GonzoTheGreat

Same. I went zero to hero with that car. When I bought it I didnt even know what a torque converter was. A few years later I was manual swapping it. That really raised the fun factor. I'm glad it rotted out before I got into any real trouble

In high school I learned to drive in my moms toyota sienna, and to drive stick in my dads corolla. Immediately after I bought a clapped out old bmw e30 as my first car, and I had a lot of fun with that thing.

I also vote "HAF JEEP"

I took an electric worm out of an XJ (rear door because I figured it had less wear) the trolley assembly is completely different, but the worm is the same, (just a little longer--maybe the front one is equal length. ). Manual on left, electric on right: To take the worm out, you have to uncrimp the end of the tube, I used pliers, then recrimp when the new worm is in. I drilled out the rivets on the electric regulator trolley and drilled out the stamped bits on my old manual regulator. I was able to bolt the new worm onto the old trolley, just slightly off-centered, but its been working great so far. The problems with the old one were obvious. A bunch of hairs had fallen off and caked up with grease and rust. I had sprayed it wil pb blast a year ago, and it was a bit better, but it didn't help for long. I have a lot more confidence in the worm swap as a permanent repair.

If you swap to a 4.0, you don't need to make custom motor mounts, crossmember, tranny mount, exhaust, standalone wiring, etc. like you would with a different drivetrain. You end up with a good, reliable engine thats engineered for that chassis. Also if youre completely devoid of any load, on flat ground, and not crossing 55mph, there is not much difference in pull between the 2.5L and 4.0 because the 2.5 has deeper axle gearing, but under ANY normal driving condition the 4.0 has LOADS more power, and gets as good or better fuel economy. I have a 2.5 and a 4.0. I like them both for what they are, but I would say if you have a good deal on a donor vehicle, and you plan to do more than just drive around town, I wouldn't hesitate to swap up.

No, I think the gm style has a stamped piece of metal sealing the housing shut. I think the later, chrysler tumbler is the one where you can change the blocks.

Kody is on eBay now

An update here is long overdue, and ill come back to the suspension situation later, but this week I got my brothers old jetta TDI running to investigate the engine swappability. Its been sitting for awhile and the turbo actuator is seized. We initially thought the turbo vanes were coked up, so I had the pleasure of removing the crusty old manifolds and cleaning everything. All in all it has potential, so I'm gonna soup up the engine while its still in the jetta, then strip down the wiring to be stand-alone, and mate it to the ax15/np231 out of the '88. This will all be dropped into the donor '89 chassis. For those familiar with that scene, its an '02 ALH engine getting .260 injector nozzles and a Burpod tune, keeping the stock turbo, for now, which should put the torque output somewhere around 230-240ft/lbs, which is about the same as the stock 4.0L, but with half the weight. This is not going to be a quick process, but I will try to provide updates as often as things occur.

Last week I put in a '95 dual diaphragm booster, and it made a night and day difference in braking. I waited way too long to do that. Feels a little naked now without the cap on, but I really like being able to see again. (Also take note of where the cap is, and the Jetta TDI in front of it... )

Like this?

Haha, as always, I wish I took better pictures, mid-process. I think that worm came out of a 97+ XJ, possibly even a rear door, but I pulled it from a junkyard like 3 years ago. Maybe someone can recognize the window attachment part and confirm?

Ok, the part about painting the studs, marking the header panel radiator support, and drilling 6 holes is wrong. I read this walk-through, and tried to do that part before realizing that those studs are meant to mount the top isolators, and the upper radiator support has holes, pre-drilled, for the two isolator studs (at least it did in my 89). Also the 6 little studs will never reach the the top crossmember if you install The bottom isolators and drop the radiator into the punched holes in the lower radiator support. Also, if you only keep the stock mechanical fan, with no shroud, you're not going to move enough air across the radiator at low speeds. I installed a stock, 97+ electric fan with a sensor in the lower radiator hose. The electric fan proved incompetent on very hot days under heavy load, so had to add a second one on a toggle. In the end I found a system that works, but it begs the question, was there actually a problem here in the first place? In hindsight, I would prefer to have a well-maintained stock system over this expensive re-invention of the wheel.

I found out the "worm" gear from an electric window regulator can be made to fit a manual one. It's been a long time since I could open my window all the way.

When I was in Italy, I used autodoc.de and ebay.de. I don't speak german, but with google translate, and part numbers, I found what I needed, and germany definitely had the most parts available from within the EU (no need to pay VAT or wait for transatlantic shipping).

Do you want commentary here, on those threads specifically, or otherwise? The radiator one is way off. Also the end result doesn't really seem necessary, I kind of wish I'd left mine stock.

Sorry Mike, I haven't forgotten you. As I mentioned, it's quite primitive. The cooking situation is a single-burner stove for one-pot meals and coffee. It's pretty snug in the bed. We upgraded along the way to a 3" foam mattress on plywood, across the top the the storage bins, but the tent was still the preferred locale, weather-permitting. We've got just enough space at the foot to keep backpacks, and daily-use stuff. I put a 12v socket in the back, running off the auxiliary battery to run the Coleman electric cooler. That sits in the back while driving, and up front at night. The shower tube holds about 6 gallons. I made that in Costa Rica, because everyone else down there has one, and I got jealous. I have a ~20' female-female hose to fill it from the spigot, the top valve is just a vent, and it's about a 10' regular hose with a spray nozzle, and a shrader valve in the end cap for the Stanley compressor to attach and build pressure. I had planned to upgrade from ratchet strap mounting, but then I kind of preferred looking like a contractor versus a tourist. All in all it's super basic, but we mostly stayed at real campgrounds with real facilities, and only roughed it a few times.

I hadn't planned on being as far north as Chicago, but since we ended up there, I hopped up into WI for a day to visit a friend, then I ended up swinging by Kenosha to see the site of the old AMC plant where the 4.0L was made. Not much to see nowadays, but I couldn't resist the detour. I also stopped by my favorite museum: From there it was back down to Chicago, where we hopped on US Rt. 20, which, in addition to being the longest road in America, and celebrating its 100th birthday this year, also runs right through my hometown, so I figured it'd be a good way to get home with better views than I-90. That plan eventually changed. I detoured into Toledo, so see where the MJ was made. We visited the old Willy's Overland factory smokestack, and took a quick pic at the Stellantis factory. That detour, turned into a trip to Detroit (I had never tried Detroit-style pizza, and I am sooo glad that I did). And then we pursued my ferry interests with an international ride across the Detroit River. Canada was the only remaining North American country that had not been included in this road trip, and I just couldn't let that happen. So we drove across Ontario, and spent a couple days at Niagra Falls. I had never been to the Canadian side, and I was always skeptical of those who claimed "the Canadian side is better," but no joke, it's way cooler. The view of the falls is a little more complete, but there is also just tons of stuff to do. Of course, there was plenty of Molson and Poutine to be had, but there's also a huge wine culture in the area, and the Welland canal ended up beeing super cool. Now, we had been to the Panama canal visitors center on this same trip, and we paid admission, squeezed in with thousands of tourists, paid way too much for a cup of coffee, and basically stood in a cage to watch the ships. And yes, it was historical, unique, and I would do it again, but, at the Welland Canal, you literally park just a few feet (meters) from the lock, and the museum, parking, everything, is free. After that, we were on the home stretch. We jumped back on rt 20 in Buffalo, and followed it all the way back. We stopped at the Historic US 20 visitors' center in Seneca Falls, NY to get a little Rt 20 swag (I didn't know such a thing existed a month ago). And then that was it. Home. over 2 years and 20,000 miles later, back in Mass. I had 3 days from arrival to get my (deferred) annual inspection sticker on the truck. Of course I took a rock in the windshield in upstate NY. So monday and tuesday saw a new power steering pump, a windshield, and a sticker. Now we're unpacking 2 years of vagabonding, and hopefully now that this is done, I can give some much-needed attention to my '88

Well, we took rt 66 from OKC almost entirely up to Chicago. We saw all manner of road side attractions, museums, and visitors' centers. The grand total of muffler men sighted was 7 on this leg. We jumped on the interstate a couple times across MO and IL to get up to Chicago a little faster, so I could fly home for a funeral, but we tried to hit all the big attractions. of particular interest upon arrival were the deep-dish pizza, and the Chicago dog.

Thanks! I'm glad to hear my vagabonding is appreciated! Same. I always loved my local sears. I have a lot of tools from there. It was a real shame seeing them go. It was a weird nostalgic trip seeing this one. It's EXACTLY the same as any sears I've ever been to, just has all the price tags in pesos.

Pachuca, MX, I didn't see anyone outside any of the houses to ask, and I felt a little weird knocking on random doors, so I didn't meet the owner, but it looks like it's in very good shape. Someone has definitely taken care of this one.

After CDMX we went up into Hidalgo for a bit. We visited a canyon that was made by the same volcanic process that created devil's tower in WY. I also tried "Pulque" which is typical from that region. This is fermented agave sap, which historically was the beverage of the clergy in the Aztecs' religion. Slimy, yet satisfying. From there we traveled up in the mountains for a couple days, before coming back down in the state of San Luis Potosi. There was a super cool river that is vivid blue from the mineral deposits in the soil. Then we worked our way up Tamaulipas toward Reynosa, where we crossed into Texas, then up to Mustang Island in Corpus Cristi. We took the decidedly non-sketchy ferry from Port Aransas to the mainland. I was a little disappointed that I didn't fear for my safety even once. We camped in Galveston Island state park, then visited some friends in Dallas. Spent a night in OK City, and now we're setting out on Rt 66. There's still no official timeline for this trip, but my power steering failed completely on the way to Dallas, and the power brakes are asking me for a lot more pressure than they used to. I could try to micky mouse something on the road (I'm close to Disney, OK at the moment), but I think it makes sense to manually steer back toward basecamp for quite a few reasons actually. I'll try to stay a little more current with my updates for this last leg.

Mexico city was a good time. I've never seen a city with so much green space, and the public transit system is cheap and good. We checked out a couple of museums Including the "Templo Mayor" which is the ruins of the Aztec capital. Also, apparently Sears is still a thing in Mexico. They still have Craftsman tools, they still have an army of perfume pushers at the base of the escalators, and some locations even have auto centers. This one also had a cafe at the top, with a cool view. We also visited Teotihuacan, outside of the city to see the old pyramids. The scale of this place was incredible. I can't imagine what it must have looked like as a thriving city. I will also shamelessly admit, I think my favorite part of Mexico city was "Costra." Which means "crust" in Spanish, and is the most incredible street food/after-a-night-out snack. It's a taco, but they put the cheese and meat directly on the flat grill first, until it starts to get crispy, then you fold up that greasy, crunchy goodness in a warm, fresh tortilla, add the condiment(s) of your choice, and mow down. I'm not gonna say it was a spiritual experience, but I can promise you, I will never be the same, and I mean that in the most positive way. Also, a quick update on my sketchy ferry side quest, this one is hand driven, by a rope across the canal. No cars, but motorcycles are ok. The floor flexes severely with one motorcycle on board. I saw as many as 4 at once. Three pesos (0.17USD) for pedestrians.

Ok, I'm long overdue for an update, so here goes. From Quintana Roo, we cut across the yucatan peninsula, and spent a little time on the gulf coast, then continued up through the lowlands of Veracruz. Outside of the city of Puebla, there is a little town called Chipilo, which was originally settled by a few hundred Italians from Venice back in the 1800s. There are a bunch of "Italian" restaurants that appeal to tourists, but it seems like the genuine Italian descendants are actually all dairy farmers and furniture makers. The old-timers speak a weird blend of the venetian dialect mixed with mexican spanish. It was definitely the most interesting cow town I've ever seen. From there we took the "Paseo de Cortes" to Mexico city. This is the route that Cortez took during his final invasion of the Aztec capital. It passes between two volcanoes, which are Mexico's second and third highest points. At the visitor's center at the top of the pass, my dash-mounted altimeter read 3.600m (11,800ft). We could have gone around the volcanoes and taken the highway, but where's the fun in that? Also, Popocatepetl, the southern volcano was actively erupting, and I thought that would be cool to see. As it turned out, the day that we drove through, it was super overcast, and we couldn't actually see anything. Also, about halfway up there, the engine temp started to creep up. The single electric fan couldn't keep up with the high revs, low speed, and hot, thin atmosphere. I pulled over to let it stabilize, and found out that my power steering no longer works at low rpm. That was a bit of a bummer. I have since installed a second electric fan with a toggle on the dash, and have had no more high temp issues, but the power steering remained hit or miss. Generally it still worked until the engine warmed up.

Oh no! I wish I had known just a couple days sooner! We just crossed from Reynosa into Texas. I'm way behind posting updates on this thread. I'll try to do that later today. We stayed in Monterrey on the trip down. It was super beautiful up there in the mountains. If i come back at some point, i will 100% let you know.