gogmorgo

I had one in a rental once. You'd never run out of hot water. Except when the thing would somehow error out and needed to be reset, typically halfway through a shower, and you'd instantly lose hot water with no warning. Happened roughly every three weeks. I don't know what unit it was and I imagine they wouldn't really have caught on if they all did that, but it turned me off the idea somewhat. I don't really know how it might've affected energy usage or anything though.

Sun and weather will change the colour of paint somewhat compared to paint that was protected. If you’ve had the truck since new and never repainted it, why would it be painted a different colour? Don’t know about the aftermarket stuff myself. My view on mods is they should increase function without interfering with form more than necessary. The truck is only original once, after all. But it’s your truck to do what you want with, and you should have it how you want it.

So taking you at your word you've got a running fuel pump and new filter, but no fuel pressure at the rail. Firstly we'll ignore the vacuum harness situation in terms of fuel delivery. Depending on what happened and where it could be causing other problems that will give you running problems, but it won't stop fuel from reaching the rail. Having no vacuum line on the fuel pressure regulator is the same as having low vacuum, essentially wide open throttle at full load, so you'll get full fuel pressure. Not a concern. Your new fuel filter will have an arrow on it indicating flow direction. Many of them have a check valve, so if you put the filter on backwards you won't get fuel through it. We've all done it, which is why I bring it up, nothing against you personally. It's VERY possible that the rubber line between the fuel pump and sending unit has failed. If you reused the old hose, its almost guaranteed it didn't survive the R&R process. If you used a new chunk of hose that isn't submersible, it's also unlikely it's going to last very long. Most replacement fuel pumps aren't the same fit as the original and come with an adapter kit, and some are much better than others. I've personally seen them come apart in a way that makes you run out of fuel at just under a 1/2 tank. If you used a full MTS sending unit, hypothetically none of these are a concern, in which case you have a pump that should be pushing fuel out to the rail, but isn't. If the pump is running, either it's not sucking up fuel, or else something is obstructing the fuel flow, or diverting it out of the line somewhere. Your next step will be to figure out where fuel is flowing and where it's not, and what's going on between those two points to stop it from happening.

I’d start with chaining up just the rear and see if that makes the difference. Toss some weight back there too if you haven’t already. There is some advantage to chains on the front axle with a 4x4, in terms of traction. You can also get specifically designed steer chains which will help out even on a 2wd with steering and braking traction. The difference is a drive chain is more of a ladder pattern across the tire for pushing you along, while the steer chain is going to have a diamond pattern or otherwise to get more side to side traction. No reason you can’t run that style chain on a drive axle either, but more chain necessary for the patterns makes them more expensive and they don’t last any longer than the drive style. But the flip side is it seems like chains on a steer axle are more likely to damage the vehicle. It might just be there’s more things that are less protected to damage up there, but it’s also very true that having an angled plow blade means you’re constantly steering against it, and that will stress chains more and lead to earlier failure. And loose or broken chains is what does the most damage, even if you didn’t already have tire rub. If you really want to chain up the front axle, I’d say go skinny tires for freeing up clearance. WJ control arms will help some as well. But try just the rear first. Full chain and V-bars for maximum traction on ice and compact snow. They’re more spendy than the cable or strap style, but they’re also intended to work all winter, not to sit in your trunk for years and get maybe one or two uses out of them.

It’s real annoying when retailers can’t come up with an actual photo of what they’re selling.

I've got some variation of the Aries on my MJ. It looks alright, but if you're looking for protection from wildlife strikes I don't know how sturdy it'll be. It's pretty thin wall tubing. The centre section is strong enough I've used it as a push bar to nudge a couple other cars around, but the headlight guards won't take much of a hit. And when they do, the wraparound section dents the fender. Ask me how I know.

I see no reason it couldn't be set up as a sort of cruise control to prevent that. If it detects it's pushing the truck it disengages, only goes to regen on prolonged decel or if you're going down a hill or something. Heavy trailers with ABS and even stability control also know when an older truck isn't set up to communicate with them and just do their own thing in that case. Maybe get a control box in the front of the truck that communicates with the trailer wirelessly or something so you can tell it how much assist you want or switch it off if weather is getting inclement, same as your cruise control. If manufacturers come up with a standard to integrate it into the vehicle's control system, excellent, but there's lots of vehicles out that will predate the standard and not everyone will want to replace their truck just to have a fancy assist trailer, so if the trailer manufacturer wants to sell their product to those people, they'll need to figure out how to work with them.

Measuring voltage drop across the ends of the cables while cranking is a more effective measurement. All you need is one good strand of copper to get 0 ohms, but if you’re seeing much in the way of voltage drop through the conductor, you know you have a problem.

Not exactly a meme, just some sorta-locally roasted coffee, with a very Edmonton joke on it.

In my case I got both my thermostats from Napa. I don’t remember looking at manufacturers whenever I got or installed them, but their current catalogue also lists MotoRad as the manufacturer.

Tractor trailers have been making ABS systems communicate between truck and trailer since the ‘90’s with the existing lighting connections. Interfacing the power control systems between truck and an electrified assist trailer can’t be much more complex than that. Most trailers with a 7-pin connector don’t use the centre auxiliary connection anyhow, and all you’d need is to multiplex signals down that circuit. Essentially the same way heavy trucks do. And as far as electrical connections between the two units would go if the trailer is just a recharge bank, I’m pretty sure TFL was able to charge an electric vehicle on a trailer behind a Ford truck, either a hybrid or full electric, I don’t quite remember, so we can definitely make that work the opposite direction, too. Even if it’s just something as simple as a forklift battery connection or two. Obviously you’d need good fault protection in the connections and cables, but it’s definitely feasible. Honestly I would love to see this implemented even without an EV tow vehicle. Too many times I’ve been stuck behind a trailer crawling up a hill behind some smaller crossover that maybe was rated for the weight but didn’t really have the power for the driver to push it comfortably. It would also be pretty awesome to have regen brakes for going down hills, so you don’t cook your friction brakes or over-rev your engine gearing down.

What sort of protection? Are you looking to bounce off rocks, or just push shrubs out of the way? Anything for the front of an XJ will bolt on.

My ‘91 2.5 runs more or less the same temp as it does in the summer, at least according to the gauge. Last winter even though the temp gauge was reading about the same and coming up to temp about as quickly my heater wasn’t working so great. Because I had an extra thermostat I swapped it for $#!&s, even though my thermostat had been new pretty recently. Before putting it back together I put both thermostats in a pot of water on the stove and the old one opened about 30 seconds before the new one. Heat worked great after it went back together, even though the gauge didn’t read any different. The gauge in question however sits far enough shy of centre that I don’t really trust it’s accuracy. It’s only ever climbed past that point if I was pretty low on coolant. All of my other vehicles do run a hair cooler in the winter. Roughly thermostat temperature. But it’s usually between 0 and -20°F here, frequently colder, and I never block my radiator, so there’s that. I’ve never thought much of it. As long as it’s at or above thermostat temp it shouldn’t be an emissions concern, and if they’re running the test inside a heated building it’ll be summer inside anyhow.

Yeah, everyone starts learning somewhere. The ZJ did come with a variant of the d44 that had rear discs, but given it’s a ZJ-only axle it may well use the same brakes as the D35, I simply wouldn’t know to tell you. The Chrysler 8.25 rear axle out of a KJ Liberty is also a popular rear disk brake donor, but I’m pretty confident it’ll need modifications for your D44 as well. Just some more stuff for you to think about.

You can make anything fit if you really want to. The biggest advantage I think to the ZJ rear disks is that they‘ve been very available in wrecking yards and so on, and I don’t see the supply of parts drying up any time soon. They also have the same lug pattern and hub centre bore so you know your wheels will still fit. Going to a JK you’d be changing all that, to the point it would almost be more worthwhile just to swap out the whole axle. As far as the front’s concerned, I’m not entirely sure what you’re struggling with. The Allen bolt calliper bolts can be a pain but nothing else in there is too problematic. You can always swap the knuckles to go with the later style D30 callipers and brakes. You can grab them off any ‘91+ 4x4 XJ, MJ, TJ, ZJ. It’s not going to be a performance upgrade, and it won’t be any easier to change the pads, but I have found it slightly easier to find parts for the later style.

In addition to spark plugs, the spark plug wires and distributor cap and rotor are also wear items that should be replaced if you don't know how old they are. As mentioned, Cruiser's tips are definitely something worth working through. www.Cruiser54.com As far as slow warmup is concerned, the thermostat would be the first thing I'd look at, because they're cheap and easy to change out. It's also apparently very common for people in warmer climates than mine to put in a lower temperature thermostat than factory recommended in a misguided attempt to make the engine run cooler, which doesn't really work out how they think. The thermostat only controls the lower end of the operating range, so a lower temp tstat will only slow down the warmup, and won't ever prevent overheating. In my climate, it also means you'll have an inadequate heater. Running at low temperature in a fuel injected vehicle will cause the computer to stay in open loop, essentially a warmup mode that is functionally similar to running a carburetor with a closed choke, in that it will run very rich, which will be mostly noticeable in terms of fuel consumption. I don't think it would cause the entirety of your poor MPG issue, but it will definitely be part of it. It can also carbon foul your spark plugs and cost you some performance or at least smooth running if it rarely warms up entirely, so it's worth at least checking and/or cleaning those again, even though they're new. The easiest and likely cheapest way up from your 31's on 3.07 gears is almost definitely going to be to find a Dana 35 out of another MJ with 3.55 gears, paired up front with a non-CAD Dana 30 from a '90's XJ if yours in 4x4. It's the setup in my daily driver and it does alright, it's basically the equivalent ratio to 3.07's on 3.55's. Although if big tires are in the future, now would be the time to future proof. I wouldn't be too concerned about your exhaust. It's possible the broken manifold bolt and subsequent exhaust leak also burnt your intake manifold gasket, but that would very likely cause a high idle. As far as the system and diameter go, it's not such a huge increase. It will shift your torque curve up in RPM somewhat compared to stock, but it shouldn't be that big a deal unless you like pulling hard at idle speeds.

I think it's a typo and he's referring to Spray Nine.

I doubt that crankcase pressure has anything to do with it. The pressure in the crankcase pushing down on the surface of the oil in the sump is going to generate a ton more force than what you'd see at the other end of the oil passages, which if anything would just push the oil back up the pickup into the filter. And if there was enough pressure building in the crankcase to move oil around the engine, it would probably have started leaking oil out of more than just the valve cover gasket by now, just like Pete's engine. But it's still worth checking to see if your CCV system is clogged, you do kinda want that working and it's had issues on every Jeep I've owned to date. My guess would be a leak in the oil passageway from pump to filter that's somehow allowing air back into the system, but I would also expect it to be leaking oil if that were the case, and if that's not an issue... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Lots of the equipment in our fleet does that too, take a few seconds for oil pressure to build, and nothing seems to suffer too much from it.

If you've got summer heat in your part of Colorado, that'll kill your batteries pretty quick. We lost a handful in our 40°C heat wave up here, not quite as bad as if it was -40, but still. I don't know about where anyone else is, but I've had a couple salespeople tell us that all the batteries we're getting through our shop suppliers are exactly the same, from the same plant, just with different stickers depending on who goes and picks them up. We get the Mopar stickers because for whatever reason they come in cheaper than the other industrial supply chains. Just the plain Jane lead acid. Five years seems to be pretty normal service life unless they get murdered by someone leaving them out to discharge in the cold... which can happen in less than three weeks on a modern vehicle with keyless entry, push-button start, etc. Probably my favourite thing about driving early 90's vehicles at this point is that they actually shut everything off when you turn the key off.

Maybe a blast from the past for some of you guys, but Les Stroud, otherwise known as Survivorman, has a youtube channel. Most of his content is just uploads of his production TV series, but there is some youtube-only content and it's all pretty good stuff, all legit survival info. https://www.youtube.com/c/SurvivormanLesStroud The directors commentaries on the shows are pretty cool if you're a fan of the original show, and I think only a YouTube thing. The Bigfoot series is interesting as well, in that he approaches everything with a very open mind and just kinda touches on every little aspect of the subject without trying to lead anyone in any particular direction. One of his latest series is Wild Harvest, where he takes a professional chef out with him and they make gourmet meals with wild edibles, which is a very interesting change from how he normally presents things. He's also got some of his music there, a lot of which is featured in the shows, and some personal vlog-type things. Also a bunch of much more in-depth stuff on a lot of the survival skills that he doesn't have the time to get into in the full show. Lots of cool stuff.

This truck was built in the province that bred zip ties n bias plies. Don’t really think there’s a ton more to be said about it than that.

Well, what's the better option, an affordable half-done project, or one like the below, fully built, asking $15k+, where, if the fact the license plate is self-tappered straight to the middle of the tailgate is any indication of the quality of the build, you're likely finding yourself redoing half the work anyway? https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/strathcona-county/1990-comanche/1598137948?undefined I'd say for evey one registered there's going to be at least another one languishing somewhere. How many Jeep enthusiasts have a yard of projects they've never gotten to? But I guess condition on those isn't necessarily going to be a guarantee.

Not necessarily relevant to the issue at hand but to the discussion, for anyone who might stumble across this thread from a Google search or something; when I swapped out my first MJ’s original distributor a long time ago I also had a heck of a time getting the new one indexed. I recently reused that “new” distributor in another project, and same thing, but during the process this time I noticed the oil pump drive and rotor drive are clocked differently relative to each other than they were on the original unit. Just something to watch out for with aftermarket parts. To the issue at hand, an intermittent total shutdown with a no-crank could potentially be a crank sensor issue, yes. The giveaway would be complete loss of spark. I’d look carefully at the wiring to it and make sure it’s properly seated in its hole before replacing it. You should be able to see a small a/c voltage coming off it while disconnected and cranking the engine over if it’s working properly. As far as the fuel pump is concerned, when you turn the key on it should run for a few seconds then shut off.