gogmorgo

If he told you where he sent it, it’s worth checking with them to see whether or not it made it to the crusher yet.

Have you confirmed the reading on the gauge with a mechanical gauge?

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f51/dash-removal-35444/ This might help you out.

Get under the truck, anything that pivots, give it a shake. It can also be helpful to have someone move the steering wheel back and forth, just enough to take up all the play, which might give you some insight. You can also jack up each wheel and shake it around, see if there's any obvious play.

The problem you have is no crank, right? I'd hold off on pulling things apart that have little or nothing to do with the starter until you've figured that one out. You could inadvertently cause more problems for yourself, and the more you do, the more tracing your way back through your work will need to be done. It all worked before you pulled it apart. Let's get this starter cranking first. Check your battery voltage. When you reconnected the battery, were the terminals clean and are they tight? Acting like the key is being turned on after you shorted the starter makes me think there's an issue with your battery connections. Do you have power to the small terminal on the starter when you hit the key?

A rear main leak is typically going to be puking from between the engine and trans, oiling down both the back of the oil pan and trans dust cover. You might get a little inside the bellhousing but it'll be coming off the engine side of the flywheel if it is, probably just about coating the whole thing or leaving a radial drip pattern. It'll also leak whenever the engine is running. The slave cylinder will generally be coming from the middle or back of the bellhousing, and if your clutch is still working it's unlikely to be a huge amount, but if it is, it's mostly just going to leak when you're pushing the clutch pedal, whether the engine is running or not. It's not likely to run up the outside of the dust shield at all, and almost definitely won't be getting on the oil pan. If it's dripping off the oil pan, it'll be engine, if it's dripping off the bellhousing, just about guaranteed to be clutch or trans. Old brake fluid tends to get pretty dark and scuzzy, but it will almost always rinse away with water. Engine oil won't mix with the water, isn't likely to get flushed away easily.

Bump stops or steering stops?

The biggest issue with the stock arms rubbing is the _/\_ shape they've got. They catch real bad on that horizontal lip, especially with tires with aggressive shoulders and sidewalls, basically any modern AT at this point that's worth running. Even with WJ control arms I'm still getting some rub, although it's nowhere near as bad. But any tubular arm even without a kink in it is going to be much better for tire rub than the stock XJ/MJ arms with that lip on them.

Dumb question maybe, but all you guys suggesting uHaul won't inspect the towed vehicle, how recently have you rented one? A couple months back I was at a UHaul location and watched some people load their car onto the dolly and strap it down, as staff member did a quick walkaround, then they unloaded it, and drove the moving van/dolly and car away separately. Can't say for sure what was going on there, but it seemed like a bunch of other stuff had changed between this time and the last time I rented a UHaul. Probably best to check with a UHaul location before relying on opinions from the internet. Uhaul has very likely been seeing some flack from people realizing that their equipment rental policies don't necessarily correspond to local regulations. But yes, traditionally the UHaul inspections are pretty lackluster so I wouldn't be super concerned about that. Generally the people working at the laundromat or wherever you pick it up aren't paid enough to care. The most I've ever had was someone look at the stamped rating on my tow ball. But you are correct to check legalities. In my jurisdiction and many others, any vehicle with wheels on the ground, whether it's being flat towed or on a dolly, is required to be registered and insured. Is anyone likely to stop you for it? Probably not. But you never know what's going to happen, and if you're not legal it could make any minor inconvenience become a major problem. And that includes your tow vehicle's limits. My two cents is it's a bad idea to tow anything without trailer brakes. It's also probably not legal to tow something as heavy as an MJ without brakes in a few of the jurisdictions you're going through. Keep in mind you're going over mountain passes no matter what route you take. If you're concerned about one pass in particular, it's more than likely you're not going to want to deal with any others.

If there’s coolant coming out onto something hot (like the exhaust), it’ll smell. Doesn’t need to be much of a leak. If you pressurize the system you may be able to see it hitting the ground somewhere, or else give it a real good look over for signs of leakage. Check for rust staining on the block under and around the freeze plugs, and especially check any of the connections you’ve had apart to replace components. It’s not unusual to have to snug up a hose clamp or two shortly after installing new parts.

Yeah, no dangers running a tcase in 2wd without a front shaft. Just make sure to clean up the flange and the bolt holes before putting the front driveshaft back onto it when the time comes. In regards to a manual trans slipping, unless you've got gears grinding in it, that's guaranteed to be a clutch issue. Changing the oil in the trans isn't going to address that. If the oil has been in a while, finding some metal flakes on the magnet is not unusual, and not necessarily a sign of impending failure, just regular wear. The magnet's there to collect it and prevent it from floating around and doing damage. It's probably a good idea to have a backup plan in place for a BA10 anyhow given the reputation, but if you're only finding flakes and not chunks I wouldn't be super concerned about it.

I envision an electric MJ would have the motor in the trans tunnel, bolted direct to the transfer case, with the battery packs under the hood. But of course that would require an adequate motor for single-speed operation. The Magna electric drive axle also looks like a pretty good option, and I’m sure more will become available in the next bunch of years. I suppose if you really wanted the Tesla drive unit you could always stick it in the middle and drive an axle off each end of it, so long as full-time AWD is alright.

Not reacting to throttle input would make me suspect the throttle position sensor. Once you get that brick hooked up take a look at the TPS value, see if it drops out for part of the sweep. You can also do this with a multimeter, but watching the % chance on the scan tool is more fun.

You won’t have as much suction at the front line because the combustion gasses make up some of it. Seems to me the system is working pretty well, provided you’ve got good seals at the valve cover. Def do as Cruiser suggests tho still.

Was gonna say, Don's truck has got to be one of the Chromiest ones out here. There was a black one too that came to mind, but I can't put a username to it.

Pretty well any ZJ with a V8 will have 3.73 gears. Front axle is low-pinion but it's the same as TJs got so no big deal. Just avoid ZJ rear axles if you're looking for a donor. You'll either expend a ton of money just for a D35 or end up with the questionable aluminum centred D44A. If you do decide to cut into the brakes make sure you've got breathing protection. Personally I'd pull the wheels off and beat the crap out of the the drums with a sledge hammer until they come off. Still, be wary of brake dust. I don't see anything wrong with running a D35 if that's still what's in the truck. Unless you're doing intense wheeling on the regular or putting big tires on it, it'll be alright. They don't have amazing reputations, but there's also a pile of them under stock rigs doing hundreds of thousands of miles without issues. Nothing wrong with going to ZJ discs either on your current axle if that's what you want to do. But if you're swapping out the whole axle definitely go for something better than a D35.

The aux fan was an optional extra, part of the HD cooling package. It wouldn't hurt to add one, it would be most useful if you tend to work the engine on hot days at low speeds, although without an auto trans or a/c dumping heat into the system it won't be as critical for you provided the rest of your cooling system is up to snuff. It would definitely be worth your time however to track down a fan shroud. Your mechanical fan will do much more for you with proper ducting.

All the little bits to support the limited slip you’re about to install that you forgot when you ordered it?

More likely the line would be damaged/leaking, but it's very possible it could've been plugged. Leaky valves don't generally leak combustion gasses to the crankcase, because you're not really building much pressure in either the intake or exhaust. Blow-by is what's blowing past the piston rings, high-pressure combustion gasses going straight to the crankcase. That's not necessarily wrong, but I don't know that it's as big a deal as people make it out to be. High-performance does mean more flow, meaning more air going through, which does often mean larger particles can get through. I also imagine longer service life will eventually wear out the filter media in a reusable filter. One advantage to a reusable filter no one talks about is that the wire mesh on it means rodents can't chew through the filter. We park a bunch of our work fleet over the winter, and we've had more than a few filters turned into nests. A reusable filter is going to pass less dust than a paper filter with a big old hole in it.

Just some info on how the crankcase vent system is supposed to function for anyone else using the search function. There are two lines coming off the valve cover. The one on the back goes to the intake manifold, the front goes to the air intake box. In theory, the higher vacuum inside the manifold will suck gasses out of the crankcase, replacing them with clean air from the air box. If the flow is interrupted by damaged or blocked lines, low manifold vacuum, leaking oil fill cap gasket or ccv fittings, or excessive blow by, the crankcase pressure will vent via the path of least resistance, generally pushing crankcase gasses and sometimes oil vapours through to the air box. In this case it looks to me like it’s a reusable filter that was oiled excessively, which isn’t difficult to do. K&N makes a filter service kit with a cleaner and new oil that you can get at most parts stores, although if you want to go back to a standard filter just to confirm the oiling issue is taken care of, that’s not a bad idea either.

This is why it's so difficult to diagnose a noise from a video. You're the one who's with the vehicle and can tell where it's coming from. Blower motor noise would be more bottom of passenger side dash, which would be in line with trans tunnel as a general area, but it's not like I can tell you what you were experiencing firsthand. It's also sometimes hard to tell a specific source of a noise just by hearing. If it were me I would be turning stuff off and on, getting out of the vehicle and under the hood, underneath, trying to figure out where it's loudest, etc. If it's not making the noise now and you can't find anything else obviously wrong there's not a lot to go on.

With the transfer case in neutral you don’t have anywhere near as much inertia for the synchros to fight to match engine speed. It’s not super surprising to me you can get it into gear without the clutch, but I don’t know if I’ve done it myself. Pretty difficult to diagnose a sound from a video. I’ve heard blower motors make similar noises on cold startup, also wipers, but those aren’t in the trans tunnel. You checked all fluid levels? Made sure no wildlife crawled up somewhere nice and warm for the night? Unless there’s water in something I can’t imagine simply being below freezing causing any of your transmission bearings to do that, and then recover when warm. I’ve cold-started my Jeeps below -40 even and never heard anything like that from the trans. Not to say it can’t happen. It it was my own vehicle I’d probably shrug it off and wait for it to happen again before worrying too much, provided I knew everything was visually okay underneath, including fluid levels.