gogmorgo

And it runs. This was last night. I took the evening off today, did nothing. It wasn't bad. I had to pick up a couple more parts today so I didn't assemble it beyond that last night. I'd rather do it in the daylight tomorrow anyhow. I'm pretty sure I've got an exhaust leak, and most of the rattle is the alternator not bolted down. I picked up a can of Seafoam and a change of oil today too, so that'll go through it. Currently it's running on an assortment of oils from the collection of partial bottles in the garage, not ideal, but the oil that was in the engine was too black and too unknown. The cocktail will be perfect with the Seafoam added to the mix. New filter, then another new filter. I noticed walking past in the daylight that it spat some serious chunks out the tailpipe, super obvious in the snow. Looked like sooty flakes of rust. The tailpipe has a rusty spot behind the wheel, so I'm hoping that's all it is, just blowing out loose tailpipe rust. If not, well, some of the chunks were pretty big, like 1/2" square and bigger...

Is it more than just a barbed fitting?

I don't see an option for adding tags to this post. Currently on mobile.

Well the engine's home. 10:30 and approaching 0°F means the bolts are only finger tight, cause I'm not feeling like laying on my back in the dark to torque them down. Called it a night. It won't be any warmer tomorrow night but hopefully I'll be able to get it completed, if not necessarily running.

Well I didn't accomplish as much over the weekend as I would've liked. Went to see Sloan and other social activities, which cut into my morning hours some. Whoops. So now I'm doing something I wasn't going to do, working in the dark. It's about 10°F, and dropping, so not the best weather for dropping in an engine, but not the worst, either. There's a cold front rolling in and snow in the forecast so I want to get the engine bolted in tonight. Everything was going smoothly until I discovered an extra dowel pin in the transmission was stopping the trans from mating nicely, so I came in for a cup of hot chocolate before I broke something I didn't want to. Back out to yank it back out far enough to pull the extra pin now, I guess.

As its labelled as from an XJ I'd say you're fine, but going off it simply being called a "Cherokee" you might want to double check it's not a ZJ or WJ, if that makes for a significant difference. Too many people out there too lazy to say or type "grand" who then only laugh at you when you try to confirm call them on it not actually being a Cherokee. For whatever it's worth, one of the projects on my backburner is putting the '92 ax15 in place of my '93 aw4, and all my research indicated it shouldn't be a problem to put the '93 242 in place of the '92's 231. Although I've been pretty tempted to stick the 242 into the ZJ instead of its 231. The 242 is just such an improvement over the 231 on snowy roads. '97+ XJs have a sealed output transfer case that doesn't rely on the driveshaft slip yoke to seal, hence the need to grab the '97+ slip yoke if you go that route.

It's all about preventive maintenance. If it's been looked after its whole life, it'll live a very long one. If you stay on top of the little things, they won't add up to cause bigger problems. It's true that nothing lasts forever, and you're at a point where you may start noticing things simply wearing out that most people wouldn't consider wear items, but such is the way it is. But if it's in good shape and runs well, and you like the truck, I wouldn't be afraid of keeping it going. It's not going to go down in value much anymore at this rate, either.

Yeah, unplug the compressor clutch and it'll never turn, it'll just be another idler pully. Not using the compressor for six months could dry out the seals, but there's not a lot you can do about that, if you need the truck back together now.

No, it isn't. The bulbs twist into the back of the cluster. It's why it's a little more advanced of a project than your typical car owner is willing to undertake, not so much because it's difficult, but because you need to dig deep. Ditto on the headlight switch. There's a button under it that you push, while you pull the knob all the way out, and then you unscrew the nut the knob slides through. I want to say you need to pull the lower dash panel (the trim piece that goes all the way across, that the ashtray lives in) just to get at that button, but I'm not 100% on if it needs pulled or not. But in both cases, it's just a matter of finding all the screws holding down the bezel and cluster, and removing them. There should be some write-ups in Internet land somewhere – everything you're doing for both will be the same as an XJ Cherokee.

When my flexplate cracked, it was in a jagged ring just along the edge of that "spacer". It's less a spacer and more a load distribution plate, basically a fancy washer that gets all the bolts in one piece. When I first looked at it there was just barely one shiny hairline that made me think there was a crack, and I was correct. I was also able to turn a couple of the torque converter bolts, but I wouldn't have called any of them particularly loose. Like maybe 1/4 turn or so with a 1/2" ratchet. What I'm pretty sure lead to the flexplate cracking was that my bellhousing to engine bolts had backed off, and variously wiggled out and/or sheared, or pulled out threads. It had been knocking a little at specific rpm and loads as the engine and trans banged against each other, then when the next-to-last bolt went, it was still driveable but made a hell of a racket. If you have a stethoscope or screwdriver, length of hose, etc, you might be able to better pinpoint the source of the knocking.

The dash light bulbs could simply all be burnt out. It's a little more to swap them than someone who has little mechanical knowledge may be willing to undertake, as you need to pull the cluster out. But I would be suspect of that switch as well. It functions by a wiper on a resistive coil of wire, which by nature gets hot, and more heat cycles will cause it to warp, corrode, etc. If the contacts are wearing they'll start to get really hot, as in setting on fire, because they carry the full load of the headlights. In addition to changing the switch, once you've looked at the switch to make sure it's okay and not melty, and once you've got more familiar with the truck it's a good idea to throw on a relay harness: This is what my switch looked like when I changed it... You don't want that.

After my duck tape wallet finally died (after almost ten years of heavy use) I had been just stashing cards in my pocket. I seldom if ever carry cash, but any time I went into my pocket for keys, etc, there was a good chance I'd lose a card or two. So after a year or so of no wallet, I upgraded to one of the "minimalist" supposedly RFID-blocking one's you see online. I've never tested the RFID blocking properties, myself, but it does a pretty decent job of holding everything together. It's essentially just a real fancy version of Pete's "wallet." Two aluminum plates held together by an elastic strap around the long dimension. Its got the money clip on the back, but it creases our plastic bills to fold them up so I've never really used it much, and it gets caught on the odd thing now and again.

Does anything else have ghost power, or just the fuel pump? Looks like you're running an HO setup. What year truck is it in and what fuel pump, etc, are you using? Any chance you smashed the main wiring harness between the firewall and head when you put the new motor in? Or anywhere else? The other guess I have is the wires directly under the relay box.

Yup. I've got the other MJ to build, whenever I get around to it, and I wanted this as a semi-economical commuter/errand runner. One of the bigger obstacles to building my first one lately has simply been the junk that accumulates from not having a truck for dump runs, and other projects (like the one to have a truck for said dump runs ) stacking up ahead of it. Also recently the fact I leave for and come home from work in the dark. It's plenty warm out, I just haven't had daylight where it wasn't snowing for quite some time. Also I've been taking advantage of proximity to a ski hill during many of my daylight hours. So there's that...

Yup. People have been building things out of rock for a lot longer than we've had mechanized tools.

So there's been a bit of a development. I'd collected parts to do the one-cylinder rebuild, and started working on it, but didn't have much motivation. I got the ridge reamed but that was about it. I stalled out on dropping the oil pan, I was having trouble getting one of the bolts out between the clutch cover and pan, and with only six hours of daylight I'm wanting to spend it doing other stuff. I'm still working outside because I'm a dumbass and sold the wheels out from y set my parts XJ so can't roll it out of the garage. And outside looks like this: and every time I shovel it all out, clouds roll in and it dumps more down. But the cardboard over the back of the MJ is a feeble attempt to keep the snow off of this: Two (supposedly) good running 2.5's out of '92 YJs, pretty near all the wires, accessories, etc, on them both. I'll be going over them both, and slapping the water pump and all the gaskets that I got for the other one onto the best one, and dropping it in. Once it quits snowing that is.

You could get the fuel level sensing part off an XJ fuel sending unit if you don't want to trash your MJ one. The XJ units are still available new from the aftermarket.

The ZJ and WJ guys seem to think the aluminum centred d44 is a beefy axle. Literally no one else does. Not many people have built ZJs, although they're getting a little more common. But yeah, like Pete said, the lug pattern doesn't match the MJ's.

Oh wow... You wouldn't even want to look at how buried mine are...

If it's just a hose barb with an elbow, you can probably just cobble things together with hardware store plumbing parts. The cooler lines aren't under a huge amount of pressure, so you should be okay doing that. But if you work your truck and get it hot on a regular basis, it really is a good idea to go aftermarket cooler and ditch the heat exchanger. It's definitely an advantage up here but not totally necessary. Most of the older half-ton-plus trucks up here don't have, and sure they shift a bit clunky for the first couple minutes, and feel like you're driving through glue, but splashing ATF through a torque converter will warm it up alright.

I still don't really see why the winch would pop the fuse, unless it's adding load because the controller is wired off the truck? That would sorta explain why the winch quits working. It still shouldn't have anything to do with the starter relay. Or I guess if the alt's kicking up a bit under load from the winch and feeding it back into the battery, maybe. But the battery shouldn't be loosing so much charge that the winch instantly cuts out when the fuse blows, unless the battery's discharged enough the winch is just running straight off the alternator through that tiny wire.

Where are you pulling power from for the winch? In my mind it shouldn't really have anything to do with the starter relay, but you've only got one set of cables leaving your battery?

If it is the NSS, it probably just needs a good cleaning. https://bc4x4.com/tech/2010/jeep-neutral-safety-switch-nss/ I ran a bead of silicone around the edge of mine when I put it back together to try to keep more crap out.

I was thinking about this thread today for some reason. With a CAD axle it wouldn't much matter not having a "true neutral". Doesn't matter where you stick the lever, engine off means no vacuum means no 4x4. Any necessary slip in the drivetrain to accommodate corners would be taken up by the inner axle. I can't imagine a rear limited slip diff or locker causing any more issues than it would under normal driving. I can't really see the front being that big a deal either with a functioning CAD, although an auto-locker might get interesting if it acts like the rear axle is driving it... You'd need a seriously high torque bias in your LSD to cause problems. If you've permanently locked in or otherwise got rid of the CAD, and you don't have "true neutral", it's probably not quite so bad as driving in 4x4 on pavement, given the front tires will be scrubbing sideways a bit around corners anyhow so you've already introduced some slip there. But it's probably not a great idea. I realise you lot are probably more on the ball with this stuff than the typical individual, but I've worked in and around campgrounds for long enough to have seen and heard too many horror stories about flat-towed cars behind RVs to be a big fan. Dragging cars around in park or with flat tires until the wheels come off, manuals bouncing into gear and shredding engines, etc. If it's only the occasional short trip sure, but if it's a regular thing or seriously long distance, a trailer isn't that significant an expense compared to most of the vehicles that would be towing them, especially if you factor in fuel.

A poor connection between the battery and cable (or cable and clamp) could heat up the terminal pretty severely. Theres not a heck of a lot that would pull enough power to cook a battery cable without melting down what would surely be a much smaller positive wire first. It's pretty much a guarantee your added horn didn't do that. Really the only way would be shorting to an equally massive positive cable, and unless there's aftermarket equipment added, the only one is the one going to the starter. Easy enough to check. My money's on a poor negative connection.