gogmorgo

Yeah I've seen that place a time or two. Took a pano down there the weekend before last. ... mostly because I was curious how much detail could be revealed in Photoshop (or similar) from pitch black photos. I haven't done much with that file yet though. I also took what I considered at the time to be hilarious video of me playing with shadows on the highway sign a couple hundred feet away thanks to some lights left on inside the Brewster building. And some photos of the ZJ parking next to a no parking sign that is too reflective to photograph.

Nah, watching these guys, they're deliberately obvious any time they're doing paid sponsorship. And they do mention the fact that due to its size the JT stands almost no chance against the MJ offroad, especially with that modest lift, and they don't fail to point out what we all know, that the JT is less useful as a truck due to bed size and payload ratings. The Chrysler that built the MJ is the same Chrysler selling the JT. It does them no good to suggest the JT isn't as good as their old product that they can't make much money on any more, which is the conclusion TFL came to.

Just a heads up, you'll want to use a longer bolt than the factory one to pull it on, or at least get it started. The factory bolt will only have a couple threads engaged at best when you start it, and you don't want to risk stripping out the crank. I'm 99% sure it's a 1/2-20 (national fine thread) bolt but confirm that before jamming any old thing in there. I've got a parts store steering wheel puller that I was able to rig up as a pusher because the thread matches.

Looks cool. Too bad, I was at a wrecking yard a few weeks ago, and could've got you all the interior parts you need. I have a Lada Niva, and my parts guy is in Ukraine... It would be cool to send stuff back the other direction. But I'm 2000km away from that wrecking yard now...

This might be a good thread to add to the DIY section/index maybe? So the file doesn't get buried under pages of tech posts and lost.

If you can find a shifter for an XJ instead of for the wrangler, that could solve your problem. The shifter hitting the dash is a thing that people report happening after sourcing an ax15 out of a YJ or TJ to put in an XJ/MJ, and using the XJ shifter with it instead of the YJ one solves the issue. I imagine the ax5 shift lever would end up in the same place, causing the same problem.

Yeah... even the dude at the trans shop wanted to put in an AX15. Clearly not the brightest bulbs. Although it was kinda cool to see inside the BA10, and learn why it's not exactly the best designed trans ever.

For sure. It's getting pretty tedious. I wanted to watch the direct comparison between MJ and JT, but they're taking their sweet time cutting to the chase. It's a bit of a piss-off watching them draw it out for the view count.

I've had a couple "sproing" sounds from front axles. It was mostly things coming into contact with the coils I would say. One time the sway bar got bent in a way the end link was getting shoved into it Another time again it was the end link hitting it, but in this case because the bottom coil had broken off and the spring had found a new home up against the C of the axle. As to whether or not you have the same thing going on, I can't say. But it's something to look at I guess.

The wires going into the distributor body are for the sync sensor/cam position sensor/pickup coil, whatever you want to call it. I'm 99% certain they've got more to do with your injector timing than spark.

Rollbar under 11.5s ET for a hardtop. Cage below eleven seconds or 135mph if you've modified the floorpans or firewall, 10s ET if you haven't.

I've also had the harmonic balancer fail in such a way it caused the belt to start sawing through the timing cover, which made a pretty good noise. The rubber was coming apart and shifting inwards.

And the third instalment. Yawn. Just show us the damn thing on the trails already!!

3/8" square socket to go on a 3/8" ratchet? Female square sockets are a thing, although you don't much encounter square-headed fasteners, they were once more commonplace before hex heads became ubiquitous. Generally speaking modern square-drive sockets will essentially be eight-pointed stars, not just a square. I've really only seen square fasteners on ancient household appliances, TVs and such, older furniture, maybe the odd one on ancient machinery that's been farmered back together a time or two back in the day, but I have seen them occasionally on some more recent cheap Chinese junk, or in machine screw sets, just typically in small sizes. I imagine it costs a lot less to run a tap down the middle of a chunk of flat bar then shear it off and smack the ends on a grinder than to make a proper hex nut. I've also seen square sockets for driving taps in catalogues, but not in person. Bolt extractors (EZ-outs) frequently have the same male wrench adapter that taps do, and if the bolt was stuck badly enough to damage it and require extracting, it's not always nice to your tap handles to use them for that purpose. I've never really understood why the use odd-sized square took adapters on extractors, seems a big meaty hex would be FAR better to me... It could also simply be a 3/8" female to female adapter, which is something I definitely could have taken advantage of the odd time. I'm not positive what context the manufacturer would have intended it to be used in because I'm pretty confident any time I could have used one was due to cobbling some crazy $#!& together when I didn't have the correct tools... see above about bolt extracting for some examples of contexts.

Not strange. There's only one dash harness with connectors for all options. It makes it easier on the assembly line because the guy putting in the dash doesn't need to go through the options list to see what's needed and what isn't on a particular truck, because if he screws up, changing out the dash harness is a big job, but a couple switch panels, no big deal. It also makes it easier for a dealer to add options after the fact when all they need to do is bolt on equipment and plug it in. On the same note, it also allows customers to spec whatever combination of options they want.

Generally speaking with brakes you want to have at least some pedal pressure before you open the bleeder to make sure everything is going out the bleeder. It's probably not totally necessary because as soon as you push the pedal you'll push out anything that might have gone in, but it's just an extra little precaution. For the same reason you also want to close the bleeder again before hit the bottom of the pedal. That said I've also bled brakes by myself in the driveway, just running a hose into a jar, making sure there's an upward loop right after the bleeder to collect any air, opening the bleeder, crawling back to the driver's seat and pumping the brakes 10-20 times, crawling back under, and closing the bleeder, then just topping up the reservoir when I'm done. Haven't had an issue with that method yet.

The wiring should be there somewhere, as it's required safety equipment to have the light/buzzer. If the carpet's ever been out, though, the wires are likey buried pretty deep. They could even have just retreated if they were left unplugged for a while. If it ever comes up again, as is likely, the passenger side female end is the same as the driver's side, less the electrical portion. If you're junkyard shopping XJs, they're more likely to be in good shape than the driver's side, as they get less use. You can leave the wires unplugged, and the light just won't come on.

If 4wd it would be the transfer case. There should be a hose running from it up to the firewall near the back of the engine, that'll be the breather.

I know right? Any time I've been back there's a couple other parts missing, but it's at the point where I know what's there and even if it's been a year between visits the stuff I went in for is still there. The guys running the place are car guys, and they have enough real estate that they don't have any pressure to get rid of stuff until the bones are picked clean. A bunch of years ago I had a day to kill in the city, and just got dropped off for a wander around, ended up spending almost six hours just looking at everything. You ever see a LaForza? They've got one. There's an old Model T chassis out back, just about everything from the '50's and 60's is represented, and most of it hasn't been too badly torn up by shoppers. Not being open on the weekends must keep our the riff-raff.

1988 shortbed, unsure of trim level. 2.5/5-speed, I wanna say 2wd but I never checked. Currently in its final resting place at Wesman Salvage, Brandon MB, been there over six years. I took the shift knob out of it last week.

Build date of July surprises me a little that it's still a '91 but tenth digit M confirms it. 1991 Sportruck shortbed. It was a manual trans, but engine and trans are gone. D30/35 are still there. Built 7-91 Sitting at Wesman Salvage in Brandon MB. It's moved to a couple different spots in the yard but it's been there since the first time I was there almost seven years ago. Interior's in decent shape. I pulled the rear cab panel and driver's side/middle seat belt buckle combo, woulda grabbed the other end of the middle too but my cheap T50 socket stripped the other bolt.

Some more pics. After seeing this gorgeous tailgate sitting there for what, six years now I think, I finally took it home with me. $50, can't believe I didn't sooner. I tried to buy the whole truck the last time I was there before I moved out to Alberta, but the yard can't (won't...) sell complete vehicles, because they move too many cars to not be a dealer and in MB dealers can't sell cars to the public that aren't road-ready.

Couple more pics from last week.

Couple more recent pics of this one. The hinges have been bent, so the door doesn't shut far enough to latch, and it swings open due to how it's sitting. Won't be much worthwhile in the interior before too long. I'll have to look into correcting the first bunch of photos. Stupid Facebook.

It might be an idea (good or not TBD) to build trailer frames that someone else could drop a bed onto? I don't really see there being a huge market for that either, but say someone swapped out their bed and has the old one kicking around, it saves chopping up a whole truck to make the trailer, then all they'd have to do is drive to you, pick up the rolling frame with cheap lights, drive home, to the junkyard, whereever, and then drop their bed on, instead of dealing with transporting the bed around.