gogmorgo

For the TL/DR folks, you might want to skip this. It's not so much an update as a bunch of wishful thinking. And to kinda organize my thoughts and this seemed like a decent place to do that. Also if anyone actually suffers all the way through to the end, your comments, concerns, and ideas would be appreciated. Well, the rusted and poorly cobbled exhaust fell off the Lada yesterday, and as I was piecing a new section of pipe together today I got to thinking about all the stuff the MJ needs in order to get it going for next summer such that I might have a chance to bring it to (one of) the club pow-wow(s). Don't know the likelihood of me having it ready on time, or even that I'd be willing to put in the massive drive, or have time or funds for it. But I'm more likely to go if I put time and effort into it, right? Powertrain: First and foremost the engine issue. It basically needs a new one. For originality's sake I'd like to hang onto the original block and rebuild that, although for madness's sake I'd prefer to build myself a nice supercharged stroker... but that's too big a project for the time at hand. Shouldn't be too hard to find a decent running used 4.0 of similar vintage (but for God's sake not mileage!) to swap in. This is preferable to rebuilding because I don't know what's wrong with my motor beyond a fairly strong suspicion that it's crankshaft-related which means new bearings and at the least machining. I'd also be more confident in the durability of the motor, given that I've only ever assisted with the rebuilding of one motor which only ran long enough to grenade itself. (In fairness, that was due to modifications someone else planned without making sure everything fit first... brand new shiny valves met brand new shiny pistons and brand new shiny re-sleeved and re-centered cylinders...) So that's a used engine for me, then. But then there's finding one... which might be a bit of a road trip in and of itself. The transmission seems to be doing alright, so long as I can keep fluid in it. I haven't been able to get a decent seal on the quick connectors since I pulled the transmission to change the flexplate. I'm looking at swapping the hard-lines out to AN- braided line. If I were to to my supercharged stroker dream, I'd need to get some beef into the AW4, though. Don't know if upgrade parts, i.e. higher-pressure pump, higher-friction clutches, etc, are available, but then again I haven't really looked. The whole engine thing kinda has me a little depressed right now. T-case: ain't nothing wrong with it, so far as I can tell. I suspect it would also need more beef if I add some fast sauce. Driveshafts: probably should have u-joints swapped, although they may only have 30,000 miles on them. I'd have to check. Might need resizing depending on what all happens under the hood. But will do for now. Axles: not in the greatest shape. They've both got a bit of slop in the gears, but no noticeable metal shavings when I changed the oil. I'm assuming they're both all original in the pumpkin for reasonability's sake (yes, I made up that word, so sue me) and I'm guessing 310,000 miles is probably a lot for a D35 behind a 4.0. I'd like to swap in something with a little more beef, but I might hold off on that for now. The D30 also needs something done. None of the seals are any good, it leaks just sitting. Mostly this is cause I have a single-piece axle in a disconnect housing (the disconnect still works great) and I never bothered putting in the proper seal and have just been keeping an eye on the fluid level. Also, the engine did a turn for the worse shortly after I noticed the other side was also leaking, and so I never got around to changing that one either. So I'd like to go to a non-cad housing out of an XJ. Suspension: I finally found the source of the mysterious clunking noise! The sway bar end hits on the passenger side coil! Well, I found that out a long time ago. I now know the cause. The bottom coil on the passenger side spring was broken off, and it's been that way since I bought it from the sound of it... the sway bar and coil have been connecting on every single bump. So the coil wasn't retained any more at the bottom end, and it had moved off its pad somewhat. Scary thought... I've had the MJ airborne a couple times by mistake... driving too quickly down gravel roads + train tracks + being slightly lost and slightly panicking cause it's getting dark = wings. So new coils to match whatever ends up happening in the back. In addition, my lower control arms are both a little kinked, as though they were dropped on a rock or something. Probably my fault. But they need replaced, so likely WJ arms for extra tire clearance. My 235/75/15's rub on the lca's anyhow. I would have adjusted the steering stops, but some dip$#!& in the MJ's earlier life kindly did an excellent job of welding them in place. So new knuckles are in order, which means WJ big brake upgrade? Maybe? Don't know if they'll fit inside my wheels yet. Also should get new shocks, although they're holding up fairly well. If I'm replacing lower control arms, there's no sense not doing the tops as well. Rear springs are shot, as are the shocks. The driver's side is saggy even with a helper spring shock thing. Still looking at picking up a pair of the General Spring mil-wraps. Probably could replace the shackles, but don't know if that's necessary. Steering: Seems tight, but you never know. Haven't really gone over it, ever. Probably should do that. The gearbox crunches a bunch when it's cold out (-40 sucked all around... it was like driving through glue with a steering box full of marbles) so it should be replaced. Looking for a ZJ quick-ratio box because awesome. Brakes: Er... yeah. The fronts work well enough, but the rears don't really at all. At first I assumed it was because the load-sensing valve was disconnected from the axle and the bar was dangling, but when I tied up the bar to horizontal, the brakes were reasonable the first time I drove it, but after being parked for a couple days they stuck themselves on, bad. Really bad. Like can't even move bad. I smacked the wheels with a rubber mallet a bunch and they eventually let go, but then the bar went back to dangling and that was the last I did with the rear brakes. The front brakes work well enough to get me by, although panic stops from anything above 75 don't feel very panicked. So that's something that should be done. If I do swap out the rear axle, I'll likely go with what's on it. If I do go to the WJ big brakes, I might see about swapping the stuff from the front onto the rear to convert it to discs. I'll probably do the WJ master-cylinder upgrade either way. Nothing wrong with my master cylinder, although I stole the vacuum line and gromet to fix a vacuum leak on the Lada, and just realized I never got around to plugging the hole or anything. Oops. Don't know what she'll be like after sitting open like that for so long. Exterior: Need (want) new bumpers, front and rear. I picked up an only slightly dinged up rear bumper about a month ago at a junk yard to replace my rotten piece of rust. Never got it installed though because I had to cut off some gussets that a PO wisely(?) welded on, and I got lazy. The front bumper is beat up from a hit-and-run about a year ago. Looks like I took a hitch into the driver's side corner. I got it mostly back into shape with a press and some blocks of wood, but it's still not pretty. Shouldn't be too hard to find a front bumper, though. The mirrors are shaky. They're the "fold in" kind, and the mounts are cracked. They don't fall off or anything, but they vibrate and that aggravates me. Don't like the look of the newer XJ mirrors, despite the extra size, so if I do replace them it'll be with stock ones. The rockers are the transparent light-weight redneck models, and there's a bit of bubbling on the bed, but rust repairs aren't all that urgent compared to other things right now. It would still be nice to get it done, though. The windshield has the typical cold-outside-and-blowing-max-heat-at-windshield crack from a previous owner, and I'm not convinced the rear slider is sealing so well, but should be fine for now. The fuel tank isn't solid, and likes to dribble. Tried to replace it once and that turned into a fiasco, since my Dad wanted to get me one for Christmas but he refused to buy it online, although was almost planning on driving to RockAuto's HQ in Wisconsin until I reminded him how Internet stores work. He's what Eagle would call an Olde Pharte. His idea was to talk to the bumbling idiots at the local farm supply co-op (okay, they're not bumbling idiots when they're doing farm stuff) who work with another branch of the co-op that has a Napa attached thirty miles away. Somehow between the three, Santa brought me a $350 XJ tank. My Dad took it back, but I didn't get a Christmas present from my parents that year. :( But blah-bla-blah-bla-blah, I need a new one. That'll likely happen, since there's constant wet patch on the side of the tank and a bad gas smell all the time. The spare tire winch didn't work. I recently pulled it off and apart, cleaned a bunch of dirt and rust out of it, and packed it with my favourite blue grease. I'll still need to bolt it back on, but now I won't have to keep a tire kicking around it the bed. Woot. Interior? The radio works as do all the gauges. Seats are comfy, so the rest is meh. New stereo would be nice but unnecessary. So yeah. The MJ is in pretty sorry shape, all things considered. But then, it does have 498,000 km onto it. It's going to be a major undertaking to get everything taken care of before the summer. Fortunately the place I just moved into has a heated garage that goes mostly unused and my roommates don't care if I keep a vehicle in there in pieces, so that's awesome. Mostly why I chose the place, to be honest. Trick is, though, that the MJ is at my parents' place not only 300 miles away but in another province, and the way it's registered/insured right now, it's not allowed to leave said province. So that's going to take some brain crunching. Or a trip down to the Autopac place to cancel stuff and just have it uninsured here... shouldn't be too big an issue. [scrolls back up... wow thats a long post for not actually an update...] TL/DR My mj has much problematica. [that's too long to proofread. I'll catch any mistakes the next time I'm back. Clicks post.]

Sometimes I wonder how someone expects to sell a vehicle they've repaired. restored, or modified themselves when their attention to detail is made obvious by the terrible ad...

Yup, sticker's still good. If it's still got the emissions sticker under the hood, it'll say 1990 as well. The new model years typically start production around June or July of the previous calender year, sometimes earlier or later depending on the manufacturer, model, and year in question. That way they can have the new vehicles in showrooms before August/September when they start selling them. Why that's done? I don't really know. Might have something to do with old habits and harvest time (money's in, work has slowed down), or people getting ready for winter, or possibly the back-to-school rush... no idea. Maybe the engineers like to go for summer holidays, so they make sure everything's ready for production before they leave? :dunno:

Not to trying to be rude, but from the vin (10th digit L) it's a 1990 model year, very early build, though. Still, great looking truck, at least from what I can see of it on my phone. It's really cool to see MJ's on other continents.

I'm definitely interested... Thing is it's a long @$$ drive from where I live to anywhere. 22 hours non-stop to Moab. I like the north-west states, but frankly the east pow-wow isn't any further for me than points west. I can't really commit yet, either, being that I don't have a running MJ.

Miraculously my owner's manual just turned up... on my teenage sister's bookshelf of all places. Bit late, but the oil spec it gives is API SERVICE SG or SG/CD. FWIW it also says 10W-30 for a temperature range above 0F/-18C and for 5W-30 below 60F/16C.

Resistors do get hot... they reduce voltage by turning electricity into heat. When you replaced your exhaust, what did you do with your o2 sensor? They're quite easily damaged is what I'm getting at. Also, I understand that they "breath" through the connector in some way, so if you wrapped the wires in some way, you could be interfering. But a vacuum leak or something is more likely than a bad O2 imo.

You shouldn't have any issues bolting it up. It's a pretty common mod. There is a chance you might have pressure issues being that you've got a 2.5 setup, but I say that because I don't know how it compares to the 4.0. But it's a fairly common upgrade, and there's lots of stuff about it. It'll mean less turns of the steering wheel to go from lock to lock, which is always a good thing. Also, I'm pretty sure that for the quick ratio, you need one for a V8 ZJ, although some sources say that all ZJ boxes are the same. At any rate, you're looking for the 12.7:1. I believe the stock xj/mj power steering box is 14:1, and the manuals are anywhere from 16-20:1.

Two bolts for the starter, both in different directions. One threads into the bellhousing, the other into the starter. Only one of them is metric.

Get a zj quick-ratio steering gearbox if you can. You'll definitely appreciate it.

Okay, so it's actually several trips, but I saw this on Jalopnik today, thought I'd share. I've always kinda wanted to do something like this, and hopefully I get the opportunity, although it's unlikely I'll ever be able to do so to quite the same extent. At any rate, this guy took a Mercedes G-wagon to 179 countries. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_8703/index.html

I also have a Lada Niva. So yes, I also mess around with other kinds of garbage... Dilbert's gotta be my favourite comic strip, and I remember this strip from last year. I laughed just as hard back then.

Donelly's a pro. Wouldn't even have noticed he fell if you weren't watching. Go 'Nucks!

If stock height will fit 32's (and you're limited by rubbing lower control arms in the front) why wouldn's 35's fit with a 3" lift?

Lots of older guys recommend it. It may not work as well as something like seafoam, but it won't hurt. My sister once ran about three quarts of atf in my dad's old oil-burning chev, just grabbed the wrong jug in the dark. Motor didn't really care.

I think you should be looking at the interior and/or cargo space of the MJ, not the overall dimensions. :rotf:

Use this button: And when the box pops up, put in the "direct link (email and I'm)" that imgur gives you when you upload.

If you change the privacy settings, you can make the video "unlisted", which means only someone with the direct link can do anything with it. It can still be embedded in the forum, but it won't show up in searches on Youtube or Google.

:dunno: Didn't know it was that rare. It was on an XJ. Maybe it's cause I've got an MJ, but in my mind XJ ≠ rare. It's probably still there. I'm pretty sure the XJ in question was also sitting on a Dana 44 and had the fluid sentinel. Looked like all the boxes were ticked.

Ok, maybe I'm wrong about plasti-dip. The only experience I have is a guy who "painted" his Civic. It held up for a bit but started cracking, tearing, and peeling with winter and the sand/gravel on the roads. Don't know how or even if he prepped, though, or how many coats he used. This 21-slot grill was also available: (It's upside-down in this pic.)

I think plasti-dip on the grill would get scarred up by stuff thrown from the car ahead. It's definitely temporary. The only non xj/mj grill that will fit is off the compact wagoneer, which is still an xj. They changed the grills a few times, so be aware.

You may get lucky with the build sheets contacting Jeep directly (contact info's on their website) or else at a friendly dealer.

When I dropped my AW4 back in March, I found it helpful for getting at those bolts to do them first, lowering the back end of the tranny (and tipping the engine backwards on the motor mounts) after taking out the crossmember. That way you can get a socket and extension on them under the trans tunnel. Then tip it back up to reduce stress on the motor mounts, and do the other two bolts. Also, I was quite irked. I hunted around quite a bit for an E12 socket, and when I got there I discovered that the last guy had already swapped them out...

Google zip-tie wire separators.

Switching to a higher weight oil might be helpful. If you just paste the url of a youtube video directly into the reply box (don't format it at all) the forum will embed it in your post.