gogmorgo

They do sorta self-bleed. It’ll still be accurate, the needle will just bounce around a little if you don’t. It’s not usually that big a deal and probably not the issue here, just a thing that can happen.

The Teflon tape doesn’t make a seal, the tapered threads do. The Teflon tape is just a lubricant to help you crank it down. In this case though you’re correct that you don’t want it in there, because it does affect the sensor’s connection to ground. It would be helpful to know what the part number is for the temp sender you got so someone who knows more than I do can confirm it’s the correct one.

Yeah, I was a touch surprised by that. Honey beers usually are a very smooth beer in my experience, but not super sweet or particularly honey flavoured. This one’s finish was like I had honey in my mouth, in both taste and feel. It was different for sure. My dad dabbles in making mead, and despite it being the primary ingredient, the end result rarely has much honey flavour to it. It also frequently has pretty high alcohol content. The one batch he made with raspberries, and there must have been some crazy yeast on them or something, because it went into the bottles uncarbonated and came out bubbly. None of the rest is ever bubbly, just that one batch with the raspberries. One 12-oz bottle of that made me feel like I’d done about five shots of whiskey. The rest of them were more like a 9-10% beer.

The ATX is a “snow” tire, by every definition of the term. But it’s not a winter tire, no. There’s a difference, and you don’t need to sell me on it. My 2.5 MJ has the cheaper stock-size winters that came with the ZJ when I bought it, and it was definitely more competent than the ZJ after I drove them back to back on one of the first snow days we had in town here, despite only being 2wd, which is what started me on the real winter tire saga. But then I started waffling after realizing how much it was going to cost, especially with needing to go to 16” wheels to run the tires I wanted, and I almost talked myself out of it. Then a couple weeks ago we had some freezing rain and the drive up to the hill was sketch AF the day after. And to make matters worse, about halfway up some asshat in a jacked up Dodge caught up and glued himself to my bumper, despite the fact that I was still going the speed limit, and hanging the tail out on every corner (deliberately at this point to try to get him to back off). 4x just meant I would push straight ahead in the corners. After five minutes of him not backing off, I stopped to let him by, and then when I got to the parking lot at the hill, he was unloading kids from the truck. And then I saw his truck again when I went back to the Jeep for lunch, and noticed he was just on KO2s, which in my experience are a far cry worse on ice than the Grabbers. But before he caught up to me I already had resolved to order my tires from the parking lot regardless. So I went ahead and did that, but they were on backorder and only just came in a couple days back. The lack of white letters is... Odd. I’m not sure how I feel about it. The whole time mounting the tires I was fighting the urge to grab a paint marker and fill them in, but I told myself I’d wait to see what they look like installed first.

And the 4th is Whistler Brewing Co (Whistler, BC) Honey Paw Lager. Pleasant. Mild flavours, on the sweeter side, and the honey comes out in the aftertaste. Heavier than I expected, and that and the sweetness mean it’s not as refreshing as I might have liked after a day at the ski hill. Don’t know I’d get it for myself, but I’m happy enough drinking it.

Arguably the Grabbers are already winter tires. They’ve got the same snow-peak-whatever-you-call-it winter rating. They’re legal winter tires in every jurisdiction. And they kick the pants off of most other all-weather tires I’ve tried. They’re awesome on snow, even compacted snow, they only really struggle on polished ice, and I guess the frost on the shady bits of the road up to the ski hill. This is why I kinda felt the need to go all out on the Hakkas. It seemed pointless to replace what’s already a winter tire with something that was only going to have average winter performance, so I got the best. If it keeps me out of a guardrail, they’ll have already paid for themselves, too. Yeah I’m excited to see how they look too, although it’ll be tough to make a rusty ZJ look truly classy. I’ve got one highway trip and what promises to be a bit of a mud bog tomorrow morning so I want the grabbers on for that still, but hopefully the Hakkas will be installed by Sunday evening. I’ll be putting them on the wheels tonight though.

Well I pulled the trigger and bought myself some “real” winter tires. Running up and down to the ski hill every week told me the ATX wasn’t quite good enough. It’s great on compact snow, but the frost on the basin road is slick and I’m getting sick of the tail end stepping out every three corners. So it’s a set of Hakka 9’s in 265/70r16 to best match the 31x10.5 15’s, and some KJ Renegade Icons to mount them on. This is my first set of studded tires, and I’m still not sold on studs, but hopefully I’ll get them mounted up this weekend.

If you don’t have absolutely all the air bled out of the mechanical gauge, the bubbles can act like a little spring, making the gauge bounce around a bit. You’ll also see a spike with an increase in rpm beyond the nominal “10psi for every 1000rpm” which will go away, this is the surge of extra volume that takes a bit to accelerate the oil already in the passages, and the spike subsides once everything’s moving at the same speed. Constant high pressure may indicate plugged passageways, but I wouldn’t worry about spikes with change in rpm.

Those wire taps are typically used to make a T-splice, with the original wire you’re tapping into running straight through with only minor damage to the insulation, but it shouldn’t be cut completely off... although I suppose I guy could use it in place of a butt splice if he really wanted. But if done “properly” (I’d argue there’s no proper way to ever use that sort of connector) then you should be able to just pop the connector open and pull it off, then wrap some electrical tape around the cut insulation, and it should be fine. If however the wires were cut, this is one of the few places I would use a crimp-on butt connector, provided of course you can find both ends of the cut wire. If one end is grounded, then that means that is is just bypassing the horn button. Fixing the horn button will require pulling the steering wheel and the steering lock plate. It can be done without special tools, but if you can get a steering wheel puller and the steering lock plate tool, it’ll make the job much easier. As an FYI, those wire-tap connectors though are a sure sign of a hack job. Aftermarket installers like to use them because they’re quick and cheap, and usually they’ll last long enough the customer won’t complain if they fail. But they create stress points where the wires will crack if exposed to too much vibration, and they’re not even close to sealed. Which means that the trailer manufacturers who also love to use them exposed on the outside of the vehicle are just inviting in the green death... so you’ll come back in and spend more money getting the thing fixed. /rant. Don’t use ‘em.

I should say I don’t mind hoppy flavours, I just don’t think they should overpower the other flavours in the beer. I have enjoyed some more traditional IPAs, but unfortunately in the craft world they’re few and far between, especially where I’m at with heavy west coast influences. And in so many circles when you complain about it, everyone gets offended, and then starts arguing that I should be looking for the distinction between the various strains of hops used... when all I’m saying is that beer shouldn’t taste like I bit into an orange peel. I don’t mind some hoppiness but there’s such a thing as too much. Day 3 is an organic pilsner. Hooligan, from the Nelson Brewing Co, in Nelson BC. Bit of a hippy town, so I guess that brings on the organic? Pretty sure it’s not an influence on the flavour at all. I don’t buy into the organic thing, but that’s a rant for another time and place. I guess I should be pouring them into glasses, but it’s just easier to drink out of the can. This one’s pretty good. It’s a reminder why most of the mass-market beers are derived from a pilsner style. It’s a stronger flavour and a touch hoppier than your typical every-beer, but it’s a good flavour combination, heavy side of medium weight, and I would probably go for if I saw it on tap, or in a store somewhere. The can’s kinda cool too.

I would imagine you can probably just remove the added button and repair whatever’s wrong with the horn button. Depending on the style of steering wheel there’s a couple different setups of contact wheel that like to go bad with time and use. But all the button does is connect the wire to ground, completing the horn relay trigger circuit to send power to the horn. Depending on which wires were tapped into, either they’re pulling an alternate source of power and connecting it to the horn wire, or else tapping into the trigger wire and connecting it to ground. My guess would be the latter, based on it looking like they tapped a wire going to the connector for the multifunction switch. Good news though is whatever they did, it looks like they did in parallel with the factory wiring instead of hacking it out and making it new, so hopefully all you need to do is pop those wire taps off and fix whatever issue with the factory wiring they were circumventing.

Hopefully the lesson works. We’ve got one old plow truck at work that’s mostly backup anymore, because it really likes spa days in the shop. It spent the summer parked next to a brand new one waiting for the plow frame to get built, and I’m pretty sure they had a long discussion about the perks of spa days, because the new one’s come into the shop broken at least once a week since it got put into service.

Dec 2nd is an IPA, the Blower Pow from Whitetooth Brewing Co. Seems pretty typical of the style, nothing really jumped out about it. It’s not terrible, but it’s still an IPA so not great, unless you’re into that sort of thing.

Only if you put it in “clear flood” mode by holding it wide open. Less than 1/4 throttle doesn’t shut down injectors.

One of my housemates invited me to join a craft beer advent calendar thing this year, that one of her friends was organizing. 24 people each got 24 cans/bottles of craft beer, so in theory we each get a different beer every day. Dec 1st’s beer was Windstorm west coast pale by Stanley Park brewing. I’m not usually a fan of pale ales. The overpowering hops content from the beer’s origin of needing to remain stable over a long transit overwhelms any of the other flavours of the beer. Craft brewers love them because they can just add hops to cover up a bad beer, and people who don’t like the taste of beer lap them up. Beer should taste like the grain it’s made out of. But at any rate, this wasn’t bad. It’s got the strong citrusy hops flavour, a little fruity, but it’s not overpowering. It would be pretty refreshing on a hot day.

Revving up and down at idle could be a vacuum leak, or an issue with the idle air controller (IAC). I think Cruiser’s got a tip for the IAC, I think just giving it a good clean. Cleaning the whole throttle body will be good for it. Check your intake/exhaust manifold bolts. They like to wiggle loose, could cause a vacuum leak.

If the crank sensor fails you lose spark. It’s all or nothing, if you’ve got spark, you’ve got a functioning crank sensor. Check fuel pressure with a gauge. For mileage that high, cruiser’s tips are definitely in order. It’s also worth looking into the Renix Engine Monitor (REM) or some other kind of scan tool that can read your sensor data to confirm it’s reading as it should. Its also worth doing an old fashioned tune-up if it’s been a while. Plugs, wires, cap and rotor. Any car that struggles to start without a block heater above -20°C is broken, and the cold has very little or nothing to do with it. The coldest it’s been at OP’s location in the last few weeks was -5°C. It’s barely even cold enough to be concerned about any water that might be in the fuel lines freezing. Stepping on the gas will definitely help if the engine is flooding out. It’s a mechanical throttle that allows more air into the engine. Maybe it helps atomise and distribute the fuel better, I don’t know. What I do know is that on the -30 mornings when the breaker tripped on the outlet my block heater was plugged into, less than 1/4 throttle was the difference between firing right up and not even coughing. But at this point it should be treated as a regular no-start. 4-5s isn’t very long crank time. 15 second crank intervals, 1 minute cool-down in between. After 5 attempts, give it a ten minute break.

X2 on Cruiser’s tips. www.Cruiser54.com. Have you done any diagnostics at all before deciding to throw parts at it? Crank and map sensor control two very different aspects of engine management and have very different symptoms if they fail. When you stay it doesn’t want to start, do you mean you turn the key and it doesn’t want to crank the engine, or does it crank over just fine and never fire? Have you checked for spark? Fuel pressure? One of mine sometimes struggles at low temperatures, cranks just fine but doesn’t fire. Old temp sensors get funky at the edge of their range and it runs way rich, floods out. A little throttle and it fires up every time... but we’re talking -30 or colder, not just “below freezing”.

The only reasons I can think of for wanting a complete drive axle (kJ or whatever) are that you’ve either got one kicking around already, or else you want to carry a spare for your tow vehicle. Trailer axles are cheap, and you can typically get parts anywhere if needed because they’re pretty well all standard sizes. Not only is there an added ground clearance advantage, they’re much lighter. I’d also go electric brakes over hydraulic, because they’re far easier to install, control, and maintain. Plus there’s the reversing thing, and you’ll also be cooking them the whole way down if you’re engine braking down a long grade. The only two places surge brakes really shine are if you’re running a rental fleet and don’t want to worry about the customer’s vehicle being set up correctly, or debatably if it’s a boat trailer that gets dunked in salt water on the regular.

My manager has a 3.6 WK2 as a company car, 2012ish I think. It’s decent, and I was recommending my parents get one before Covid hit and they quit shopping around. We haven’t had any issues with it, although I think it’s only at around 70,000 miles so far. She doesn’t use it much. I’ve only driven it a couple times, but I wouldn’t call it slow. The torque curve hits differently than the 4.0 in my ZJ, much higher in the rev range, although that might be a manual vs automatic thing. It’s not a race car, but the 3.6 is definitely quicker than the 4.0. It’s not a luxury trim but it’s pretty nice inside, and it rides and handles nicely for an SUV. My only complaint is the full-time transfer case doesn’t have low range or a 2wd option. Low range isn’t that big a deal in something that’s strictly a commuter, but no 2wd will cost you in MPG.

I briefly owned a KJ, just for the rear axle. Don’t know what it hit, but it hit hard. The photo doesn’t make it so obvious, but you could pretty well draw a straight line from the A-pillar to driver’s tiny corner, and everything was shoved over to one side of it. From the inside, the centre console came up from the trans getting rammed into it, and the airbags were dangling loose, but otherwise you wouldn’t have known what happened. Doors all still opened and closed nicely, windshield wasn’t even cracked. That’s a stout little chassis.

Quickest, cheapest, and easiest is coil spring spacers. XJ front suspension is identical if your favourite supplier doesn’t list anything for an MJ. Aim your headlights after any change in ride height. I’m also not keen on levelling a truck just for the sake of eliminating the rake, although we did it on a couple of the law and SAR trucks at work to bring the ride height back up after adding heavy bumpers, winches, etc.

You can still get the molded hoses for a ‘97+ XJ, with the open system and heater valve delete, if that’s the way you want to go. If not, bulk heater hose cut to fit will work a treat.

It’s a pretty good way to get more familiar with automotive electrical work, setting up relay circuits to run accessories. It will quite likely cost you more than the manufactured relay harnesses, if that’s a concern, because the manufacturers are purchasing parts in giant quantities and you’re only buying one or two of everything, not to mention you’ll probably end up with way more wire than you need... I always do.

This is true, although the headlight wiring shouldn’t really be seeing a ton of heat unless you’re already exceeding it’s rated current. Another advantage to good quality higher-capacity wire is durability. Larger wire is stronger, and takes longer to corrode through. Most of the marker light issues I see on our plow trucks are because the manufacturer of the lights we buy (because they’re cheap) elected to use 22awg or smaller wire for them. Arguably even the 22awg is overkill for the tiny load of the LEDs, but the tiny little wires break all the time, or if the insulation gets a little nick in it, the wire just dissolves. It’s a pretty extreme usage case for corrosion, but the trucks’ 14awg harnesses last. But all of these harness concerns are part of why I choose to build my own harness rather than buy one. I know what materials are going into it and know it’ll be up to task.