Randy in Maine

I want to rebuild my seats and am looking for some pretty good seat covers that I can put on the re-built seats. I have the hog ring pliers and know how to do the foam rebuild thing. Original look would be nice (bucket seats suing burgandy square weave vinyl). Who makes the good ones?

If it were me, I would try rebuilding the carb paying careful attention on adjusting the choke correctly. I am not a carb guy though.

I stole my wife's 1.5 gallon pump up garden sprayer, filled it up with a 50/50 mix of Castrol Purple Stuff and water. Warmed it up, sprayed it on including the bottom side, then drove it a mile to the car wash to wash the whole thing. You may need to: Do it a couple of times. Bring some stiff brushes to help get the crud off. Use a putty knife if needed. Simple Green "concentrate" is easier on the painted parts under there. Mine always starts right up, but some people put plastic bags around the distributor and the ignition reisistor.

After you ensure that the fuel pump is actually pumping adequate fuel you will be half way there. The thing about fuel pumps is they only pump volumes of fuel, they do not make pressure in the fuel rails. There is a fuel pressure regulator on the fuel rail (with an attached vacuum line) which is what gives you the pressure you need. They do not commonly die (but do sometimes), so plug in your fuel pressure gauge into the test port, make sure it is meeting the spec and move on....

What do you get when you stick the fuel pressure gauge on the fuel rail? Use a FI pressure guage good to 60 psi please.

You need a thermostat that works, as yours doesn't. Might have to buy one from the dealer.

Right now it just has regular dino oil 80W-90 in it (transmission and transfer case), but there is nothing wrong with the correct Royal Purple lubricant either. I will most likely use the Red Line the next time I do it. It is probably more important that the lubricant be checked and changed once in a while (~ every 2-3 years) that what you actually use for the lubricant.

I am using mostly Redline stuff in the other vehicles. They seem to like it. http://www.redlineoil.com/products_gear ... tegoryID=7

Can you even find GL-3 anymore? Those kids at NAPA look at me like I am a dinosaur when I ask for GL4 and it takes a couple of days for them to get it. I don't think they have a clue what it is.

I have a buddy who bought one of these and he is pretty happy with it for what he does and what he paid. http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... =100005910 Runs out of air sandblasting, but everything does.

The chassis coat is the uv protector for the POR-15. Mine on my VW bus looks the same for the past 5 years. BTW, when one gets it on one's bald head it looks just like "hair in a can". It took a month to get it off using those "green scrubbies".

I find that having a little weight in the back helps take some of the bounce out of the rear spring and gives it considerably better bite in the snow. I use 5 #60 tubes of sand from Home Depot and lay them right at the front of the bed.

It is real work to get POR-15 and CHassis Kote off even with sandblasting.

Those autolite carbs are not the greatest set ups but are pretty easy to rebuild and can be made to run decent. Be sure to set the float level correctly and to use compressed air to blow out the passages. They tend to "mung up" when they are fed dead old rusty gas. My 77 J-20 had a T-18 in it.

Every do a compression test on the engine? Fully charged battery + a jumper if you nfeel the need. Warm engine. Remove a spark plugs. Wide open throttle. No coil wire. 10 compression cycles and write down the number. 10 compression cycles and write down the number. 10 compression cycles and write down the number. One tablespoon of oil in the hole. 10 compression cycles and write down the number. Move on to the next cylinder. If nothing seems out of th eordinary you may want ot test out the FI components this way http://www.lunghd.com/Tech_Articles/Eng ... ostics.htm and also have your injectors cleaned and calibrated.

Also make sure the antifreeze is a 50/50 mix.

Thermostat.

Difficult to legislate common sense.

It would suck when you have to get under the hood.

If I lived in Maryland, I wouldn't even bother to shovel it.

1. My drink of choice is 12 year old George Dickel and coke classic. 2. My college football team are my beloved Iowa Hawkeyes. 3. I had a job once, it just didn't work out. 4. I have owned 19 air cooled VWs (mostly buses) and actually know how to fix them. 5. My John Deere is a 1939 B model hand start. This was my 100th post!

Personally, I never buy snow tires for my MJ. I just put 6 sixty pound tubes of Home Depot "winter sand" back there for better traction.

They will fit and those tires are pretty "grippy", but they are a little short in circumference and are car tires not truck tires if that is important to you (with respect to weight loading).

Too tall in my opinion. Stay with the stock 215/75/15s and you will be better off. I bought the Michelin LTX/MS and am pleased. They should go 100K miles also.

My J-20 pulled an overloaded big U-Hual from Utah to Maine in 1985 and got 15-18 mpg all of the way. Great truck and when driven in Boston "rotaries" (sort of like "Rollerderby" with cars) the turbo Saabs could not get out of my way fast enough. To clean and re-seal your fuel tank, I would suggest going here..... http://www.por15.com/prodinfo.asp?grp=TS&dept=12 Buy a quart of Tank sealer, a gallon of Marine Clean, and a gallon of Metal Ready. Follow these directions.... http://www.ratwell.com/technical/FuelTa ... ation.html