to look up Mexico's code. My Lada's vin starts with X because it was built in Russia. (Just a cool random fact)

That's... interesting. I would expect it to be more of a coincidence than anything else, given there are so many combinations out there. But if they've started building the Journeys at the same plant where they built the MJ's, you would by default have the same first three and 11th digits. Then they ran out of letters and numbers for the year so they're reusing the same letters. That's 5/17 digits. The last six digits are the production line order (more or less) and are predetermined sequentially, so there's always overlap there. That's 11/17 digits. Digits four through eight are the vehicle descriptors, so trim level, body style, trim level, etc. Those five digits get changed so often it doesn't surprise me one combination would get reused by mistake, thirty years down the line after the company changed hands what, four, five times? And with all 16/17 other digits being the same, the 9th digit would also be the same, since it's a check digit for the rest. So a coincidence. Except the Journey is built in Mexico, and the MJ's never were, so the manufacturer codes should be completely different. That's weird. I wonder how many other '86 MJ's are also brand new Journeys?

My MJ had full flaps but is missing the front passenger side and the rear driver's. Really makes you see how useful they are, just in the way dirt, mud, and slush accumulate. Also, the passenger rocker is mostly air now. I see a lot of gravel, and it really makes me want to put the flaps back on... Just need to find a set. I'd be happy with the AMC ones. Sure AMC was no longer around when mine was built, but it's still AMC's baby, not ChryCo's. Jeep's not a bad logo, but I'd hate if they had those fugly Pentastars on them...

Sounds like the torque converter isn't locking up and/or is unlocking. Don't really know how to address that, though. Out of curiosity, how does it behave if you unplug the trans computer and try to shift manually? The trans computer is under the passenger side of the dash, on the back of the small lower panel that runs all the way across, about where the passenger's left knee would be. With it unplugged, you'll need to do your own shifting. Put the shifter in 2-1 for first gear, 3 for third, and D for overdrive. Remember to shift down again on the way back down, and yes, you can't use second gear without the tcu plugged in. P, R, and N should all function normally.

There's another set of holes where the swaybar brackets bolt to the frame. Moving to the front set if you're not using them already should pull your end links away from your springs. Shorter end links as you drop will also be helpful.

I wouldn't call myself that old a member, although I guess it's been about four years. I think the update to this forum was a few weeks or maybe even days after I signed up. I remember being totally confused when the good old BB format I was familiar with (from other forums) was so radically overhauled, and I wasn't even sure I was on the same site any more. I've also run into some of the Yahoo archives while searching for some stuff, and thought it was awesome to see a bunch of familiar names. You guys have been very helpful to me, and because of information on this site and users willing to answer my stupid questions, I've slowly been able to tackle bigger and more complex projects. That experience and confidence in my own ability allowed me to fit right in in my employer's fleet garage this summer when I asked about an open position earlier this year, and I guess I did well enough there to impress the right people, which just last week got me a temporary spot on the project management team which may become permanent next summer. And I'm going to say its thanks in part to you guys. You guys rock. Here's to another ten years! :cheers:

As I understand it, you were trying to convert your Renix MJ to HO with the parts from the 2000 XJ, yes? So once you've got all the stuff swapped over, you need to get the Renix AW4 to work in the MJ that is effectively now a 2000 XJ. Now you've got me confused. How is putting a Renix AW4 into a 2000 XJ different from putting a Renix AW4 into a 2000 XJ?

I'm also going to push towards the NSS. Even if it's not the cause, taking it apart, cleaning, and re-sealing shouldn't take much time and will only make things better. There are a couple good write-ups around. I also just had my MJ do something similar, but that was because my battery's negative post started trying to come out of the battery. Kind of a shame, really, cause the ten-year-old battery was still testing good, even after sitting outside dead and frozen solid all winter. But I doubt that's your problem.

I wouldn't worry about the track bar. Imagine a 4' long bar on the ground. Mark the ground at both ends, pick one end up two inches, and mark the ground straight under the end. The difference in length is how far over your axle shifted. In the case of the 4' bar, doing some quick math, that's about 5/128". That's not an exact track bar length so not your exact axle shift but it's close enough and the example still applies. Don't worry about the track bar unless you plan on getting bigger.

http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1053970 Lots more info there than you probably want, but it should address your concerns.

This isn't what mine looks though so not really what I meant... I guess the column shift ones are different? Glad to know I could help, though.

Even with the horn pin, there's still some adjustability in steering wheel position, although it's less than a quarter turn of the wheel. You could extend or re-drill the hole in the steering lock plate to re-clock the horn pin, maybe?

On our FSAE car (~600 lbs with driver) we were using coilovers that were originally intended for a the rear of a mountain bike, just one at each corner of the car instead of one at the back wheel of the bike. Don't really know how heavy your rig is going to end up being, so mountain bike springs may not be enough... they also only have a couple inches of travel, don't know if that's enough. You could also look at quads for other spring ideas. Of course going with coils would mean you'd have to set up control arms instead of just leaf springs. You could also try taking a leaf out of the 300lb spring packs... or acknowledge that it's the coolest toy he's ever had and he likely won't care if it rides a little stiff.